Soldaten III.

This is coolbert:

Continuing with extracts and comment from the book: "Life of a Nazi Soldier":

Tanks!

1. From Len Deighton in his book "Blitzkrieg":

"While the [Panzer] I and II were too flimsy and primitive, the Panzer III and IV designs overcompensated for these failing. They were complex machines that gave too many problems to the engineering department and often had to go back to the factory for repairs . . . The scarcity of the [Panzer} III and IV's make it now seem very doubtful whether any attack against France in 1940 would have been contemplated without the resources the Germans gained [when they invaded] Czechoslovakia . . . Discounting lightweight German training tanks,  no less than one-third of the German armor used against France originated in Czech factories."

 

Czech tanks of the period. As manufactured at the famous Skoda works perhaps. Czech weapons designs always highly regarded and well-built, robust.

This was an unknown to me and most surprising.

We have to be absolutely sure we understand this clearly. A minimum of one-third [1/3] of those tanks used by the German during the Battle of France [1940] NOT GERMAN VEHICLES. Of Czech manufacture and captured intact during the German seizure and occupation of Czechoslovakia [1938].

ONLY THE PRESENCE OF THOSE CZECH TANKS IN LARGE NUMBERS MANNED BY GERMAN TROOPS ALLOWING THE BLITZKRIEG ON FRANCE TO PROCEED AS PLANNED!!


2. Surprise and Speed.

"And important element of  blitzkrieg was surprise. Often even German soldiers themselves were unsure of their mission until the last moment."

"Officially we were to take part in 'grand maneuvers under combat conditions.' Although live ammunition was being carried we were issued only blanks . . ." - - Hans Luck, tank commander.

During the most tense period of the Cold War Soviet divisions of Group Soviet Forces Germany in the habit of rolling out of camp and making a pell-mell dash for the border dividing West and East Germany. Those Soviet armor units fully equipped and armed with a thirty day supply of gas and ammo. LOADED and COCKED as they say.

Neither NATO or Warsaw Pact forces knowing until the last possible second if such a deployment was for real for merely for show!

coolbert.