Panzerfaust: And Other German Infantry Anti-Tank Weapons

Wolfgang Fleischer, a prolific writer on German military equipment has done something special, cataloguing one of the most diverse arsenals of anti-tank weaponry, in remarkable detail, while providing excellent pictures and using common sense language- all in just 50 pages.

During the Second World War, the military of Nazi Germany ran into a problem: the Soviet Red Army. While the Germans were equipped with a vast array of tanks, the Soviets not only had more tanks, they had superior ones.

The Germans responded with more advanced tanks of their own, and with better anti-tank weapons. Yet they could never match the Russians tank for tank (i.e. 1,347 Tiger tanks vs. 57, 000 T-34s), and even employed large numbers of towed anti-tank guns like the famous “88,”  which proved problematic, since they still required transport and several crew members. So what was the Germany infantryman to do?

Fleischer begins his story with a brief recap of World War One and how Infantry had to improvise to have any chance against the British’s new mechanical beasts (the first tanks). Thus was born the T-Gewehr, the first anti-tank rifle, which was essentially a standard Gew-98 Mauser rifle scaled up to comic proportions. This intimidating weapon at least gave foot soldiers something to fight back with.

While the Germans improved on this concept, the anti-tank rifle was short lived. This is where the book takes off. Unlike the Allies or the other Axis powers, Germany put lots of research and effort to allow their infantry to destroy tanks on their own without relying on solely on heavy crew served weapons.

Fleischer chronicles this by starting with the anti-tank rifles, then moves on to anti-tank mines, smaller two crew anti tank guns; rifle-fired grenades and finally, rockets. He also gives a rundown of man to tank combat on the Eastern Front with German estimates of how many tanks their soldiers where managing to kill.

The issue the German’s had was as their anti-tank weapons improved, enemy tank armor was becoming thicker and better designed. They received some inspiration from a new American invention captured in North Africa, the rocket firing “bazooka”. While the American design had good stopping power the Germans knew it wouldn’t be up to snuff against the new Tiger and Panther tanks they had coming into service. So they copied the design, increased the size of the rocket and the Panzerschrek (tank terror) was born. This heavy weapon could knock out the majority of allied tanks fielded during the war.

A good portion of the book is dedicated to its namesake the Pazerfaust. Meaning “Tank Fist” the Panzerfaust is the grandfather of all of today’s disposable, man portable anti-tank rockets. The Germans figured out that you needed a fairly large diameter rocket to kill a tank but anything larger than the Panzerschrek would be pushing the weight a man could carry.

Fleischer describes how the Germans got around this problem and followed the Panzerfaust from drawing board to production line. He also covers all versions of this potent weapon as it was steadily improved throughout the war and was the inspiration for the Soviet RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) series.

The author has done truly outstanding job for such a small book. While there may be other more in depth works about the subject this small 50 page works still covers all the basics and more. It is also wonderfully illustrated with great captions. Retailing at around $10 Panzerfaust is a must have for any infantry or tank buffs.

German Tanks of World War II In Color

If you’re a fan of German World War II fighting vehicles, you know that wartime color photos of them are fairly uncommon. Even when you do find wartime color photos, they tend to be blurry or contain pigment errors due to the quality of early color film.

“German Tanks of World War II in Color” contains dozens of photographs, of all the main Panzers that equipped the Wehrmacht and SS Panzer divisions during World War II. This is done by photographing surviving vehicles in museums, fully restored and operational examples in private collections and select wartime or immediate postwar color photos.

Studying German tanks can be a little daunting at times. For every mark of tank – the Panzer IV especially – there are numerous subtypes. The Panzer IV ran from models A through J and all have different combinations of armor, engines and guns! If you’re looking for a precise breakdown of the various makes and models, this book is not for you.

What you will find are excellent summaries of all the main German tanks, assault guns, armored cars and half tracks. Nothing is overly detailed, but it’s definitely enough for the reader to figure out what model and major subtype they’re looking at.

Tanks covered include the Panzer I, II, III, IV, Panther, Tiger, King Tiger, StuG III, Elephant, various other assault guns, foreign used tanks and light vehicles. The operational history, production history and totals are noted, as well as some anecdotes.

While this book is light on text, the real heart and soul of this work lies in its photographs. Page after page is covered in phenomenal detailed photos of various tanks.

Photos include those wonderfully restored vehicles from museums around the world, including the Bovington Tank Museum in the U.K. and the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. Also highlighted are fully running examples with stunning and accurate color schemes from private collections.

