Nazi football team urged use 'blitzkrieg' tactics and accused of being 'too Jewish'

Devoted Karl Oberhuber wanted the German side to attack constantly because defending was 'too English'

A crazy plan to make German footballers in World War Two play a 'Blitzkrieg' game that copied the tactics of battlefield warriors has been found in a German archive.

Devoted Nazi Karl Oberhuber accused the national team trainer Sepp Herberger - the coach for 28 years who led postwar West Germany to its first World Cup win in 1954 - of being 'too Jewish' in his training methods.

In 1940, when the Nazi armies overran France, Belgium and Holland with lightning war tactics, Oberhuber was chief adjutant to the Nazi gauleiter of Bavaria and in charge of sport in the state.



This made him a powerful and dangerous man to have as an enemy.

World Cup winners: The 1954 West Germany team celebrate their victory but previously coach Sepp Herberger (far left) was accused of being too Jewish in his style by a leading Nazi

Mark Herzog, a football historian, found details of his extraordinary bid to bring battlefield tactics to the football field in the archives of the Nazi party at Koblenz.

Oberhuber outlined his theory of 'true German football' in an article for a Munich soccer magazine six months after the fall of western Europe and promoted it throughout the war with meetings of high-ranking Nazis including Hermann Goering and Martin Bormann.

'He firmly believed that attack was the best form of defence,' said Herzhog, who writes about this little known chapter of footballing history in the '11 Freunde' soccer magazine published in Germany this week.



'He wanted to transfer the military strategy directly to the football pitch.'



Powerful: Devoted Nazi Karl Oberhuber had the ear of Hitler's close circle, including Martin Bormann and Hermann Goering



He particularly scorned Herbert Chapman, manager of London football club Arsenal who signed black players - 'depraved,' said Oberhuber - and whose tactics he derided as 'too defensive.'

'Depraved': Legendary Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman (pictured) made them the top side in England in the 1930s but was criticised by Karl Oberhuber for having black players

In meetings with top regime officials he routinely derided German national fooball play as either being 'too English,' 'un-German' or 'Jewish.' He added; 'Our times demand fighters like the soldiers at the front!'

He formulated concrete ideas on how such 'Blitzkrieg' football should be played with everything thrown into the attack and the defence left to a bare minimum.

As he waged a war of words with Herberger he threatened sports journalists of the day with banishment and worse if they didn't support his concept of football-warfare on the field.

But when it came to putting his theories into practice they were, largely, disastrous. As Herberger resisted his pressure to 'militarise' the national team, Oberhuber convinced club sides such as FC Nuremberg and Bayern Munich to use his strategy.

They invariably lost as a result, the large formation of attackers leaving gaping holes in the defence which the opposition tore through.