Panzers on the Vistula

Panzers on the Vistula

Author: Hans Schäufler

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2018-10-30

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 152673432X

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This WWII memoir of a Nazi officer is one of the most revealing firsthand accounts of the German retreat on the Eastern Front. A second lieutenant of the 4th Panzer division, Hans Schäufler commanded a Jagdpanther tank destroyer in rearguard actions against the Red Army in East Prussia in 1945. Then, as an infantryman, he took part in the doomed defense of Danzig before escaping across the Baltic in a small boat. His personal story offers a rare glimpse into the chaos and suffering endured by tens thousands of soldiers and civilians during the collapse of the Third Reich in the east. Along with vivid descriptions of the appalling conditions in Danzig and the fear and panic that gripped the city, Schäufler’s account provides valuable insight into the German army’s tactics as they fell back before the Soviet advance. While acute shortages of men, equipment, ammunition and fuel crippled the defense, the soldiers went on fighting for a lost cause in the face of certain defeat.


Panzers in the Sand: 1935-1941

Panzers in the Sand: 1935-1941

Author: Bernd Hartmann

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0811707237

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In September 1939, the tanks of Panzer-Regiment 5 swept into Poland, a devastating part of the German blitzkrieg that opened World War II with a terrifying display of military force. The following spring, the regiment rumbled across France, again showing the destructive power of the panzer. But the unit's greatest fame would come in the North African desert, where Panzer-Regiment 5 joined Erwin Rommel's vaunted Afrika Korps as it battled the British back and forth beneath the scorching sun of Libya and Egypt. Combat history of a renowned German tank regiment in World War II Covers the unit's formation, its campaigns in Poland and France, and its first months with the Afrika Korps Firsthand accounts from tank commanders and crews with hundreds of photographs, many of them not available anywhere else


Knight's Cross Panzers

Knight's Cross Panzers

Author: Hans Schäufler

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 0811705927

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First time in English. Unit history of a tank regiment on the Eastern Front. Relies on firsthand accounts, after-action reports, letters, diaries, and newspapers.


Hitler's Panzers

Hitler's Panzers

Author: Dennis Showalter

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2009-12-01

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 1101151684

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From Dennis Showalter, recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize and the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement, a fascinating account of Nazi Germany's armored forces during World War II Determined to secure a quick, decisive victory in his quest of conquer Europe, Adolf Hitler adopted an attack plan that combined tools with technique—the formidable Panzer divisions. Self-contained armored units able to operate independently, the Panzers became the German army's fighting core as well as its moral focus, establishing an entirely new military doctrine. In Hitler's Panzers, Showalter presents a comprehensive study of Germany's armored forces. By delving deeply into a detailed history of the theory, strategy, myths, and realities of Germany's technologically innovative approach to warfare, Showalter provides a look at the military lessons of the past, and a speculation on how the Panzer ethos may be implemented in the future of international conflict.


Viking Panzers

Viking Panzers

Author: Ewald Klapdor

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Published: 2011-04-05

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 0811744426

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• Classic World War II unit history of the 5th SS Panzer Regiment, part of the 5th SS Panzer Division "Viking" • The unique 5th SS Panzer Division was made up largely of volunteers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands, and Belgium • This regiment served on the Eastern Front from 1942 to the end of the war, including action at Kharkov and Warsaw • Draws heavily from the eyewitness testimonies of the 5th's members • First time in English


Panzers in the Sand

Panzers in the Sand

Author: Bernd Hartmann

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Published: 2010-11-23

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 081174230X

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Combat history of a renowned German tank regiment in World War II. Covers the unit's formation, its campaigns in Poland and France, and its first months with the Afrika Korps. Firsthand accounts from tank commanders and crews with hundreds of photographs, many of them not available anywhere else.


Panzers East and West

Panzers East and West

Author: Dieter Stenger

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-09-01

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0811765903

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Organized and trained during 1943, the 10th SS Panzer Division saw its first action in the spring of 1944 during the relief of an encircled German army on the Eastern Front. Several months later, in response to the Allied invasion at Normandy, the division returned to the West in mid-June 1944. Here the division engaged in a series of armored attacks and counterattacks against British and American forces. The 10th SS briefly held off a few enemy thrusts but gradually had to fall back to Falaise, where the division escaped the Allied encirclement with no tanks and only a fraction of its men. The 10th SS Panzer Division next defended against the Allied parachute assault during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. Depleted and now a division in name only, the 10th SS fought in Alsace before Hitler sent it to the Eastern Front again. There, east of Berlin, the division participated in the final battles to enable the escape of German soldiers and civilians from Soviet captivity.


Hitler's Panzer Armies on the Eastern Front

Hitler's Panzer Armies on the Eastern Front

Author: Robert Kirchubel

Publisher: Grub Street Publishers

Published: 2010-01-19

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 1848847009

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An in-depth look at the role armored formations played in the struggle between the Nazis and the Soviets. Hitler’s panzer armies spearheaded the blitzkrieg on the Eastern Front. They played a key role in every major campaign, not simply as tactical tools but also as operational weapons that shaped strategy. Their extraordinary triumphs—and their eventual defeat—mirrors the fate of German forces in the East. And yet no previous study has concentrated on the history of these elite formations in the bitter struggle against the Soviet Union. Robert Kirchubel’s absorbing and meticulously researched account of the operational history of the panzer armies fills this gap, using German sources including many firsthand accounts never before seen in English. And it gives a graphic insight into the organization, tactics, fighting methods, and morale of the Wehrmacht at the height of its powers and as it struggled to defend the Reich.


Panzer General

Panzer General

Author: Kenneth Macksey

Publisher: Skyhorse

Published: 2018-02-06

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 1510727329

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Kenneth Macksey’s highly regarded biography of Generaloberst Heinz Guderian gives clear insight into the mind and motives of the father of modern tank warfare. Panzer General shows Guderian as a man of ideas equipped with the ability to turn inspiration into reality. A master of strategy and tactics, he was the officer most responsible for creating blitzkrieg in World War II. Guderian built the Panzerwaffe in the face of opposition from the German General Staff and personally led the lightning campaigns by tanks and aircraft that put a large part of Europe under domination by the Third Reich. Kenneth Macksey, a tank man himself for more than twenty years, reveals the man as a brilliant rebel in search of ideals and a general whose personality, genius, and achievements far transcended those of Rommel. As well as throwing light on the crucial campaigns in Poland, France, and Russia, this biography illuminates the struggles within the German hierarchy, both in the military and in the Nazi Party, for control of the Panzer forces. Based on information from the extensive family archives, Panzer General demonstrates why Guderian was so admired by some while denigrated by others.