Hans Seidler, H*tl*r’s Anti-Tank Weapons 1939-1945 (Pen & Sword, 2020)
“Germans were masters of anti-tank warfare,” notes Hans Seidler. They ought to have been given the number of tanks they faced and the variety of weapons at their disposal. Seidler surveys these weapons and how they were used in this addition to Pen and Sword’s Images of War series.
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The first serious German anti-tank gun was the PaK35/36, which was small and reliable. They took thousands of them into Poland in 1939, according to Seidler, most of them towed by animals. But these were not good enough to take out heavier tanks than the Poles fielded. The Germans therefore brought in the 4.7cm gun for future campaigns and mounted some on vehicles. Better organisation was also introduced. The invasion of France, while successful, heralded the problems to come on the Eastern Front. The 5cm PaK38 proved it could do the job against T-34s and 7.5cm PaK40 guns also came into play, along with better dedicated ammunition. The problem became producing enough of them to counter the growing number of enemy tanks, despite the Germans using captured weapons when they could. The Germans also needed manoeuvrability, so introduced the Marder anti-tank vehicles that performed well, but again there were never enough.
In 1943, the 8.8cm PaK43 came off the assembly line, becoming the most powerful gun the Germans had used to date. This was also mounted to create new tank hunters such as the Nashorn and Elefant. Seidler also surveys the Italian front where PaK40s proved useful but cumbersome. Metal shortages affected production by this time, leading to some German use of hybrid weapons. The Normandy landings and aftermath saw the rise of the hand-held panzerfaust and Panzerschreck anti-tank weapons used effectively by the infantry, which became common on all fronts. By 1945, anti-tank guns and vehicles outnumbered tanks on the Eastern Front, but they were spread too thin, according to Seidler. Indeed, the situation grew desperate despite the Jagdpanzer IV and Jagdpanther’s introduction in 1944, until the Germans were finally overwhelmed. Seidler concludes, however, that the anti-tank component of the Germany army had certainly made its mark.
The Images of War series relies heavily on the photographs to make the books work. Seidler’s anti-tank weapons succeeds on that score with many excellent photographs to accompany his basic but informative text. However, the balance of pictures is also important, and this book falls down somewhat on that with almost no coverage of the desert war and limited photographs from the Western Front; students of the Eastern Front will be very happy with it though. Diorama modelmakers and wargamers will especially appreciate Seidler’s book, though any WWII reader will enjoy this too.
