This is the compelling story of Blitzkrieg: the 'lightning war' by which Hitler and his generals overwhelmed the Allied armies in Western Europe. Written in five parts, the book begins with Hitler's rise to power in pre-war Germany, while part two considers the opening stages of the Second World War, including the conquests of Poland and Norway. The third part focuses on both the tactical thinking behind Blitzkrieg as well as the materiel — pre-eminently the Panzer tank — that made it possible. The fourth and fifth parts offer a more detailed examination of the campaigns that drove the German armies through the Low Countries and into France, ending with the German's 'fatal flaw', which made possible the evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk. Reissued by William Collins, Len Deighton's 'Blitzkrieg' is the story of Hitler's triumph and Europe's darkest hour. Few writers have understood it as well as Deighton, and perhaps none has been able to describe it so tellingly.