Panzer I and II: The Birth of Hitler's Panzerwaffe

By Anthony Tucker-Jones

While the Panzer I and II are not as famous as the German tanks produced later in the Second World War, they played a vital role in Hitler's early blitzkrieg campaigns and in the Nazi rearmament program pursued, at first in secret, by the Nazi regime during the 1930s. Anthony Tucker-Jones's photographic history of their design, development and wartime service is an ideal introduction to them.Both Panzers saw combat during the invasions of Poland and France, the Low Countries and Scandinavia during 1939-40. Although by the time the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Panzer I had been virtually phased out of service, in the form of self-propelled guns they continued to see combat well into 1943. The Panzer II was also phased out with the panzer regiments in late 1943, yet it remained in action on secondary fronts and, as the self-propelled Marder II antitank gun and Wespe artillery variant, it saw active service with the panzer and panzer grenadier divisions until the end of the war. The Panzer I and II were the precursors of the formidable range of medium and heavy tanks that followed the Panzer III and IV and the Panther and Tiger and this book is a fascinating record of them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781526701657

Anthony Tucker-Jones

ANTHONY TUCKER-JONES spent nearly twenty years in the British Intelligence Community before establishing himself as a defence writer and military historian. He has written extensively on aspects of Second World War warfare, including Hitler’s Great Panzer Heist and Stalin’s Revenge: Operation Bagration.

Book preview

Panzer I – Ausf A and B

In terms of getting their tank programme underway the Germans certainly did not hang about. In 1932 the German Heereswaffenamt (Army Weapons Office) bought a Vickers Carden-Loyd IV tankette chassis from Britain. During the late 1920s and early 1930s Carden-Loyd had begun developing a series of two-man light reconnaissance tanks. These were ideal for patrolling the borders of Britain’s vast empire.

The German Weapons Office’s stated intention was to assess the chassis’ suitability as a possible carrier for a 20mm anti-aircraft gun. Instead they decided they would draw on it to produce a light training tank. To meet the requirement for a 5-ton tank with twin machine guns in a fully traversing turret, Krupp designed a chassis largely copied from the Carden-Loyd. This beat four other designs on offer. Then in December 1933 Kassel received an order to build three running prototypes. In the meantime Daimler Benz was given the contract to build the superstructures and the turrets. The vehicles were completed in February