The photos are clear, crisp and up close. Details of the various tank’s, armor, tracks, bogie wheels, armament and other equipment can clearly be seen. These photos are indispensable to scale plastic modelers who need these detailed photos for their projects.

Some photos are of incredibly rare vehicles and variants. One of the world’s only two remaining “Elephant” tank destroyers is shown. While this example has been left outside for decades and isn’t painted in an accurate scheme, there are nice closeups of it, and those are generally lacking in wartime photography.

Michaels even includes some lesser-known vehicles such as the various foreign tanks utilized by the Germans to make up for an acute tank shortage. He discusses and shows various Czech and French tanks that the Germans made use of or converted in the early years of the war.

This is one of the handiest references on German armor around. It’s great for those looking to get their feet wet on the topic, or those who may not have the funds for much larger works that contain more technical data.

Considering that it can be found for under $20 at most major bookstores (most Barnes & Noble or Borders have one or more copies on hand), “German Tanks of World War II” makes for an excellent piece of eye candy for your library.

Samurai!

Saburo Sakai was a fighter pilot for eight years, shot down 64 aircraft, was wounded twice, lost an eye, was never shot down and never lost a wingman. Published in 1957, “Samurai!” by Martin Caidin and Fred Saito was one of the first books that detailed a first-person account of the war from the Japanese side of the conflict.

Caidin was a prolific aviation writer for most of his life. He has an easy-flowing style that gives you a fair amount of detail without bogging you down with too much technical wording or phrases.

Consequently, his books are excellent for people unfamiliar with combat aviation or are looking to start reading about it. The book is based on Saito’s interviews with Saburo Sakai and read as if they were written in the first person for the most part.

The book chronicles the life of Sakai, a poor farm boy of samurai ancestry. We follow his childhood and struggles with school. He decides to join the Imperial Japanese Navy (I.J.N.) at the age of 17. He vividly describes the brutal conditions of Japanese navy training and life as an enlisted man on a battleship. We get an insight on a culture and mentality that would never be allowed to exist in this country, even in the mid ’30s. As sadistic as Sakai’s introduction to the navy may have been, we quickly see how that toughness serves him well.

Sakai’s chronicle of his pilot training in the navy is truly eye-opening. With a nearly 90 percent washout rate, the Imperial Japanese Navy had some of the highest quality pilots in the world. The Japanese favored training in dog fighting and due to that, they built nimble, lightly constructed fighters with light armament.

Sakai gets his baptism of fire during the Sino-Japanese war in China and after a rough start becomes an accomplished pilot and a hero in his small hometown. Toward the end of his tour in China, we get introduced to the “other” star of our book – the Mitsubishi A6M Zero Carrier fighter.

Deriving its name from the last digits of the Japanese calendar (00), the Zero had an enclosed cockpit, retractable landing gear, an auxiliary jettisonable fuel tank, two machine guns and two heavy 20 mm cannon in the wings. Its Allied counterparts in 1939 were either biplanes or rudimentary open cockpit monoplanes. The Zero was the first naval fighter that easily outclassed its ground-based counterparts and was master of the Pacific skies till late 1942.

Sakai begins the war in the Pacific by attacking American airfields in the Philippines, flying some of the longest missions in history to date. Sakai and his squadron quickly mop up most of the opposition and are  fighting next in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia).

At this point, we find a flaw in the book. Caidin took liberties with some of Sakai’s exploits, one case being an aerial dogfight that takes place in the East Indies that Sakai disputes happened. We see two or three other such discrepancies with the book.

We follow Sakai for the next year, racking up an impressive amount of kills and we also get insight into several other well-known pilots. Sakai is severely wounded in late 1942 and is sent back to Japan. On his return to combat in 1944, he finds a very different war.

Most of his squadron mates have been killed and the allies now field aircraft superior to the Zero and also appear in far greater numbers. Sakai fights at Iwo Jima and ends the war in fighting in the air defense Japan itself.

In between his combat stories, we do get insight into his private life. He ends up getting married during the war and both his wife and his mother become pillars of strength for Sakai at various low points in the war.

Overall, “Samurai!” is an outstanding work. While it does have some embellishments, these are documented elsewhere and don’t detract from the overall narrative. It’s filled with non-stop action and a wonderful insight into the Japanese mindset. This is a must have for any aviation fanatic. So strap yourself into the cockpit and let Saburo Sakai be your wingman.

Military Small Arms Of The 20th Century

If you’re an avid firearms enthusiast, this is the bible on the subject of military firearms.

