In this meticulously researched book, Azar Gat overturns recent historiographical trends in the study of British and German armour developments between the two world wars. He dispels some of the serious allegations levelled against leading British armour theorist B.H. Liddell Hart, placing his ideas in their proper relation to those of other leading British theorists and to the practice of British armour formations during that period. Again reversing recent revisionist literature, Professor Gat then shows how
decisively the creators of the German Panzer arm were influenced by British theory and practice. Utilizing hitherto untapped German sources, he traces the ideas and dynamics that made possible Germany's Blitzkrieg victories in the opening stage of World War II.
Preface
Acknowledgements
LIDDELL HART'S THEORY OF ARMOURED WARFARE
Deep Strategic Penetration
Combating 'Blitzkrieg'
The All-arms Armoured Formation
BRITISH INFLUENCE AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE PANZER ARM
Origins: The 1920s and Early '30s
The Creation of the Panzer Arm
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
AZAR GAT is Associate Professor in the Department of political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel. His earlier books include: The Origins of Military Thought from the Enlightenment to Clausewitz, The Development of Military Thought: The Nineteenth Century, and Fascist and Liberal Visions of War: Fuller, Liddell Hart, Douhet, and Other Modernists.