Product Description

A fascinating account of Nazi Germany's armored forces by the author of Patton and Rommel.

Determined to secure a quick, decisive victory on the World War II battlefields, Adolf Hitler adopted an attack plan that combined tools with technique- the formidable Panzer divisions. Self-contained armored units able to operate independently, the Panzers became the German army's fighting core as well as its moral focus, establishing an entirely new military doctrine.

In Hitler's Panzers renowned World War II scholar Dennis Showalter presents a comprehensive and unbiased study of Nazi Germany's armored forces. By delving deeply into a detailed history of the theory, strategy, myths, and realities of Germany's technologically innovative approach to warfare, Showalter provides a look at the military lessons of the past, and a speculation on how the Panzer ethos may be implemented in the future of international conflict.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47881 in Books
• Published on: 2009-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780425230046
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author
Dennis Showalter is a professor of history at Colorado College, a visiting professor and guest lecturer at West Point, and former president of the Society for Military History.

Customer Reviews

An interesting read on tanks and German war doctrine
Dennis Showalter, a professor and noted author, has written a well researched and interesting book on the history of German panzers and the subsequent war doctrine that was built around this lethal weapon. The history starts at the beginning near the banks of the Somme in WWI and deliberately evolves through the dark days of the 1920s and into the 1930s when Hitler's influence escalates. The author develops the history of the panzer, its war doctrine and follows the evolution of new models and their increasing capacities as well as the increasing popularity and recognition of the value of this "new" weapon.

Guderian may have been the most vocal proponent of the panzer but there were others, like Volckheim, Rabenau and Fritsch, that promoted panzers and mobile warfare. With each new panzer model, Volckheim would critcize the gun barrel for being too small and puny. The large barrel panzer that had power and distance would win the war. He would be proven right. By 1939, Germany had an arsenal of Mk IIIs and some Mk IVs to deploy and a blitzkrieg doctrine that would conquer much of Europe and intimidate most of the world.

The author doesn't present a daily chronology of battle events but does provide an interesting overview of how tanks or tank commanders influenced key battles of the war. Some of the key battles include Kiev, Moscow, Tunisia, Voronezh, Stalingrad, Rostov, Kursk, Korsun, Vitebsk, Brody and the Ardennes Offensive. Some of the key commanders discussed are Guderian, Hoth, Hoepner, Kleist, Kluge, Model, Manstein, Rommel and Rundstedt. Some of the key panzer units were also discussed: Das Reich, Totenkopf, LAH, Lehr and others.
The Spanish Civil War is also included as a training program for German tank commanders as well as the Russian side of tank warfare. The author compares the strengths and weaknesses of the Sherman against the Panther, Tiger and T34. The author even mentions the German prototype called the Maus that weighed 188 tons and sported 10 inch armor. The author also discusses the psychological makeup of Hitler and how he influenced the extravagant designs of the Panther and Tiger.

Sorry to say there are no illustrations or photos of the different tanks discussed. There are no maps of the battles discussed. There is also no Notes or Bibliography. There isn't any ground breaking new material in this volume so people who are already well read on the war or on tank doctrine may not learn a lot but it would be a terrific book for beginners, intermediates or collectors.

Solid Foundation for Readers Wanting to Learn About Panzers
Dennis Showalter is a renowned World War II scholar and his unparalleled depth of knowledge on the subject at hand is clearly evident in this book. I have been avidly reading military history for four decades and while I am not as familiar with the Eastern Front and Spanish Civil War as I would like, I could not find fault with Showalter's research. Showalter's tremendous breadth of knowledge translates into accounts of battle that explain why events began in a certain manner, how those dynamics influenced engagements during battle, and what occured in the wake of a particular fight. His command of both descriptive writing and analysis is impressive. An example might suffice better than my own description of this book's contents:

On the Fighting around Gembloux during the 1940 campaign in France between Erich Hoepner's XVI Panzer Corps and General Rene Prioux's French Cavalry Corps(p. 118 - 20):

