Rating: 
Summary: The Tank Master
Review: Once I started to read this book I could not put it down. Historians throw the word "blitzkrieg" around, but after you read this inerpetation; a lot of the tactics and use of armour in conjunction with artillery, infantry, and close air support, makes perfect sense. A must for anyone interested in tactics and the WWII German military.
Rating: 
Summary: Achtung Monumental!
Review: This fine book is not only the military master piece that gave birth to the so called "Blitzkrieg", but it's first of all a very good analysis of the influence of armor on the ww1 battlefields and it's consequences in future wars. The text is built like a thesis, so as to point out the revolution from horse to tanks that as taken place without much people realising. Once this is done, Guderian can then introduce his views of what we now know as the Panzerdivisionnen. A Must-read for any military history fan or serious wargamer.
Rating: 
Summary: Of historic interest
Review: This is a book that was first published in 1937 and was an argument for the use of armored warfare, instead of the use of infantry in attack. As such it is mainly of interest to Historians of the Second World War. The author Guderian is seen as the person who developed the techniques used by Germany so successfully in the war. He served as a Panzer Commander in the early part of the war but was sacked by Hitler after an argument over operations in the Eastern Front. He was re-appointed as an inspector of armored forces and was involved in the attempt of Germany to recreate its armies after the problems related to the Stalingrad Campaign. Guderian was a committed Nazi and served in the Freikorp after the end of the First World War.The book is rather fragmented. The first two chapters describe why a large number of First World War battles tended to stalemate. The development of barbed wire, machine guns, quick firing artillery, the repeating rifle and barbed wire meant that infantry attacks became very costly. The use of prolonged artillery barrages gave an indication to an enemy of a pending attack. This allowed a defender to increase the depth of their defences and led to battles becoming long slogging sieges. In the First World War the Germans only produced very small numbers of Tanks. (4) Most of the tanks were produced by the English and the French. Guderian discusses a number of battles showing the problems of employing tanks. He looks briefly at a number of battles and shows how the choice of ground was important and how prolonged artillery barrages could prevent the movement of tanks over the ground. He then discusses Cambraii. In this battle large numbers of tanks were able to penetrate deep into the German lines. The problem with the British plan was that it depended on cavalry to exploit the gap created by the tanks. What happened at Cambraii was that last minute deployment of German forces were able to prevent the cavalry advance. The implication being that the use of tanks to exploit the break through could have achieved victory. Guderian goes on to show that the attack at Cambraii was able to achieve a penetration as great as the Ypres offensive at a fraction of the casualties. Guderian discusses a number of other tank battles and then talks in general terms about the problems of positional warfare. He indicates that machine guns can easily stop large infantry attacks. Artillery can be used to destroy machine guns nests but there are problems. A machine gun is a small target and is hard to hit. By comparison a mass attack of tanks can destroy machine guns and overwhelm defending artillery. This discussion takes place in about 80 pages. There is then a bit of propaganda about the Versailles Treaty and a discussion of tank development in the inter-war period. The book then concludes with an argument for the development of a combined arms strategy outlining how tanks, aircraft, infantry and artillery should cooperate. These tactics were in fact used by Germany in the war. The book is easy to read but is very much a book for people who have an arcane interest in the war. Still they are probably the sorts of persons who would look at it in the first place.
| 
