Achtung Panzer

This is one of the most significant military books of the twentieth century. By an outstanding soldier of independent mind, it pushed forward the evolution of land warfare and was directly responsible for German armoured supremacy in the early years of the Second World War. Published in 1937, the result of 15 years of careful study since his days on the German General Staff in the First World War, Achtung Panzer! argues how vital the proper use of tanks and supporting armoured vehicles would be in the conduct of a future war. When that war came, just two years later, he proved it, leading his Panzers with distinction in the Polish, French and Russian campaigns. Panzer warfare had come of age, exactly as he had forecast.This first English translation of Heinz Guderian's classic book - used as a textbook by Panzer officers in the war - has an introduction and extensive background notes by the modern English historian Paul Harris.

This is one of the most significant military books of the twentieth century. By an outstanding soldier of independent mind, it pushed forward the evolution of land warfare and was directly responsible for German armoured supremacy in the early years of the Second World War. Published in 1937, the result of 15 years of careful study since his days on the German General Staff in the First World War, Guderian's book argued, quite clearly, how vital the proper use of tanks and supporting armoured vehicles would be in the conduct of a future war. When that war came, just two years later, he proved it, leading his Panzers with distinction in the Polish, French and Russian campaigns. Panzer warfare had come of age, exactly as he had forecast. This first English translation of Heinz Guderian's classic book - used as a textbook by Panzer officers in the war - has an introduction and extensive background notes by the modern English historian Paul Harris.

Germany's opening run of victory in World War II was only made possible by the panzer forces that Heinz Guderian (1888-1954), the father of modern tank warfare, had created and trained, and by his audacious leading of those forces from 1939-1941. Guderian's breakthrough at Sedan and lightning drive to the Channel coast virtually decided the Battle of France. The drive he led into the East came close to producing the complete collapse of Russia's armies, but at the end of 1941 Guderian was dismissed for taking a timely step back instead of pandering to Hitler's illusions. He was recalled to service only when Germany's situation had become desperate, and was eventually made Chief of the General Staff when it had become hopeless.

“This unique memoir tells the story of one of the field-grade officers whose martial skills sustained the Third Reich against a world in arms.”—Library Journal Panzer Commander is one of the classic memoirs of the Second World War. A professional soldier, Hans von Luck joined the Panzerwaffe in its earliest days, where he served under Erwin Rommel, and went on to fight in the Blitzkrieg in Poland, France and the Soviet Union. He then served with the Afrika Korps in the Western Desert and tells of the sometimes chivalrous relationship with the British 8th Army. After the collapse in Africa, he returned to Europe and fought throughout the Normandy campaign and was responsible for the failure of the British breakout attempt, Operation Goodwood. He then took part in the final desperate battles on the Eastern Front. Captured by the Soviets at the end of the war, he was held for five years in a prison camp in the Caucasus. After the war, he formed friendships with those who had been his opponents during it, including Major John Howard, who had led the capture of Pegasus Bridge in Normandy. With a new preface by the author’s widow, this unique and valuable account of one man’s war and its aftermath is required reading for all those interested in the Second World War. “One of the few books that MUST be part of any library . . . It is vivid and engaging. It paints the finest of verbal pictures and it does so without demonstrations of ego . . . it is one of the building blocks of knowledge that creates the palace of history.”—Firetrench

Written directly after combat, Rommel critiques his own battle strategies and tactics during World War I in an attempt to learn further from his losses and victories.

Recent scholarship has challenged the assumption that military commanders during the First World War were inflexible, backward-looking and unwilling to exploit new technologies. Instead a very different picture is now emerging of armies desperately looking to a wide range of often untested and immature scientific and technological innovations to help break the deadlock of the Western Front. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the development of tank warfare, which both the British and the French hoped would give them a decisive edge in their offensives of 1917 and 1918. Whilst the British efforts to develop armoured warfare have been well chronicled, there has been no academic study in English on the French tank force - the Artillerie Spéciale - during the Great War. As such, this book provides a welcome new perspective on an important but much misunderstood area of the war. Such was the scale of the French tanks’ failure in their first engagement in 1917, it was rumoured that the Artillerie Spéciale was in danger of being disbanded, yet, by the end of the war it was the world’s largest and most technologically advanced tank force. This work examines this important facet of the French army’s performance in the First World War, arguing that the AS fought the war in as intelligent and sensible a manner as was possible, given the immature state of the technology available. No amount of sound tank doctrine could compensate for the fragility of the material, for the paucity of battlefield communication equipment and for the lack of tank-infantry training opportunities. Only by 1918 was the French army equipped with enough reliable tanks, as well as aircraft and heavy-artillery, to begin to exercise a mastery of the new form of combined-arms warfare. The successful French armoured effort outlined in this study (including a listing of all the combat engagements of the French tank service in the Great War) highlights a level of military effectiveness within

For most of World War II, 1939-45, Germany's armored forces or Panzerwaffe ruled the battlefields of Europe through superior tactics, training, and will power. Their primary function was to break through enemy lines along a narrow front "hitting with fist and not feeling with the fingers," encircle the enemy, cutting him off, and setting up their subsequent annihilation by regular infantry and artillery units. Speed and shock were the Panzerwaffe's friends. In 1935, the first four Panzer divisions were formed and developed under the watchful eyes of officers such as Heinz Guderian, Ewald von Kleist, Erich H�pner, and Hermann Hoth. By 1939, on the eve of the war with Poland, Das Deutsches Panzerwaffe (German Armored Forces) had grown into ten divisions, spearheading the German assault into several surrounding countries.This is the historically accurate but fictional story of Gunter Prehm, a young Saxon who joined Panzer Division 1 in 1935. Read what training and life was like for him and his buddies in Kompanie 5, Panzer Reglement 1, about their uniforms and equipment, about the Panzerkampfwagons (armored fighting vehicles-tanks) that they operated and lived in, about the new Panzer tactics that they learned, practiced, and honed, and about their first campaigns in Poland in 1939 and in France in 1940, which proved to the world the decisive punch of revolutionary Panzer division concept, elevating the Panzerwaffe to become the undisputed champions of the battlefield.