The Panzers at the start of World War II was not particularly
impressive.
Heinz
Wilhelm Guderian had planned for two main battle tanks,
the Panzer III and the Panzer IV, The Panzer III was in production,
but by the time of the invasion of Poland only a few hundred
Panzer IV's were available to Wehrmacht Panzer divsions. Using
Blitzkrieg,
Heinz
Guderian and other field commanders such as Erwin Rommel,
rolled across Euroupe Poland, France, Yugoslavia and Greece
which is astonishing considering the bulk of there amoured
divsions were made up of the Panzer I's and Panzer II's and
Czechoslovakian Panzer 38(t) and the Panzer 35(t)
The invasion of the USSR (Operation Barbarossa) In July
1941 the Wehrmacht had assembled 36 Panzer and motorized
infantry divisions fielding over 3,000 AFV's. In June 1941,
these tanks first encountered the Russian T-34's and the
Wehrmacht Panzers were out classed in every respect.
German Military Vehicles.
ISBN-10: 087349783X
Armoured Fighting Vehicles of Germany World War II.
ISBN-10: 0214203077
Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World Two.
ISBN-10: 1854095188
For a complete list of
sources
