Panzerkrieg: An Overview of German Armored Operations in World War 2

I wanted to give this book five stars in recognition of the huge effort and collective experience of the author who has written a hundred books and his fellow contributors who assisted in writing this book. Though liking the book, I must admit the writing style can be choppy at times and the events described are not always balanced. Some major events are not given their due while some smaller events are given too much.The introduction delivers a brief history of the tank starting when the British surprised the Germans at Fler in 1916 right up to the eve of the invasion of Poland.The battle coverage begins with the invasion of Poland with special mention of the destruction of Warsaw and continues to the fall of Berlin. This coverage is not equally linear. There is much more attention given to the first half of the war when German Blitzkrieg plays a larger part than there is in the last half of the war. For example the coverage that ends Operation Citadel around mid July, 1943 ends on page 467. The last 172 pages is devoted to the last twenty months of the war where the forcing of the Oder and capturing Berlin is very brief. The last major engagement that has good coverage in the east is Operation Bagration. In the west the armor fighting in Normandy, the Ardennes and the Ruhr are covered. Early in the war, Rommel in Africa is also covered.As an overview you will not have comprehensive day to day coverage of the war but a select assortment of coverage of major engagements, some small obscure fighting, interesting information on panzers of all varieties and other field equipment. Panzer aces like Whitmann, Carius, Fischer as well as key mid-level officers and crew members that made a difference are also covered. A lot of the tactical events are presented while discussing the feats of these tankers. Some of the key officers were Sauvant, Bunzel, Kloskowski, Wahl, Weissflog, Bake and Raus. There are gaps in the coverage and while there is not a lot of in-depth analysis, as an overview the large amount of information presented and overall impression is good.With the experience of having written a hundred books on WWII, Mr Kurowski has done a good job of gathering a large array of information and splicing, parsing it into a readable story. The author uses primary and secondary sources and while the list of secondary sources is impressive, I believe, more of his information came from primary sources. The archival info includes orders, official documents, after action reports, communiques, diary entries and personal interviews. This information while related to panzers and is predominately from the German perspective is broken down in equal parts of tactical and personal. There are many, many anecdotal experiences conveyed along with which towns were captured or destroyed and which divisions inflicted or suffered heavy casualties. I would have liked greater depth in some areas and the splicing of the anecdotal with the tactical, while good, was not always smooth. The format of this book is not your typical narrative; its more a chronology in narrative form. You will find fragments of events that are started but never finished thoroughly.In addition to the narrative, there were 24 black on white 2-D maps which were good but covered mostly the major engagements. You will have to make do without maps while reading many of the smaller battles. There are also 150 good photos of officers, men, panzers and battlefield scenes. Included in this gallery are recipients of the Knight's Cross. There is also an interesting table included that lists the 40 panzer divisions that were deployed at the end of the war. It includes the Division CO and location of deployment at the time of surrender.There are no Notes but an impressive Bibliography, Index and Table of Contents are included. For me this nearly 700 page book will make a nice reference and the Index will come in handy. Its comprehensive and broken down into three sections: Formations, Locations and Individuals. If you want to study a particular division or regiment, a battle location or an individual you will find it easily with this Index.Both newcomer and experienced students of the war could find this book useful but those with a keen interest in the war will probably enjoy it the most.

Panzerkrieg is yet another offering from specialist publishers JJ Fedorowicz who have assembled a vast array of books translated from the german text.This particular book is by one of the more prolific authours in Franz Kurowski and deals with the topic of German Armoured Operations in World War two.If you are familar with his style the book is all factual and some reviewers I have seen concerning his titles rate him as a little dry.However I have always enjoyed his books and this is yet another fine example of his work.The book begins by tracing the Panzer assaults across Europe in its glory days and has been sectionalised to keep things simple and interesting.It begins each campaign with an overview and then deals with various panzer units as they were involved in each battle.One interesting aspect of the book is the unit and personality section after various campaigns.This deals with a well known Panzer Commander such as Johannes Muhlenkamp who were involved at the small unit level.There are also brief sections on selected armour units such as Nordland, 502 and 510 Tiger Battalions and Panzer lehr to name a few.The book follows the Panzers from Heyday to Defeat and shows how the Panzers went from mailed fist to mobile defender (fire brigade) as Germanys fortunes changed where they were rushed from one crisis point to another until they were eventually ground under.The book written on fine glossy paper for excellent photo reproduction is huge with nearly 700 pages in small format to read.If I have one gripe I found the maps few and far between which did not really help to place where certain units were.However the photo selection is excellent with a broad coverage of personalities, action shots and vehicles.All in all this is another fine book and is recommended for your library