Given the percentage of the internet (particularly the corner of the internet represented by the SBMB) dedicated to it (and the history channel back when it actually showed history) I am a having surprisingly hard time finding a good book giving an overview of the tank warfare in WW2.
I am not after “weapons porn” (e.g. chapters dedicated to the precise difference between the gun rifling on the Mk1 Tiger and Mk2 Tiger). Some technical details are needed to cover the subject, but I am more interested in the development of the tactics involved in the lead up to WW2, and how the different combatant nations actually implemented them over the course of the war (and the actual people involved in them).
It’s very much “weapons porn,” but Jane’s Guide to World War II Tanks and Vehicles is a convenient reference and has a little blurb for each weapons system, often including the circumstances that led to its development, and each chapter begins with a light summary of that country’s arms and history in the war.
And you can read it online (I’ve not checked every page but this appears to be complete):
True, but I was hoping for a comparative, recent, history that would actually explain the development of tank tactics and equipment in the main combatant nations, and why (with the benefit of hindsight) the Germans Panzers were so dominant (I’ve heard lots of explanations one way or another, including “they weren’t all that good”). Something readable for the layman, rather than a technical textbook for a tank commander in training would b e plus.
Also while it is I am sure a fascinating read, don’t really fancy sitting in a coffee shop reading a book by mass-murdering Nazi (he was no Himmler, but Guderian was clearly that)
Troops under his orders carried out many many thousands of murders.
Mass murder of civilians (both directly and by starvation) was so ubiquitous on the Eastern Front that there is no way any of the generals commanding those troops could claim innocence.
Post-war Guderian did in fact claim innocence in regards to the Commissar Order in particular ( and he was never tried at Nuremberg ). However I believe the consensus is that his claim was largely self-serving bullshit. Guderian was probably not quite a doctrinaire Nazi, but he does appear to have been highly ambitious and rather amoral. He definitely came down hard on the failed July plotters, demanding full compliance with Nazi ideology in the army.
Mass murder was ubiquitous just about everywhere. Think Tokyo and Dresden. If course that doesn’t excuse anything Guderian did or was done under his command. But why should it stop us from reading his books?
This is a good one about German armoured warfare. It gets down to nitty gritty details like how to keep proper formation on the march, proper formations on the attack, and how to counterattack when on the defense. You only get the German view, unfortunately.
some books from the American point of view are: Cutthroats: The Adventures of a Sherman Tank Driver in the Pacific by Robert C Dick 2006 Death Traps by Belton Cooper 2007
