Hitler's panzers: German tanks from their origins to the Second World War

Description

Tanks are the symbol of modern warfare and the most important military innovation since gunpowder. Their development was a response to the static and trench warfare that characterised the First World War, where available military technology favoured the defenders over the attackers. Their introduction on the battlefields, and the impressive technological evolution that took place between the two wars, changed the way of conceiving combat forever, and Germany was the driving force behind this process with studies, research and designs churned out at a steady pace from the 1920s onwards. This book traces the history of the German Panzer from the first A7Vs to the studies carried out during the Weimar Republic up to the grand rearmament conducted by Adolf Hitler's regime. A history of military technology that made giant strides in little more than twenty years, able to catch up with France and England to finish ahead of even the United States and the Soviet Union. The book covers almost one hundred armoured vehicles in the time span from the First World War to the outbreak of the Second, which began with the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. A history of the Panzerwaffe told through its tanks, the real protagonists of the Blitzkrieg and of Germany's resounding victories in the early years of the conflict.