In publication since 1973, this huge reference book, written by renowned weapons expert Ian V. Hogg and John S. Weeks, chronicles firearms development from 1900 -2000. It technically covers the late 1800s as well, since many of the 20th century’s famous guns were designed in the 1890s.

The 7th and final edition of “Military Small Arms” is a large soft cover book that is lightweight for a book of its size. It is 416 pages long and covers five types of firearms — pistols, sub-machine guns, bolt action rifles, automatic rifles, machine guns and anti-tank riles/anti-material rifles.

It also has chapters on the principle of operation for various fire arms (i.e. what gas operated is, what delayed blowback is etc.), in addition to chapters on ammunition with a data table and an introductory chapter for each type of firearm covered.

The book has a lot going for it. It not only covers all the major firearms producing countries (France, Germany, Russia, the UK and US), but many smaller nations such as Belgium, Finland and the former Czechoslovakia. Because of that, you can find some very interesting and odd ball weapons in this book.

Everything from the Canadian Ross and the US Navy Lee straight pull rifles, Japan’s Type-2 Paratroop rifle that breaks down into halves and Mexico’s early automatic rifle the Mondragon, to the USSR’s Stechkin machine pistol and the Nazi’s Sten gun clone are addressed here. It also covers antitank rifles, which many people aren’t familiar with at all, along with their modern descents the anti-material rifles.

As usual, Hogg does a fantastic job summing up the UK sections of his book. The number of Lee Enfield rifle and Webley pistol variants can drive you mad and he neatly organizes what can be a bewildering topic.

His coverage on German and American firearms is also superb. Displaying an affinity toward the designs of Browning and Mauser, he tends to go into much more detail on these weapons.

Captioning was an issue in some of the earlier editions and while that’s improved, several weapons are misidentified in the captions.

The coverage of some countries isn’t so in depth and smacks of bias. While the entries for Russian/Soviet, Japanese and Italian guns are technically accurate, they often contain snubs and snarky comments.

The entry on Soviet snipers rifles is incorrect and lacking and his coverage on Japanese machine guns and pistols is seems just plain biased.

He often cites them as being unpopular with Japanese troops without even citing a reference.

Firsthand accounts of Japanese infantrymen being unhappy with their country’s machine guns are practically unheard of, if not presently nonexistent.

He states that the Type-2 paratroop rifle was “not a success,” which is hard to prove being that it was never used in an airborne operation. While he praises Soviet firearms for their utility, he seems to hint at a lack of innovation in their design, calling the SKS “uninspired,” for instance.

The issue of bias aside, “Military Small Arms” of the 20th Century is still the best general reference on the subject around. It’s cheap (around $25 new), very readable and easily located.

While some information should have been updated as it became available over time, it is far more useful than it is inaccurate.

So if you’re new to the subject or require a large handy reference this book, this makes an invaluable part of your library.

Why Air Forces Fail: The Anatomy of Defeat

It takes great drive and a strong effort to build an effective air force. Unfortunately, it often doesn’t take much to ruin one. “Why Air Forces Fail” is a collection of 11 essays on specific air forces, which details how and why these air forces met with defeat, either temporary or permanent. Large air forces such as the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and German Luftwaffe are covered, as well as the smaller services of Poland, Egypt and Argentina.

The editors have arranged the book into three sections: “Dead Ducks,” which are air forces that were doomed to fail from the start; “Hares,” which are air forces that started strong but lacked staying power to win in the long run; and “Phoenixes,” air forces that started out terribly but rose from the ashes and were ultimately victorious.

The overall quality of writing is very good. Keep in mind that it’s a work with contributions from multiple authors, so everyone brings their own writing style to the table. Nothing strikes the reader as hard to understand or follow smoothly.

Each essay is written by a different author, in some cases are well-known authors in their specific field of study. Most of the 11 essays are excellent, but a few are just good and one or two will make you wonder why they’re even included.

For example, the essay on the Arab air forces is  skimpy on reliable information, and many of the conclusions are questionable. The Saudi Arabian air force is given a positive nudge, even while its performance during the 1991 Gulf War is highly suspect.

The essay on the Russian air forces isn’t so much bad (it’s not) as it is too broad. It covers World War I briefly and covers the Soviet Air Force’s rise, fall and resurgence to aerial supremacy in World War II. A more focused summary could have been more effective (i.e., pick only the one or the other). That, or an individual work on the subject.

