German Tanks & Armored Vehicles, 1914-1945
New York, N.Y. ARCO Publishing Company, Inc., 1968. Presumed First U. S. Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Format is approximately 8.75 inches by 5.675 inches. 112 pages. Illustrations. Technical data. Cover has some wear and soiling. Covers Complete Specifications of All Models. Includes Introduction, The Development of German Armor, Nomenclature of German Tanks and Armored Vehicles, and provides information on a variety of models. Glossary of German Terms and Abbreviations and English Equivalents. The development in design and production of tanks and armoured vehicles by Germany during the period 1914-1945--the era covering both World Wars--is described in this book. The few true armoured cars built before World War 1 are also mentioned briefly in the introductory article on development. All the main types of German tanks and armoured cars to enter quantity production from 1933 onwards are described and illustrated, although space permits no more than mention of the numerous subtypes. The development of tanks in World War I began as an attempt to break the stalemate which trench warfare had brought to the Western Front. The British and French both began experimenting in 1915, and deployed tanks in battle from 1916 and 1917 respectively. The Germans, on the other hand, were slower to develop tanks, concentrating on anti-tank weapons. The German response to the modest initial successes of the Allied tanks was the A7V, which, like some other tanks of the period, was based on caterpillar tracks of the type found on the American Holt Tractors. Initially unconvinced that tanks were a serious threat, the High Command ordered just twenty A7Vs, which took part in a handful of actions between March and October, 1918. They suffered from numerous design faults, and Germany actually used more captured British tanks than A7Vs. As it became clear that the tank could play a significant role on the battlefield, Germany began working on designs for both heavy and light tanks, but only a small number of prototypes were completed by the end of the War. After the Armistice, all tanks in German hands were confiscated. Almost all were eventually scrapped, and the various postwar treaties forbade the former Central Powers from building or possessing tanks. On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Although he initially headed a coalition government, he quickly eliminated his government partners. He ignored the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles (1919) and began rearming, approving the development of many German tank designs he was shown. The German Army first used Panzer I light tanks, along with the Panzer II, but the mainstays were the medium Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs which were released in 1937. The IV became the backbone of Germany's panzer force and the power behind the blitzkrieg. During the invasion of Russia in 1941, the Germans encountered the famous and technologically advanced Soviet T-34 tanks. This led Germany to develop the Panther or Panzer V in response. Its 75mm gun could penetrate the new Soviet tanks. Germany also developed the heavy Tiger I, released in 1942. The Tiger could defeat any Allied tank and was soon joined by the Tiger II, also known as King Tiger, but too few were produced to impact the war in any discernible way. One note of interest was the poor reliability of the German tanks such as the Panther and Tiger; constant mechanical failures meant that German tank divisions were rarely able to field a full complement of tanks and were often diminished below 50% combat readiness. The book The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan makes mention of the 7 million foreign workers who were forcibly brought into Germany to work in the factories and businesses --- many of them in military assembly lines. Ryan specifically writes about these foreign workers in German tank manufacturing, who sabotaged every part they could and may have contributed to the rate of breakdown of German tanks in the field. This especially affected tanks built later in the war (such as the Panther and Tiger) when forced labor had replaced German manpower in their manufacture. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Tanks, Armored Fighting Vehicles, AFV, Panzer, Self-Propelled, Armored Car, Schildkrote, Panzerkampfwagen, Waffentrager, Schutzenpanzerwagen, Half-Tracked, Fully-Tracked, PzKpfw, SdKfz
[Book #82415]
Price: $50.00