Achtung Panzer!: The Development of Tank Warfare (W&N Military) Kindle Edition

I enjoy WWI and WWII history, especially the machinery that came from those wars. WWI, especially, was the first time the modern ways of the Industrial Revolution clashed with the previous century's way of conducting war. Since this title will be of interest mainly to those who share a similar interest I will spare everyone a detailed history lesson. I can sum it up by stating that the refinement of the machine gun, improvements in artillery, the introduction of gas attacks, the development of a military use for aircraft, and the huge human resources available to feed into the meat grinder produced a slaughter unimaginable at the time and still horrendous today. The conflict evolved into a stalemate that seemed to do little but demand more sacrifice on the part of all combatants and civilians caught up in it all. The need to breach fortified defenses and hold them led to the development of the tank. While slow, unreliable, cumbersome and unwieldy at first, once tactics learned by trial and error as well as bloody experience began to yield results, the tank was on its way to becoming a battlefield necessity.Even though the British and the French were the pioneers in the development, there were still many who doubted its value and wanted to abandon it just as aircraft had their detractors. A few had the vision to understand the potential of the tank and began to think of how it could be deployed to maximum effect. A few of these also had the courage to state that the old ways of war, especially with mounted cavalry, were obsolete. Heinz Guderian was one of these men and this book, originally published in 1937, is a translation of a thesis/report/history he wrote of the tank after some 15 years of study and just a few years before he was to put his thoughts into action. The contents are his words and ideas. As such I cannot criticize or argue with them because there would be no point in that. The book is well annotated because some of the material Guderian used in writing it was faulty. These errors and clarifications are corrected at the end of each chapter. To read it and then know what happened after when his ideas were put into play is an amazing historical perspective on tank warfare. If I have one complaint about the book it is that many of the maps are small and poorly reproduced. The smaller print is blurry and hard to read. Some maps have too much detail for their size and it is very hard to sort things out and relate them back to the text. They may be his original sketches and that's why they are that way, but to truly appreciate and follow the battles and deployments he refers to I found a couple books of WWI maps very helpful. The West Point Atlas of War: World War I edited by General Vincent J Esposito was outstanding and Martin Gilbert's Atlas of World War I less so, but still useful. There is a section of glossy plates with b&w pictures showing a variety of armored cars, tanks, and other combat images. This book would be of little use to the military modeler since there are no in depth discussions or descriptions of vehicles in it. Consider as well, that when it was written many of the more famous vehicles of WWII were not in production yet. But, for someone interested in tactics, the evolution of the same relating to armor, or just the history of the wars, I can't say enough about this book.

I enjoy reading military and conflict history. To get a sense of scope of a world-war or even the small and large scale aspects of the trenches is difficult, to comprehend the experiences either political, strategic, tactical or personal requires a lot of reading. Recommended authors might include Keegan, Wilmott, Sir Alasdair Horne, Ernst Junger, Robert Graves or Guy Sajer (ww2). There is however something different about the style that Guderian uses. Junger and Graves and others like Guy Sajer speak of personal impact and effect and horror of physical in contact battle. Sir Alistair Horne refers to some of this in his excellent book on Verdun whilst also trying to reference all layers of the conflict and flawed thinking of leadership and the costs.There is something of value in the way that Guderian writes with detachment and clinical surgical observation that makes one appreciate tactics at the divisional level. He speaks in 20/20 hindsite of designs in the success and failure of various tactics in numerous battles during WW1. The 'such and such division' were wiped out. The excellence of the British operation at Cambria, the failure of the German response to the new weapon. All written in a clear fashion to help influence the high-command in creation of tank forces in the late 30's. Excellent, and different to the gore and personal cost expressed by Graves in Goodbye to all that or Alasdair Horne's Verdun.Mandatory WWI and WWII reading!

Added it to my military library. It is there with Caesar, Sun Tzu, Von Clausewitz, Rommel and others. Interesting work which was the basis of tank warfare doctrine and tactics in WWII for the German forces. If you are at all into military history, and WWII especially, it is a must have.

This is a very historical document which was first published in the late 1930s by what then was a fairly obscure officer in the German Wehrmacht, and who rose to become a General Officer and a leader in the development of modern tank warfare, both in the initial stages of WWII and later on the Russian front. Although he later fell out of favor with Hitler, his philosophy carried through to the end of the European war.What makes this book interesting is Guardian's description of the battles and subsequent events in WWI. Little was really known about the development and use of tanks on the Western Front until the late stages of 1917 and 1918. The most interesting of the books revelations is the fact that the Germans had few tanks to oppose the Allies caused by the lack of imagination and foresight of the German High Command coupled with the lack of steel in the manufacturing of tanks caused by the British naval blockade of German raw materials. What tanks the Germans did have were of British and French design captured or disabled during combat operations which were made serviceable.Those of you who find books of specific detailed military history will find this book very interesting especially when you consider that the theories spelled out in this book led to the development of the blitzkrieg tactics of WWII.

Great book. There are footnotes the british translator put in that address areas that he felt are not exactly how the historic records he gathered as alternate sources read relative to Heinz's book. Now I dont know how he knew which ones to target and I cant imagine where to gather the sources and all the time required, but certainly they appear to be the statements when Gen.Guderian cites a strategic move or event the enemy made based on HIS opinion after the battles, of who did it and why, or who used ammonia gas first for example. So it is Heinz's base writing, but the translator added some commentary at the end of each section when he felt it was needed to maybe try and correct/clarify what he thought Heinz was wrong on. Reading someones own memoirs-- interpret using your own life skills.

As described, English language

interessante, testo molto piccolo, compatto

Excellent book for those who are interested in mil History

This is one of two seminal works by Germany's greatest tank theoretician, the other being Panzer Leader. Heinz Guderian took the works of British tank theorists, Major Fuller and Basil Liddel Hart on warfare of rapid movement and penetration. The German word for this theory is "bovendumskrieg", or "war of movement". Commonly referred to as "blitzkrieg" where supporting arms worked with each other in a war of rapid penetration and encirclement of enemy formations. While the British laughed off the ideas of their own proponents of such methods, the Germans adopted Guderian's theories and honed their tactics to produce the most effective and destructive war machine the world has ever known. Hitler liked Guderian's methods, if only because victory was quick and war thus inexpensive. German failure was in the strategic aims for the war and faulty intelligence assessments of the Red Army and its capacity to fight while retreating until it could fight in the same manner as the Germans. By 1943, the tide of war turned in favour of the Red Army, which did most of the fighting on land in the East, while the Western allies bombed Germany relentlessly from the air.

Good book, but the format is just to little for my like