Panzers I and II: Germany s Light Tanks

The first vehicle to be produced in any numbers for the Panzerwaffe was the tiny Panzer I known as the MG Panzerwagen. Almost from the outset the limitations of the design for the Panzer I were obvious. It was essentially a training vehicle, which was only pressed into service as a last resort. It was to be succeeded by the Panzer II, which could at least engage armored cars and combat against tanks with approximately the same armor as itself.

Together these two tanks formed the bulk of the armor, which between 1939 and 1941 conquered half of Europe.

Emmy Award winning historian Bob Carruthers compiled this comprehensive overview of the light Panzers in action. It draws heavily on wartime intelligence reports to produce a fascinating insight into the development and combat history of the light Panzers at the tactical and operational level.

Also featured are rare developments such as the Panzer II flamethrower variant alongside unpublished photographs and illustrations, which provide an absorbing study, from an array of primary sources, of the world of the light Panzer and their crews from contemporary Allied sources.

Bob Carruthers is an Emmy Award winning author and historian, who has written extensively on the Great War. A graduate of Edinburgh University, Bob is the author of a number of military history titles including the Amazon best seller The Wehrmacht in Russia.