Editing Blitzkrieg (section)

===Fuller and Liddell Hart===
The British theorists [[John Frederick Charles Fuller]] and Captain [[Basil Henry Liddell Hart]] have often been associated with the development of blitzkrieg, but that is a matter of controversy. In recent years historians have uncovered that Liddell Hart distorted and falsified facts to make it appear as if his ideas has been adopted. After the war Liddell Hart imposed his own perceptions after the event by claiming that the mobile tank warfare has been practiced by the ''Wehrmacht'' was a result of his influence.{{sfn|Naveh|1997|p=108}} By manipulation and contrivance, Liddell Hart distorted the actual circumstances of the blitzkrieg formation, and he obscured its origins. By his indoctrinated idealization of an ostentatious concept, he reinforced the myth of blitzkrieg. Imposing retrospectively his own perceptions of mobile warfare upon the shallow concept of blitzkrieg, he "created a theoretical imbroglio that has taken 40 years to unravel".{{sfn|Naveh|1997|pp=108–109}} Blitzkrieg was not an official doctrine, and historians in recent times have come to the conclusion that it did not exist as such:{{efn|name=misconception of blitzkrieg}}

{{blockquote|It was the opposite of a doctrine. Blitzkrieg consisted of an avalanche of actions that were sorted out less by design and more by success. In hindsight—and with some help from Liddell Hart—this torrent of action was squeezed into something it never was: an operational design.{{sfn|Paret|Craig|Gilbert|1986|p=585}}{{sfn|Naveh|1997|p=108}}}}

The early 1950s literature transformed blitzkrieg into a historical military doctrine, which carried the signature of Liddell Hart and Guderian. The main evidence of Liddell Hart's deceit and "tendentious" report of history can be found in his letters to [[Erich von Manstein]], Heinz Guderian, and the relatives and associates of [[Erwin Rommel]]. Liddell Hart, in letters to Guderian, "imposed his own fabricated version of blitzkrieg on the latter and compelled him to proclaim it as original formula".{{sfn|Naveh|1997|p=109}}{{sfn|Danchev|1998|p=239}} [[Kenneth Macksey]] found Liddell Hart's original letters to Guderian in the latter's papers. Liddell Hart requested Guderian to give him credit for "impressing him" with his ideas of armored warfare. When Liddell Hart was questioned about this in 1968 and the discrepancy between the English and German editions of Guderian's memoirs, "he gave a conveniently unhelpful though strictly truthful reply. ('There is nothing about the matter in my file of correspondence with Guderian himself except... that I thanked him... for what he said in that additional paragraph'.)".{{sfn|Danchev|1998|pp=235–239}}

During the First World War, Fuller had been a staff officer attached to the [[Royal Tank Regiment|new tank corps]]. He developed [[Plan 1919]] for massive independent tank operations, which he claimed were subsequently studied by the German military. It is variously argued that Fuller's wartime plans and post-war writings were inspirations or that his readership was low and German experiences during the war received more attention. The German view of themselves as the losers of the war may be linked to the senior and experienced officers' undertaking a thorough review in studying and rewriting of all of their Army doctrine and training manuals.{{sfn|Corum|1992|p=39}}

Fuller and Liddell Hart were "outsiders". Liddell Hart was unable to serve as a soldier after 1916 after being gassed on the Somme, and Fuller's abrasive personality resulted in his premature retirement in 1933.{{sfn|Harris|1995a|p=244}} Their views had limited impact in the British army; the War Office permitted the formation of an [[Experimental Mechanized Force]] on 1 May 1927, composed of tanks, motorized infantry, [[Birch gun|self-propelled artillery]] and motorized engineers but the force was disbanded in 1928 on the grounds that it had served its purpose. A new experimental brigade was intended for the next year and became a permanent formation in 1933, during the cuts of the {{nowrap|1932/33–1934/35}} financial years.{{sfn|Harris|1995a|pp=197, 210–219, 220–221, 237}}