http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/847463618

Spanish Civil War tanks the proving ground for Blitzkrieg

This book will examine the vital role played by tank combat in the Spanish Civil War in 1936-39 in defining future tactics and technology essential to the emergence of Blitzkrieg. The Spanish Civil war involved military forces from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Soviet Russia, all thinly disguised as volunteers. The experience in Spain was important both in determining whether the new tanks of the mid-1930s were battle-worthy and whether contemporary tank tactics would prevail on the modern battlefield. Germany learned many important lessons. Its reliance on large numbers of badly protected, machine-gun armed tanks like the PzKpfw I was a mistake. Contrary to the myth, the Wehrmacht had not built these as "training tanks" but had expected them to perform well on the battlefield. This led to a crash program to field better tanks such as the PzKpfw III that would become the backbone of the panzer force in 1939 in Poland, 1940 in France, and 1941 in Russia. In the area of tactical developments, Spain demonstrated both the strength and the weakness of infantry anti-tank guns as a counter-balance to the new tanks. For the Red Army, Spain vindicated the need for dual-purpose tank guns as used on their T-26 tanks but the heavy losses suffered at the hands of German supplied anti-tank guns in Spain argued for the use of better armor. This lesson led the way to the single most important tank design of World War II: the T-34. However, in the tactical arena, many of the Soviet lessons were distorted by the political purges wracking the Red Army at the time and they would pay heavily in the early encounters against the might of the German Wehrmacht. This book provides a fascinating insight into the early armor trials that would define the future of tank warfare. Moreover, it is based on recently uncovered records of the Soviet tankers in Spain as well as other archival accounts that have only recently come to light. This groundbreaking research by the author, Steven J. Zaloga, is complemented by specially commissioned artwork and photographs from Hitler's personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffman.

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