Essays on some of the lesser-known air forces are fantastic. The Italian Regia Aeronautica during World War II is covered, and the information is very insightful. We can see how the politics and mismanaged industry kept the Italians years behind where they needed to be technologically.

The essay of the Argentine air force is phenomenal. It’s the only essay in the book that details how air power alone almost won this conflict if not for politics and better-trained British forces. It also covers the skill and endless difficulties the Argentine Air Force had to deal while detailing how it came close to victory.

All and all, this is an extremely interesting read. Some have complained that the essays are too isolated, or that they don’t tie in the lessons from one essay with another, or that it doesn’t cover the whole subject of why air power hasn’t won a war on its own. But this book isn’t a work of air-power theory: It’s, as the title states, Why air forces fail, not why air power in general can fail.

It has its bones of contention, and the reader may not agree with all the findings depending on his or her preference, but that is one of this book’s strengths. Again, it has one or two weak essays, but the quality of the others more than makes up for this.

This is a solid work for anyone wanting to learn why air forces, including those held in high esteem, can fail or have suffered a harsh learning curve. It’s excellent in that it covers multiple histories not usually found together, which is convenient compared to finding multiple larger works.

USN F-4 Phantom II Vs. VPAF MiG-17/19

And the hits keep on coming.

Peter Davies’ follow up to “F-4 Phantom II Vs. MiG-21” is every bit engaging as his earlier work. While the former book dealt with US Air Force Phantom operations, this work covers US Navy use of the Phantom. Also, the Vietnamese opposition now takes shape in the form of the MiG-17 and MiG-19.

This book is volume 23 of Osprey Publishing’s “versus” series, which pits comparable military hardware against their counterparts. This time, it covers two classic Vietnam foes and it makes for compelling reading, chronicling how what should have been a one-sided US turkey shoot turned into a struggle for air superiority. The book is profusely illustrated with excellent pictures of planes and pilots, showing details of the aircraft and putting faces to the pilots in the narrative.

Excellent use of captions appears throughout the book. In the case of the MiG-17 Davies uses these to point out small details to show the reader how to tell a Soviet built MiG-17 from a Chinese built version (the Shenyang J-5). He also shows some details rarely seen. For instance it is well-known that the MiG-17 had excellent visibility out of its cockpit, but Davies shows how there is plenty of framing and heating elements that actually block a lot of the pilot’s view.

The book also contains gorgeous color plates of both aircraft, their cockpits and drawings of their weapon systems. As in the other “Versus” titles two biographies of notable F-4 and MiG pilots are also thrown in for good measure. These are notable because Davies didn’t take the easy route and cover pilots with ace status only. The VPAF pilot is an ace but the USN pilot isn’t, but had an amazingly colorful career.

Davies clearly describes the development of all three aircraft. It’s intriguing to see the very different design philosophies of the USA and USSR. The US concentrating on speed and avionics while the Soviets concentrated on reliability, ease of construction and maneuverability.

In 1965, the F-4 Phantom II was the most modern fighter in the western world. Meanwhile, the MiG-17 was considered a decade out of date and the MiG-19 was viewed as a stop-gap while the MiG-21 was entering service. As it turned out, the Phantom’s missiles needed serious bugs worked out and were unreliable and the F-4 pilots needed much better air combat training. It was also easy to spot visually due to its large airframe and smoky engines.

Meanwhile the heavy cannons on the MiGs, designed to shoot down NATO bombers, proved a deadly threat in a dogfight. A single hit from the MiG’s 37mm cannon could devastate a Phantom. The “old” MiG-17 proved extremely capable in a turning fight and the MiG-19 turned out to be one of the best balanced fighters of its day, mixing good armament, speed and maneuverability. Both were also very hard to spot visually due to their diminutive size.

He covers the progression of the F-4 and how its adoption drastically changed US fighter tactics. Dogfighting against enemy aircraft was viewed as a thing of the past. Now, the Phantom would loiter above the US fleet AND fire its radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow missiles several miles away and would only use its short ranged AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles if the Sparrows happened to have missed.

But as Davies chronicles through the firsthand accounts of Phantom pilots the Sparrows usually did miss. In one case an AIM-7 exploded under the Phantom that fired it and knocked it out of the fight. In these circumstances, the F-4 crew was now dangerously close to the more maneuverable MiGs.

