Book Review: Panzer Tactics

Panzer Tactics: German Small-Unit Armor Tactics In World War II is by Wolfgang Schneider, an officer in the modern Bundeswehr (German Army), and someone who is developing a reputation as an historian of WWII. The book outlines tactics used at the battalion, company and platoon levels of a German armored formation.

The author does this by making use of Wehrmacht training manuals and of first hand accounts gathered "through hours of discussion with former Panzer soldiers of all ranks, evaluation of combat reports and accounts of personal experiences" along with his own experience as an officer in the modern Bundeswehr. Unfortunately, we have to mostly take his word for this as the book completely lacks a bibliography or footnotes of any kind.

What it does have is a large number of excellent photographs and reproductions of pages from Wehrmacht training manuals. I didn't do an exact page count, but it would appear that over half of the 352 page book consists of photographs, many used to depict the topics covered in the writing.

I found the pages from the training manuals and their accompanying translations are particularly useful in presenting basic tactical concepts.

The main topics covered include the following taken from the table of contents: Offensive Operations, Defensive Operations, Unit Movements, Reconnaissance, Command and Control, Logistics and Maintenance, Combined Arms Operations, Life in a Tank, Training and Tank Gunnery, and Armor Tactics-Today and Tomorrow.

Not having any actual military experience myself, I don't know how the tactics described might differ from modern practice, but I did learn something in every section. They give the reader a solid idea of how the Germans employed their armored units in battle.

I'm not sure how many of the details in this book would be useful in a game of Flames of War, but many of the basic underlying tactics should be useful if you haven't already learned them from other sources. The wealth of pictures should be useful to anyone modelling a german armored force, although they lack vehicle and unit identifications in the captions, so you need to already know how to visually identify German tanks to get full use out of them.

There is one thing I have to say against the book. Near the end of the book, in the Life in a Tank section, are a couple of photos of German tank crews interacting with Soviet civilians. Part of the caption says "these pictures show-contrary to many slanderous claims-how German soldiers behaved in their contact with the inhabitants." The Eastern Front was notorious for barbarous behavior on both sides. A couple of photos showing good behavior doesn't negate the very real atrocities commited by German soldiers in the Soviet Union. As a member of the Bundeswehr, I understand that the author wants to think the best of his predecessors in the Wehrmacht, but this kind of blatant misrpresentation left a bad taste in my mouth after what was a rather good book overall. For a more accurate picture of this issue I suggest that you check out "War Without Garlands" by Robert Kershaw (a review of which is coming soon).

I'd recommend this book to the intermediate student of history. The writing style is not too technical, but the nature of the subject is inherently a bit specialized for the beginner. As someone without a formal military background I found that it gave me a better sense of the point of view of an armor officer or trooper. I imagine that someone with a military background might get a better idea of the differences between their own experiences and those of a WWII German tanker. The advanced student should find the book interesting, but will also find that the lack of citations makes it less useful for serious study.