Funnily, I looked on my shelves a book called "Blitzkrieg". By chance beside it is another book titled "Why The Germans Lose at War". I found the irony delightful

What is Blitzkrieg? We can say this is a combination of several ingredients.

Lightning speed, keeping the opponent paralysed by your speed and surprise. Keep him guessing while you run for indirect objectives while avoiding his forces proper, so you won't be delayed, leaving resistance foci for follow-up forces.

Schock & Awe. Speed, quick communications, initiative, indirect objectives, manoeuvre on a narrow front, ambiguity on objectives to keep the enemy guessing and on the wrong foot, etc.

This was the recipe that was used by the Germans in France 1940, which had the precious help of a developed road network. When the roads failed as in Russland, "Blitzkrieg war kaput". You run out of steam, you're dead in the water.

Other good examples can be the Soviet Manchurian campaign (minus the roads, but with plenty of bad terrain expertise), Patton's mad dash, the Six-Day War, the two offensives in Iraq, UN's and US' 12 years later.

__________________