Customer Reviews

Panzertruppen: The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Employment of Germanys Tank Force 1933-1942 (Schiffer military history) (v. 1)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Both this volume and volume 2, are excellent sources of primary documentation. Both use war diary, and after-action reports to describe tactics and weapons evolution. As I said in a review of vol.2, by allowing the crews and their platoon-battalion commanders to speak the book has an immediacy that can't be duplicated in other works of the same subject. The author assumes the reader has at least general familiarity with German operations, and knowledge of German WWII military terms and ranks. Probably not for a general interest reader.

This work is outstanding!! It has become an irreplaceable edition to my library. Thomas Jentz's research has produced an outstanding work that displays the evolution of the German Panzer machine. This book is a must for anyone with a desire to learn more about the German military genius. This book covers from platoon to division and corps level. It adds battle reports discussing the positive and negative aspects of each machine and the tactics and techniques used to fight them. I also suggest volume two which covers 1943 to 1945 to complete the history.

Thomas Jentz's book proves to be a fantastic source of information regarding the German Panzer forces during World War II. This volume covers the period from the early 1930s to 1942. It uses primary German sources that revealed the evolutionary stages of the German panzer formations, their weapons and numbers as the years rolled by. The book also reflects on German perception of how they did, how their tanks performed and needs for changes.

The book reflects the closeness to the source German material. The author expects the reader to have a fine tune knowledge of the German military prior to reading this book. If you have to look up to see the difference between a Panzer 38(t) to Panzer IVd, this book is probably not for you. The unit organization tables are done in the unfamiliar German symbolism instead of your usual NATO symbols so that can be confusing to the novice.

The book seem to be written for people who wants a greater understanding of the German panzer formations and thier gradual metamorphosis. The second volume covers the second half of the war when the German forces were mostly on the defensive mode.

Overall, highly informative reading material, not for the casual reader since this book don't exactly read like a best seller.

This is perhaps the most usefull book on the German panzer forces in World War II, and anyone interested in the subject needs a copy.

In the first portion of the book, Jentz provides a thorough history of the development and employment of panzer formations. This includes initial formation of the first units, the development of prototypes and early equipment, as well as German armored doctrine and tactics.

The remaining portion of the book covers the employment of the Panzer divisions in war from 1939-1942. In this section, Jentz provides a wealth of information. One very usefull feature is that the organization of panzer companies, battalions, and divisions are tracked (along with the translated text of orders changing the organizations) and presented in tables or figures. Given that the Germans frequently changed the organization of these units, this is very valuable information.

Jentz also presents tank strengths and tank types for each division at the start of major operations as part of orders of battle for the panzer divisions. For example, it is thus possible to quickly look up how many Panzer II tanks were available for the invasion of France, and the amount that each division had.

The end of the book has a number of appendices, which provide data on monthly on-hand strength of each tank as well as technical data on for German and a variety of Allied tanks.

I also strongly recommend Jentz's follow-up to this, which is Panzer Truppen volume II, and covers 1943-1945.

I agree with the other reviewers. These two books are excellent! If you have any interest in German panzer, tactics and deployment i strongly recommend you to buy them. The 'combat reports' from the officers writing about there experinence during there fight with the enemy, trying to explain the good and bad how to use there tanks is great and gives you a deeper feeling of the problems they had. A must buy!

Fantastic books! The detail and information is great. These are not "spec" books of German tanks. The wonderful inclusion of original correspondence between Beck, Fromm, Guderian, etc is fascinating reading. The extensive usage of original German terminology makes for difficult reading (unless you are fluent in German) but is very much appreciated to avoid errors of translation.

This book tells about the development of the German Panzertroops before the WWII and of their use in the first half of the war. Since it is based on wartime reports there is much less afterthought than in most war books based on memories. For example, it includes English translations of comments general-colonel Guderian made during the war, from German records. This book tells many interesting things to war history enthusiasts.

Thomas Jentz has spent over 30 years reading original German source material to create this guide to the creation and formation of Germany's tank force. Volume 1 covers the early phases from 1933- 1942. The key here is original. Jentz does not rely on anyone else's material, using only war diaries, reports and technical manuals. This is not a high level overview or grand strategy, nor is it a nuts and bolts review of each weapon system. It is also not light reading. This is very technically oriented, detailed history.

Jentz sets out to tell the dates units were organized, what equipment they had, organization, tactics used (US tankers will recognize many of these). The pages are high glossy quality binding. There are many B&W photos of the different panzers, charts and maps. In the Appendices, you will find technical specifications of US, British, French and Russian tanks.

The text provides a wealth of information. You get to see how the Germans created and used their tank force. The interplay of politics, economics, and technology are covered. How tank units reported back to their leaders - what worked, what did not are shown in excerpts from the official records. As a student of history, I admire the work and research that went into this book. This is a must have book for all serious armor historians and those who want to see step by step the evolution of the panzer and blitzkrieg. Highly recommended, top notch material.