Description

Panzertruppen-The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Employment of Germany’s Tank Force • 1933-1942

Edited by Thomas L  Jentz

Schiffer Military History | Jan. 3 1997 – 1st Edition

This guide presents how the Panzertruppen fought during their defensive struggle with details on the units, organizations, types of Panzers, and tactics.

Overextended deep in enemy territory facing numerically superior forces

The Heeres (Germany army)  failed to win their strategic objectives and became overextended deep in enemy territory facing numerically superior forces in the fall of 1942.  Now it was the Allies turn to launch the offensives that would keep the Heeres off balance. With few exceptions the days of employing massed Panzer formations t gain the days of employing massed Panzer formations to gain strategically decisive objectives had come to an end. And with these few exceptions were almost invariably failures….

A response to many unanswered questions

Many other books have successfully covered the history of the Panzertruppen at division, corps, army, and army group level. These dealt with the strategic decisions of the high command, the successes and the mistakes. After reading many of these published accounts, the author was still left with many unanswered questions.

• How many Panzers were actually available with each unit at the start of each campaign?
• When were new units formed and committed to action? What was their organization and equipment?
• What were the Panzers armament, armour protection, and capabilities?
• Which tactics were used by the smaller units from platoons up to regiments?
• How did they survive in the face of overwhelming numerical superiority?

Content of this book solely from original records

Tom Jentz found the answers to these questions by digging through original records for the past twenty-five years. These original records (war diaries, reports, and technical and tactical manuals written during the war) are the sole inspiration for this book. The author tells the story as recorded by those responsible for decisions in developing the Panzertruppen and by those who fought in the Panzers.

Two distinctly separate phases; offensive and defensive

As work on these books progressed it became apparent that the story of the Panzertruppen was divided into two distinctly separate phases; offensive and defensive.

The first volume presents the offensive phase up to October 1942. This second volume covers the defensive phase to the end of the war. Tom Jentz is also the author of Germany’s Panther Tank: The Quest for Combat Supremacy (available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.)

Photos, maps, graphs & charts
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0887409156
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0887409158
Panzertruppen: The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Employment of Germany’s Tank Force • 1933-1942
288 pages

Questions?

Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.54 kg
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 22.5 x 2.95 x 28.75 cm