The Complete Guide to German Armored Vehicles

Panzers, Jagdpanzers, Assault Guns, Antiaircraft, Self-Propelled Artillery, Armored Wheeled and Semi-Tracked Vehicles, and More

David Doyle

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781510716575
• eBook ISBN: 9781510716582
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

The market's most comprehensive guide to German combat vehicles. The Complete Guide to German Armored Vehicles is an encyclopedia of all the armored vehicles used by the Nazis in World War II. At over four hundred pages and with over six hundred photos, many of which never before seen by the public, this volume becomes the market's most comprehensive on the subject. David Doyle, award-winning author of dozens of books on the subject, provides mechanical information, photos, and usage history for:
• Armored cars • Half-tracks • Tanks • Assault guns • Jagdpanzers • Panzerjagers • Self-propelled guns, howitzers, and mortars • Flakwagens • Flammpanzers • Recovery vehicles • Armored Engineer vehicles An encyclopedic resource by an authority on the subject, The Complete Guide to Armored Vehicles is a must-have for modelers, gamers, and WWII buffs alike.

Chapter 1

Tanks

Panzerkampfwagen I

The peace terms that the Allies dictated to the Germans at the end of World War I in the Treaty of Versailles were clear about Germany’s future armament. The November 11, 1918, Armistice represented a cease fire, but the Versailles Treaty set the actual terms of Germany’s surrender, and German delegates to the Paris Peace Talks signed the treaty only reluctantly on June 28, 1919, under threat of invasion by the combined Allied armies.

The Treaty imposed severe restrictions on Germany’s military, designed to prevent the German army—then called the Reichswehr—from the possibility of mounting any kind of offensive action. Article 198 of the treaty directly prohibited Germany from maintaining an air force or manufacturing aircraft. Article 171 banned the production and purchase of armored cars and tanks.

Versailles limited the German army to one hundred thousand men, with seven infantry and three cavalry divisions, and it also banned the draft. Importantly, the Versailles limitations were open-ended—Germany was expected to remain perpetually subject to the narrow limitations it imposed.

Today it is widely believed among scholars that it was precisely the Versailles Treaty’s punitive nature and limitations that would lead to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Even the Weimar Republic government covertly disregarded and circumvented many of the Versailles restrictions. After the Nazis came to power, however, in March 1935, Berlin proclaimed outright that it would no longer abide by parts 5 and 6 of the treaty—the parts dealing with disarmament.

The history of the creation of the Panzer I amounts to a case study of how German leaders were already deliberately violating the imposed Treaty of Versailles under President Paul von Hindenburg, and then openly and more intensively under Hitler.

The LaS and Panzer I Ausführung A

Since the Versailles Treaty prohibited Germany from having armored weapons, the vehicle that eventually gained the name Panzer I was developed covertly under the designation Kleintraktor (light tractor). Indeed, early discussion of the vehicle focused on its use as a light prime mover, weapons carrier, and scout vehicle.

Prüfwesen 6—the automotive design office of the Waffenamt (ordnance department), or WaPrw 6, assigned the task of designing the vehicle to the Krupp firm. Krupp would carry out the engineering of the chassis and come up with wooden models of various proposed superstructures. Krupp’s annual report for October 1930–September 1931 records that the company had been hired to design a 3.5-ton light tractor, in addition to manufacturing suspension parts. The report also notably said that the company would be building a wooden mock-up of a turret for the Kleintraktor—a giveaway that a decision had been reached to construct some of the vehicles as tanks, in spite of concerns, some expressed as early as February 1930 about the practicality of the diminutive vehicle in that capacity.

Initially envisioned as including a 20 mm cannon, the turret had evolved by September 1932—on paper at least—into one featuring both a 20 mm cannon and a 7.92 mm machine gun. The following month, the cannon was dropped and replaced with a second 7.92 mm machin...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Tanks
• Chapter 2 Assault Guns and the Sturmgeschütz
• Chapter 3 Jagdpanzers
• Chapter 4 Panzerjäger
• Chapter 5 Flammpanzers
• Chapter 6 Flakpanzers—Antiaircraft Tanks
• Chapter 7 Self-Propelled Artillery
• Chapter 8 Armored Engineer and Support Vehicles
• Chapter 9 Armored Recovery Vehicles
• Chapter 10 Armored Semi-Track Vehicles
• Chapter 11 Armored Cars