Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #535141 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 480 pages

Customer Reviews

A good book for the serious student of WWII
Panzer Battles is a must have for those interested in the fighting in North Africa and the Eastern Front. Major General von Mellenthin provides an extremely knowledgeable account of the divisional level fighting before El Alamein and during and after Stalingrad. Of particular interest are his accounts of the 4th Panzer Army's attempt to rescue the 6th Army at Stalingrad and the 4th's actions near Belgorod during operation Citadelle. The only flaws this book has are von Mellenthin's tendency to blame Hitler for any setbacks and his comments on his Russian opponents which lead one to beleive that von Mellenthin had little problem with Hitler's "lebensraum" policies. These minor details notwithstanding, this is a very good book well worth a read.

Excellent book, shame about the maps
The new hardback edition is most welcome and is far better illustrated compared to the paperback version, however there is one major problem, for some reason the publishers left out all the maps! This omission means that you really need to have a copy of the paperback as well. Still an excellent resource for military historians, get both the hardback and the paperback or look for the original hardback edition second hand.

Biased? No. But skewed
Mellenthin states at the outset his aim to give an unbiased overview of WW2 tank tactics and developments... what he produces is a rather unbalanced overview of three theatres of war.
The tanks and hardware are explored in little detail at certain points (purely to set the scene in some cases). This is unfortunate as some of the advancements, certainly in allied arms did heavily tip the balance by allowing them to meet the Germans on even terms.
Actions are handled in broad strokes (don't expect any gritty detail in this book) and on occasions down to the fine detail of numbers captured and tanks destroyed - german losses are mere footnotes and the successful tactics of the allies are rarely explored. Arras gets a few lines. El Alamein isn't even featured, although to his credit the author was shipped home sick towards the end of the north african campaign.
That being said, he was absent for many of the other battles he explores on the basis of others' experiences - so absenteeism is no excuse.

For all its shortcomings, this book is still effective as a memoir of a staff officer with first hand experience commanding on all three of the major fronts during the war in Europe. Well worth reading - but perhaps should be followed by the work of others for the sake of a more balanced (or in depth) view.

Although there are some useful insights and anecdotes,