The Art Of Tank Warfare - Chris Keeling

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by Fuller, but further expanded to combine all units of the Wehrmacht, including the Luftwaffe, was made
clear long before the first Panzer crossed the border into Poland in 1939. Many of these units were secretly
trained in the Soviet Union, where Misha Tukhachevski and Kliment Voroshilov had built up the Soviet
armored force during the 1920s and ‘30s. The Soviets and Germans learned a great deal from each other
during this period, with the Germans specializing in tactics and vehicle quality, while the Soviets
concentrated on vehicle simplicity and mobility. These lessons, learned and applied by Guderian during the
buildup and training of the German Panzer Corps, culminated in one of Hitler’s most effective military tools,
the Blitzkrieg, or ‘Lightning War’. Guderian’s book, Achtung! Panzer!, which was published in 1937, outlined
this armored warfare concept, and should have been proof enough and a warning to the world that
Germany’s military might was sleeping restlessly.
Tank Designs. Due to the short-sighted expectations of a lasting peace by many nations’ governments and
people’s desire for an end to the bloodshed, armored forces were generally not supported after the First World
War. Advancements made during this time in armored vehicle development were made at a much slower
“peacetime” pace, leading to some unusual (and mostly useless) vehicles that, luckily, didn’t reach much
further than the prototype stages of development. Britain, for example, fielded a large number of one and
two-man tankettes. These small, open-topped vehicles were armed with light infantry weapons, usually only
a machinegun. Thinly armored, but highly mobile, these vehicles were adopted as an economizing measure
by many countries that could not afford real tanks. Vickers Arms also developed a light tank, and with the
manufacturing license for the design being sold around the world, formed for many nations the foundation
of their experimentation with domestic tank production. In the US, this design was the basis for the T1
tank, in Poland, for the 7TP, and in the Soviet Union for the T26. These tanks were usually armed only with
machineguns or light (37mm-40mm) cannon, and had frontal armor ranging from 15mm to 40mm thick.
The majority of these early armored forces were divided into light, fast vehicles used for reconnaissance and
penetration, taking on the traditional role of the cavalry, and the slower tanks with heavier armor designed to
closely support the infantry during their attacks. These vehicles often had 50mm-80mm of frontal armor,
and were also armed with machineguns and a light cannon although these were occasionally replaced by a
mortar or light howitzer for more mobile indirect support. The final tank concept that evolved between the
wars, was that of the heavy “breakthrough” tank. Although this circuitous development cycle culminated in
such sound designs as the German Tiger tank and the Soviet KV-1, the process of development also included
the construction of what have become known as “land battleships” by several nations. These slow, heavy
tanks were designed to engage massed enemy formations and fortifications, pushing forward against any
resistance to allow the deployment of the infantry and light tanks in their wake. These vehicles were huge,
often larger than some of the First World War behemoths, and mounted several machineguns and multiple
cannon, often in several turrets or half-turrets surrounding an elevated central turret. The Soviets were
especially fond of this type of vehicle, and produced several models (the T-28, T-35, T-100, and SMK), some
of which were actually used in the Second World War until replaced by the superior and more operationally
effective KV series.