Light Panzers

Book Specifics

Author: Thomas Anderson

ISBN: 978-1-4728-6177-1

Hardcover 8.5" x 11" with 288 pages

This publication presents a history of the development, use and deployment of light tanks from the opening years of World War II.  Although the title "LIGHT PANZERS" implies the book deals exclusively with German armor, that is not the case.  There are sections on Russian, British, French, Italian and US vehicles.  That said, the book does deal primarily with German tanks.

There is an incredible amount of high quality pictures in this book.  Every page has at least one picture and there are several pictures that span facing pages. Most are of sufficient resolution to allow the reader to pick out details such as rivets, weld seams, placements of various stowage and fiddly bits.  There are pictures that show where mud and snow accumulate on the tracks and suspension.  I am a fan of early panzers and I have not seen a lot these pictures before.

This is an easy read, it doesn't read like a technical book, instead it reads more like novel and really holds the reader's attention.  There are few tables and charts, the author incorporates most of this type of information into the narrative.  In sections of chapters that deal with vehicle deployment, the author includes relevant extracts from after-action reports describing the vehicles pros and cons as experienced in the battle.

The book also has a useful index enabling the reader to quickly find information on a specific vehicle.  It is organized into groups such as Armored Vehicles, German, Guns, Panzer Divisions and tanks by nation i.e. German, French, Czech...

Chapter 1, Light Tank Origins provides background on tank development and usage in WWI.  It begins with information on the British and German WWI heavy tanks and progresses through the design of German light tractors (panzers) during the tenure of the Weimar Republic.

Chapter 2, Rearmament traces the development of the Panzer I and Panzer II from both successful and unsuccessful early prototypes and addresses the influence of British tank design on German vehicles.  The evaluation of the types of armament, machine guns versus a larger caliber gun, engines and amount of armor protection is covered across preproduction and production types.  There are a wealth of pictures showing panzers undergoing testing and training exercises to demonstrate their abilities in what the army perceived the next battlefields would be like.  There is even a brief section on air transport of panzers using the Messerschmitt ME 323 Gigant.

Chapter 3, Condor Legion concerns Germany's deployment of Panzer I and II light tanks in the Spanish Civil War.  Even though the majority of vehicles were under Spanish Nationalist control much was learned by the German high command about the panzers performance under actual battle field conditions.  The tactical principles of Heinz Guderian were tested and found to work as expected.  The performance of German (Nationalist) vs Soviet (Republican) are compared with the result being the German made panzers being inferior to their Soviet counterparts.

Chapter 4, Skoda and CKD covers the development of light tanks beginning in 1929 to the point where production vehicles enter German service after the annexation of Czechoslovakia.  Multiple tanks are reviewed and compared to the ever-present British models.  Again there are excellent pictures of early vehicles (a few of which have made it into the world of plastic modeling) from both companies.  

Chapter 5, Poland and Beyond is the longest chapter in the book.  Obviously it begins with the invasion of Poland then Norway, France,  Russia and North Africa.  At this point information about Panzer III and Panzer IV vehicles begins to be included.  This information centers on how these panzers first supplemented then replaced the early Panzer I and Panzer II models.  The Germans making use of all available equipment, found new uses for these outdated machines.  They were converted into a multitude of "new" types.  The book discusses conversions into armored recovery vehicles, bridge layers, command vehicles, demolition charge layers and  flampanzers (flame throwing tanks).  I personally found this the most interesting chapter.

Chapter 6, Self-propelled Artillery explores the conversion of Panzer I, Panzer II and 38(t) chassis into Panzerjager (anti-tank) and support artillery gun platforms.  The armament (including captured Russian guns) and crew protection armor is examined.  In many cases the existing light tank chassis' were overtaxed in mounting a new and heaver high velocity gun along with a gun for the crew. 

Chapter 7, New Light Tanks reviews the development of several new tanks, with some never progressing beyond the drawing board phase.  The chapter concentrates on the five VK (Volkette - fully tracked) series of tanks.  As each VK entered into production it was assigned a new designation - for example the VK 1601 became the PzKpfw II Aus J. Each vehicle discussion has a summary table listing its statistics: production years, weapons, armor, etc.  The where and how of how each vehicle is was used is included in this chapter.

Chapter 8, Projects and the Enemy starts in with the development of the E-Series (Entwicklungstypen-Serie - E Type Development series), none of which ever reached the prototype stage.  The chapter concludes with a considerable discussion of both Russian and American light tanks and with a much shorter look at British and French vehicles.

Chapter 9, Conclusion summarizes German light panzers and puts forth the author's view on the final state of Germany's light panzer development.

Below are several pictures included in the book.  The images represent the quality and resolution of all pictures in the book.

Conclusion

This was a very informative book that was easy to read.  It is great reference source for any modeler interested in early war light tanks.  In fact the number of high quality black and white photographs contained in the book is worth the purchase price alone.

Highly Recommended as excellent reference material for Beginner to Advanced builders. 

Thanks goes out to Osprey Publishing for this review sample.

Reviewed by Brian Campitella

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