Panzers I Ii

The first vehicle to be produced in any numbers for the Panzerwaffe was the tiny Panzer I known as the MG Panzerwagen. Almost from the outset the limitations of the design for the Panzer I were obvious. It was essentially a training vehicle which was only pressed into service as a last resort. It was to be succeeded by the Panzer II which could at least engage armoured cars and combat against tanks with approximately the same armour as itself.Together these two tanks formed the bulk of the armour which between 1939 and 1941 conquered half of Europe.This comprehensive overview of the light Panzers in action was compiled by Emmy Award winning historian Bob Carruthers. It draws heavily on war-time intelligence reports to produce a fascinating insight into the development and combat history of the light Panzers at the tactical and operational level.Also featured are rare developments such as the Panzer II flame thrower variant alongside unpublished photographs and illustrations which provide an absorbing study, from an array of primary sources, of the world of the light Panzer and their crews from contemporary Allied sources.

While the Panzer I and II are not as famous as the German tanks produced later in the Second World War, they played a vital role in Hitler's early blitzkrieg campaigns and in the Nazi rearmament program pursued, at first in secret, by the Nazi regime during the 1930s. Anthony Tucker-Jones's photographic history of their design, development and wartime service is an ideal introduction to them.Both Panzers saw combat during the invasions of Poland and France, the Low Countries and Scandinavia during 1939-40. Although by the time the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Panzer I had been virtually phased out of service, in the form of self-propelled guns they continued to see combat well into 1943. The Panzer II was also phased out with the panzer regiments in late 1943, yet it remained in action on secondary fronts and, as the self-propelled Marder II antitank gun and Wespe artillery variant, it saw active service with the panzer and panzer grenadier divisions until the end of the war. The Panzer I and II were the precursors of the formidable range of medium and heavy tanks that followed the Panzer III and IV and the Panther and Tiger and this book is a fascinating record of them.

A highly illustrated and essential reference guide organized by campaigns within each theatre.

In his riveting new book, Steven Zaloga describes how American foot soldiers faced down Hitler’s elite armored spearhead—the Hitler Youth Panzer Division—in the snowy Ardennes forest during one of World War II’s biggest battles, the Battle of the Bulge. The Hitler Youth division was assigned the mission of the Führer’s Ardennes offensive: capture the main highway to the primary objective, Antwerp, whose seizure Hitler believed would end the war. Had the Germans taken the Belgian port, it would have cut off the Americans from the British and perhaps led to a second, more devastating Dunkirk. In Zaloga’s careful reconstruction, a succession of American infantry units—the 99th Division, the 2nd Division, and the 1st Division (the famous Big Red One)—fought a series of series of battles that denied Hitler the best roads to Antwerp and doomed his offensive. American G.I.s—some of them seeing combat for the very first time—had stymied Hitler’s panzers and grand plans.

With speed, violence, and deadly power, heavily armored tanks spearheaded the German blitzkrieg that stormed across Europe in 1939. Tracks rattling and engines roaring, these lethal machines engaged in some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, from the beaches of Normandy and the Ardennes Forest to the snow-encrusted Eastern Front. In this reprint of the hugely popular book, prolific author Franz Kurowski tells the gritty, action-packed stories of six of the most daring and successful officers ever to command Panzers, including Michael Wittmann, Hans Bolter, Hermann Bix, and others. Timelines mark the milestones of each officer's career.

Covers the use and design of the Panzer II armored fighting vehicle.