The MiG-17 was a development of the successful MiG-15 from the Korean War. They look similar and that fact caused the US military to underestimate it as a warmed over MiG-15. In fact, the MiG-17 was a total new aircraft with much better performance and phenomenal low-speed maneuverability. The MiG-19 was similar but had better supersonic speed and better performance, albeit it was used in low numbers by the Vietnamese People’s Air Force (VPAF).

Davies tells of how the Navy, alarmed at how poor its Phantoms where doing against the older MiG-17, quickly set out to rectify its deficiencies. They set out to improve the reliability of its versions of the Sidewinder and Sparrow. They also created the Naval Fighter Weapons School, aka “TOP GUN.”

Davies writes that the Vietnamese were not idle and also developed tactics to exploits their jets dogfighting prowess. Through accounts and diagrams he showed how the MiGs would fly in a Lufbery circle or “Wagon Wheel” formation trapping US airplanes inside of it. They also tried to hug the ground to confuse the radar on board the Phantom.

All in all, this book is a real treat. It flows smoothly as do most of Davies books. It seems less technical than does his earlier “versus” title, but that is because the Navy took a less technical approach to the MiG threat.
The book does have some minor points of interest that are lacking. Navy phantoms never had built-in guns and had to rely on external pods and Davies did not mention their employment. He also did not mention that MiG-17 began using air to air missiles late in the war. Again, these may not have been used against US Navy aircraft, but he should have clarified this.

These facts can be forgiven because the overall quality is great. It makes for insightful reading, filled with equal parts of tech data and war stories. It’s highly recommended that you read this along with his earlier “F-4 Vs. MiG-21” title to see just how differently the US Air Force and Navy answered the MiG threat.

This book is fact filled, easily read, and affordable. What’s not to love?

F-4 Phantom II Vs. MiG-21

There are quite a few books out there about the air war over Vietnam – and most of them utilize the same rehashed information from the early 90s, rely heavily on U.S. sources and tell very little about the Vietnamese side of events.

Peter Davies’ F-4 Phantom II Vs. MiG-21, however, does an excellent job of illustrating  both sides of the cloudy history of the war torn skies above Vietnam.

This book is volume 12 in the “versus” series by Osprey publishing. Each volume pits two equivalent pieces of military equipment against each other and explores their various merits and the tactics of the opposing sides. In this case, we get a peek at two of the most advanced fighter jets available to each side during the war — the U.S. Air Force’s McDonald Douglas F-4 Phantom II and the Vietnamese People’s Air Force’s (VPAF) Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 fighter aircraft.

Considering this book is only 80 pages long and covers just two aircraft types out of dozens that fought in the war, Davies does a phenomenal job chronicling the air war.

Davies writes in a very clear, straightforward style that makes certain complex technical info- about radar and electronic warfare- very easy to follow. The most important aspect of the book is the large amount of data about the VPAF, which is missing from the vast majority of works out there. He goes into detail about capabilities of the MiG-21’s radar and weapon systems (again almost always missing) and the effectiveness of Vietnamese Ground Intercept Radar, which is often misunderstood and biased by cold war propaganda.

He explains quite clearly that while the VPAF played a relatively minor role in the overall war effort, it did fight extremely effectively and performed far better than what they’ve been given credit for in the past.
His coverage of the F-4 Phantom II is also excellent. While info on the F-4 if not hard to get, as it’s one of the most documented aircraft around, he does add some refreshing insight on the aircraft.

Davies details the USAF usage of the F-4 which greatly varies from what the U.S. Navy did with it. He explains the terrible shortfall in US missile technology, how the AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-7 Sparrow missiles were barely acceptable (out of 612 AIM-7s fired only 56 scored kills) and that the AIM-4 Falcon was all but useless.

He also tells of how the USAF took an almost purely technical approach to the problem, trying to improve the Phantom and its weapon systems, rather than improve tactics.

Davies uses words, excellent photographs and diagrams to explain how air combat between the two jets evolved between 1967 and 1972. Newer versions of both aircraft came on the scene as the war progressed; better than earlier models (especially in the MiG’s case) as did tactics. Vietnamese ground controllers developed new tactics to match superior numbers of US aircraft such as vectoring two MiG-21s on target to distract escorting Phantoms, while a third MiG sneaks up and picks off the last aircraft in formation.

This is by far one of the best books on the subject and is more than worth the $17.95 list price. Also included are brief yet thorough biographies on two famous pilots from each side for your comparison.
The only other book half as good is “Clashes” by Marshall L. Michell, although that is much larger and covers  the entire air war.

If you want to learn how a small third world air force could hold its own against the most advanced aerial armada in the world, this is the book for you.