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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting read on tanks and German war doctrine, December 9, 2009
This review is from: Hitler's Panzers: The Lightning Attacks that Revolutionized Warfare (Hardcover)
Dennis Showalter, a professor and noted author, has written a well researched and interesting book on the history of German panzers and the subsequent war doctrine that was built around this lethal weapon. The history starts at the beginning near the banks of the Somme in WWI and deliberately evolves through the dark days of the 1920s and into the 1930s when Hitler's influence escalates. The author develops the history of the panzer, its war doctrine and follows the evolution of new models and their increasing capacities as well as the increasing popularity and recognition of the value of this "new" weapon.
Guderian may have been the most vocal proponent of the panzer but there were others, like Volckheim, Rabenau and Fritsch, that promoted panzers and mobile warfare. With each new panzer model, Volckheim would critcize the gun barrel for being too small and puny. The large barrel panzer that had power and distance would win the war. He would be proven right. By 1939, Germany had an arsenal of Mk IIIs and some Mk IVs to deploy and a blitzkrieg doctrine that would conquer much of Europe and intimidate most of the world. (I've wondered what would have happened, if it would have made a big enough difference if Guderian had Panthers instead of Mk IIIs driving toward Moscow in late 1941 or Hoth driving north toward Stalingrad in 1942.)
The author doesn't present a daily chronology of battle events but does provide an interesting overview of how tanks or tank commanders influenced key battles of the war. Some of the key battles include Kiev, Moscow, Tunisia, Voronezh, Stalingrad, Rostov, Kursk, Korsun, Vitebsk, Brody and the Ardennes Offensive. Some of the key commanders discussed are Guderian, Hoth, Hoepner, Kleist, Kluge, Model, Manstein, Rommel and Rundstedt. Some of the key panzer units were also discussed: Das Reich, Totenkopf, LAH, Lehr and others.
The Spanish Civil War is also included as a training program for German tank commanders as well as the Russian side of tank warfare. The author compares the strengths and weaknesses of the Sherman against the Panther, Tiger and T34. The author even mentions the German prototype called the Maus that weighed 188 tons and sported 10 inch armor. The author also discusses the psychological makeup of Hitler and how he influenced the extravagant designs of the Panther and Tiger.
Sorry to say there are no illustrations or photos of the different tanks discussed. There are only five general large scale maps but no specific maps of the battles discussed. There is also no Notes or Bibliography which is surprising and disappointing. Even though the presentation is excellent, there isn't any ground breaking new material in this volume so people who are already well read on the war or on tank doctrine may not learn a lot but it would be a terrific book for beginners, intermediates or collectors.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Academically of Little Value but a Very Interesting Book, January 21, 2010
This review is from: Hitler's Panzers: The Lightning Attacks that Revolutionized Warfare (Hardcover)
The story of the tank force of Nazi Germany is an often told one within postmodern historical narratives. The reasons for this are ample: fascination with the machinery itself, fascination with the offensive operations early in WWII and lastly, fascination with psychological impact of mechanizing warfare on a previously unimagined scale. As such however, there has been very little effort to produce a scholarly synthesis of these various areas of research regarding the Panzers.
As such, for that minority of you reading who, like myself are graduate students in history, desiring a narrative full of primary sources and notes to follow the trail of Dr Showalter's research, this book probably isn't for you.
The good news is that for those of you who are simply curious about the development and use of the Panzer arm of the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS, this is well worth your time as a first read on the subject. Stylistically speaking, the book is quite well written and combined with solid editing, it is a very easy read. The events are described in a chronological manner which certainly helps the flow of the narrative-there are few flashbacks for the sake of starting a new topic.
The weakness of this book is, as mentioned above, a nearly complete disregard for the conventions of historical writing that is inexplicable by most standards. For the sake of 'reader friendliness' Showalter eschews the notes and bibliography which could have made this book an indespensible overview of tactics, operations and the psychology of Panzer warfare, as developed by the Germans. Furthermore, it could have served as a fantastic introduction to the development of the weapons systems themselves. Towards this end, even the inclusion of 20-30 photo plates would have gone a long way towards improving the book. Also a further set of 4-5 more operational maps would have made following the eastern front campaigns much simpler an act. Lastly, the possible inclusion of charts of organization for the panzer, motorized infantry and panzer grenadier divisions would have been quite helpful in following their evolution.
With that said, the weaknesses of this book, although significant are not insurmountable. How the inclusion of a 5-10 page bibliography reduces 'readabillity' is beyond me and HOPEFULLY Dr. Showalter will see the light on this and include it as well as endnotes in subsequent editions of this book. With those items included, even the armchair historian can verify points of particular interest within secondary sources. For the trained historian the value of this book would be much greater and need not be beaten to death here as well as the point that Dr. Showalter can only make assertions without these critical tools to effective history writing. A few relevent examples of where his book could improve with these tools in place include, but are not limited to:
His analyis of the the concept of the Blitzkrieg drawn from the Polish Campaign (pp. 86), German emphasis on Race as a significant factor in the defeat of France and its significance to those involved in planning the war(pp. 132), and lastly Dr. Showalter's summarizing of the issues and limitations of an 'operations' focussed Wehrmacht within the context of a 'strategic' war against the USSR(pp. 178-79).
In short this is a well told story. It could however with a few important fixes be a GREAT overview with all kinds of relevence to the armchair historian and serious history student alike.
PLEASE MAKE THE CHANGES DR SHOWALTER!
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Poor writing and opinionated, but reasonable history, January 5, 2012
While this book does present a reasonably good overview of the history and use of Wehrmacht armour, Showalter's writing style overshadows and dominates. In short, this book is poorly written - a jumble of convoluted word order, needless hyperbole, and far too much personal opinion presented as fact with no references, discussion, or justification. If the purpose of writing is to clearly communicate the facts, and perhaps one's analysis and conclusions, then this book fails miserably. Many passages have to be read and re-read, and even then it is not clear exactly what Showalter is trying to say. So eventually, you just give up and gloss over the claptrap. Moreover, one cannot be sure of the facts, as very few references are provided. In summary, this book does present an interesting point of view that could perhaps lead to interesting debate, but that debate would be a much better learning experience if it was backed up by clear references to documented facts, or at least supported by a well written logical analysis.
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