German Tanks in Barbarossa-1941

By Steven Zaloga

Mr. Zaloga has come out with his book here during the summer months, much like Operation Barbarossa was launched that June 19 against his enemies.

The statistical makeup of Steve's latest book....

1. Published in June 2025
2. Format is in Ebook, Epublishing and mobile
3. Edition:  1st
4. Extent 48
5. ISBN Number:  978-14728-64376
6. Imprint by Osprey Publishing
7. Illustrations consist of over 40 photos with 8 color pages of tank art in color

A look at the book contents reveals quality organization with groupings by logical subject....

By 1941, the toll being extracted from the German armored forces was beginning to show strain in some of the simplest of ways.  The armored columns, the spearhead of the Wehrmacht, were definitely showing signs of this strain.  June 22^nd, being the jump off date that it was, saw Hitler unleash almost 4 million soldiers along a 1800-mile front. Initial results for this incursion into Soviet territory was set at a horrific rate, sometimes moving along at well over 50 miles a day.  An initial gain of some 280 miles by the 4^th panzer group since the start of the invasion bears these numbers and the seriousness of the Soviet collapse.  The Germans were advancing on Leningrad and would capture that city soon.  The same could be said for Kharkov, Kiev, Stalingrad and other soviet cities, in particular…Moscow.  Moscow would come under direct threat by December.  But as they said then, the Soviet army was learning its trade and would rise up to throw the invaders back.  1942 would come and Von Paulus would become entrapped in Stalingrad and the tide of the war would change.

WWII in Europe and Russia was one of long supply chain endeavors where feeding and fueling a mechanized army created a logistics nightmare at times.  Adding that to misery of armored units going through their own metamorphosis, the Germans and Russians would see the development of tanks on both sides that would prolong and enhance the killing of each other.  If not for the ever-increasing supply lines deep inside of Soviet Russia, Stalin was gradually starting to win the upper hand in tank warfare.  Stalin’s factories were still pumping out armored units in eye popping numbers, sometimes rolling the units directly to the front, some unpainted.  In a lot of confrontations, the German generals were running into scores of Russian T-34 tanks.  Primarily in unequal clashes, these T-34/76 variants were used in such a way as to overwhelm inferior German armor pieces such as the Panzer 38(t), several of the Panzerkampfwagen III and of the early short barreled Pz.kfw IV. variants.

With newer tank battle tactics and a reorganized and reallocated Russian military, these newer forces were beginning to make their weight in battle known, more and more.  The Russians often took delivery of anything they could get their hands on to stop the Germans.  If the T-34/76 were not enough of a shock to the system, the T-34/85 would be like a death sentence.  Often, a Panzer I and II were caught trying to wage battle against the T-34’s and were often dealt with in shocking results that favored the Russians.  Even the 50mm Panzer III variants were finding it much harder to wage battle against the T-34’s of Stalin’s forces.  Simply put, it was becoming harder and harder to effectively deal with the numbers of Russian tanks like the T-34 that were starting to roll out of production plants located just beyond the reach of the advancing German armored units.

 I could never hope to write on level that Mr. Zaloga has written this book.  But, the book does had wonderful conclusion as to what this book offers that I could never say or do anything to improve the book's appeal to those that can benefit from having in in their library.  On the Back of the Osprey book, it reads........"Written by one of the world's experts on armored warfare, and presenting newly uncovered data on the forces involved, this book explains the doctrine, organization, and technical capabilities of the Panzer forces, with a short overview on the armor of other Axis forces including Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, and Italy.  The speed and shock value of the Panzer divisions was essential for the Wehrmacht to prevail over the Red Army in a brief campaign of annihilation. Packed with archive photos and superb original tank illustrations, this book explains how problems with the Panzers were a significant reason for the eventual failure of Barbarossa."

Bottom-line on this book is that it will arm you with vital information concerning the opening stages of the war.  It is a great library resource so I definitely recommend this book being purchased as soon as you can.  Copies will not last long.

The following chart will show you how much Hitler was doing to revitalize his armored "fire squads"

Nice color artwork that has been included in this book.  

Highly Recommended for Beginner to Advanced builders when it comes to working on one's historical understanding of Operation Barbarossa.  The book has some useful photos that the modeler can use, but, this book really stands out for it's breakdown of the forces, the sheer volume of armored forces arrayed and how they were used.  Home forces were often called on to do incredible things on the Eastern Front, both sides.  This book does a lot of revealing how those forces were aligned and with which army.  Shown to be a real problem, it often led to real moral issues.  This book captures what that must have been like to have whole units on paper but with ethics that often led to being defeated due to the quality of those units being poor.  This book captures so much of that in the breakdown of those forces.  Good book, Quality read by Mr. Zaloga and illustrated by Mr. Rodriguez

Thanks goes out to Osprey Publishing for this review book.

Reviewed by GLEN MARTIN

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