"Rene Prioux had nothing of Joachim Murat or Jeb Stuart in his professional makeup. He was too worried about the Luftwaffe and his own lack of air cover to undertake even the limited spoiling attacks originally enjoined by his superiors. The result was a head-on, two day encounter battle that began around the village of Hannut on May 12. In a fashion prefiguring the behavior of Israeli armor in the early days of the Yom Kippur War, 4th Panzer Division attacked with more energy than tactical sense, and took heavy losses from French artillery fire and armored ripostes. The SOMUAs in particular, boldly handled in company strengths, proved an unpleasant surprise as the greenhorns of the 3d Light Mechanized Division came away victors on points from a good day's work. Fuel shortages also hampered the German deployment to a point that Hoepner, instead of continuing to probe opportunistically for weak spots, decided to reorganize, resupply, and mount a two-division set-piece attack the next day.
A ball peen hammer is a good tool. A nine-pound sledgehammer is also useful. Guderian might have done it with more finesse, but beginning a little after noon on May 13, 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions, around 560 tanks all told, struck 3d Light Mechanized Division on an eight-mile front. There was bitter fighting in defended villages, with riflemen clearing strongpoints and tanks bypassing them whenever possible. Survivors of disabled French tanks fought on with pistols against armor plate. A captain of the 35th Panzer Regiment described two observers in a water tower engaging tanks with rifles until "shot full of holes like sieves." It was not until 3pm that the German tanks reached open ground, only to face a series of armored counterattacks. French tanks seemed to be everywhere at once, bypassing the panzers and engaging the infantry, forcing the tanks to turn around and bailout their comrades. The close-gripped seesaw fighting featured small German armor-piercing shells ricocheting harmlessly off French turrets and hulls. The 6th Panzer Regiment and a company of antitank guns hit every tank in a retiring French column with everything in the inventory, including 75mm rounds. The vehicles just kept moving, with one crew eventually counting 15 antitank hits and 42 bullet scars.
The tactical differences were coordination and cooperation. The Germans fought in combined-arms teams, with towed antitank guns supporting the panzers under a consistently effective air umbrella. The French fought exposed to the sky, in compartments, each arm on its own. The German tankers fought by battalions; the French never went beyond company levels. Even individual French tanks often failed to support each other. Their lack of radios required at least one company commander to transmit orders by running from tank to tank under fire. Their small turrets in practice made tank commanders no more than gunners once combat was joined.
The 3d DLM, moreover, fought alone against superior numbers. The 2d Light Mechanized Division remained in its positions all day, facing front and fixed in place by German infantry, force-marched forward. As the Germans freed themselves from the melee and resumed their advance, Prioux, his local reserves exhausted, ordered a withdrawal to the main positions by now established around Gembloux. The cavalry force had done its job; no reason remained to risk an elite force in an isolated forward position.
When losses were tallied, 3d DLM had accounted for 160 German tanks at the cost of around 100 of its own. It was true that the Germans held the field, and so were able to recover and repair a good many of their own losses. It was true as well that casualties had been absurdly light by Great War standards - only 150 total in the entire 4th Panzer Division. Nevertheless the consciousness of superiority recorded in the corps war diary did not translate into immediate pursuit in a deepening twilight, where all tanks seemed to look alike.
For Erich Hoepner it had been a good day's work. Committing his panzers en masse had paid off despite the losses. German tanks might be inferior in a stand-up fight, but thier mobility and skill of their crews and commanders had set the stage for the next scene: breakthrough at Gembloux. Preliminary orders went out at 3 AM; the French spent the next 18 hours executing a fighting retreat that tied the panzers in knots and completed the cavalry's delaying mission. Instead of overrunning the gap before the French could assume the position, Hoepner's corps confronted a solid defense manned by three first-class divisions: 1st Moroccan and 1st and 5th Motorized Divisions, with Prioux's tanks deployed by battalions to their rear. A few tentative probes were so strongly recieved that Hoepner ordered his advanced units to fall back and prepare for a coordinated corps-scale attack the next day.
The resulting engagement of 15 May was the first time the panzer divisions were used to break through a major, prepared defensive position......."

Showalter's analysis of Kursk, and especially the oft celebrated battle of Prokorovka, is equally compelling. Before one gets the impression that this book focuses on the victories of Germany's panzer arm, let me explain further that Showalter examines its weakenesses along with its strengths. The last chapter "Finale" is particulary instructive as unsparing analysis illustrates how far the panzers had fallen by the time of the Anglo-American invasion of France on 6 June 1944. This is one of the best single references published on the panzers, although its lack of photos and maps will force readers to buy other books to supplement Showalter's work.