Цитата сообщения el_flaco Words and their Stories - BLITZ

At the beginning of World War two, the powerful German army of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler marched with great speed and skill through western Europe. The Germans captured Poland, Belgium, France and other countries in a very short time.
Hitler described his aggressive plan with the German word "blitzkrieg." Blitzkrieg means war that is fought as quickly as lightning strikes. Military experts around the world soon began to use the word blitzkrieg to describe any fast-moving, powerful attack by strong forces.
Hitler's blitzkrieg attack on western Europe succeeded for a while. But the Nazi leader was not able to defeat Britain.
As time passed, Hitler decided to bomb London and other British cities to break the spirit of the British people, and force them to surrender. Soon, thousands of kilograms of German bombs were falling on British cities every day. The British people called the attack another blitzkrieg, or "The Blitz."
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described one series of raids in this way: "The new bombing began with the blitz of the city of Coventry on the night of November fourteenth." Churchill wrote in his history of the war, "By the time the sun came up, nearly five-hundred German aircraft had dropped six-hundred tons of high explosives and thousands of fire bombs."
Use of the word blitz did not end when the Allied troops finally marched into Berlin in 1945 and Germany surrendered. Instead the word became even more popular. People began to use the word blitz to describe anykind of strong action, campaign or movement.
Political leaders use the word blitz. A candidate for president of the United States may plan a campaign in which he visits five different cities every day for two weeks. One day he is in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. The next day he campaigns in more cities- Jacksonville, Orlando, New Orleans, Houston and Dallas.
Newspaper reporters who travel with candidates are likely to call this kind of campaigning a political blitz.
The expression is also used in sports. A team on the defense in American football may use a blitz, an aggressive play to stop the other team from passing the football.
A company may launch an advertising blitz to introduce a new product. This means the company will announce its new product on many radio and television stations, and in many different newspapers. Its advertising campaign will try to reach as many people as possible to make them want to buy the product.
The blitzkrieg did not win the war for Adolph Hitler. But it did win a lasting place in the English language as a useful and descriptive word.

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