German Light Panzers 1932-42

This book covers the German light tanks of the early part of the WW2: Panzers I & II and the Czech designs Panzers 35(t) and 38(t), with a brief description of their variants. In this book right from the first paragraph the tone is exemplified by this sentence, In reality, the Panzerwaffe excelled only in technique and radio communications, but was very badly equipped. This was not an indictment of the early Panzerwaffe, but instead, an appreciation of what they accomplished without a superiority in equipment either qualitatively or quantitatively. Its incredible that in the years of Germanys great conquests, 1939-1941, the Panzerwaffe was equipped with a majority of this light tanks, that in fact were below the average tanks of the powers it fought with. The great majority of tanks of France and Soviet Union were more armored and with higher caliber guns than the German Light tanks. For the invasion of Poland 89% of Hitler's Panzerwaffe were Light tanks, for the attack on France: 74% were Light ones. And in 1941 for Barbarossa out of 3.332 German tanks, 58% were still Light ones. In the eastern front after the growing presence of T-34/76 tanks, the days of this light tanks were counted. The book shows for example that the Panzer I was a nearly unarmored and machine-gun-armed training tank, but there simply weren't enough Panzers III and IV yet to fill the needs of the panzer divisions, so they put everything they had in hand. The author puts it simple: The panzer force was in development and was not prepared to go to war in 1939. The book describes each of the four German light tanks, then covers the organization, tactics and the active service, from the Spanish Civil War to the early years of WW2. This book gives a brief but interesting description of this tanks and what they helped to accomplish.