Knights of the Black Cross: Hitler's Panzerwaffe and its leaders

by Bryan Perrett

Book Overview

The German Armed Corps - the Panzerwaffe - was instrumental in the lightning conquests of the Nazis between 1939 and 1942, and in the remaining years of the war it provided the very backbone of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566195330
• ISBN13: 9781566195331
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Dorset Press
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Knights of the Black Cross

Very well written. Throws light on little known aspects of the Nazi Empire: "The view from the other side" if you will.

good general overview

Perrett's book is a general discussion of the inception of the German panzer program as envisioned by Guderian and Hitler, its development in pre-war times, its accelerated refinement and adaptation to changing conditions and frequently urgently needed adjustments during the war itself, and its eventual destruction. Along the way we get a very general overview of the course of the war on each major front, which mostly treats of the deployment of the major panzer divisions and SS panzer-grenadier or panzer divisions, up until the end of the war. The books strengths are on the pre-war period, some technical aspects of the machines and a little bit on doctrine, as well as the appendixes where the general deployment and fate of each major panzer formation is covered, some aspects of design are treated, and the changing orders of battle for the panzer formations, and their counterparts in the Allied armies, are discussed. Some charts would have made for clearer illustration of this latter stuff, but are not provided. There are plenty of good photos of a variety of machines and their commanders; some decent maps dealing with some of the major campaigns (France, Kursk, Hungary, etc). The books weaknesses are something of a scattered approach to the subject. The discussions of the campaigns in the field are too general to be of use to any but the complete newcomer to the subject; and some of the personalities are treated in insufficient depth. The book is also completely mis-titled, as it has nothing whatever to do with Iron Cross awardees. As a general overview of Nazi Germany's panzer program from 1933-1945, though, it is a good introduction and well-written book and can be recommended.

Deceptive title, but still a good book

I read this book thinking it would be about Knights Cross winners. It has nothing to do with that.This book is about the development and war time use of the German tank.There is a great deal of good information, even if it isn't written in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat.The author did make some good points about major events in the war that you never hear about. His reason for the Germans stopping outside Dunkirk sheds some new light on the debate.I personally found it annoying that the author had such a dim view of Rommel, and I found all of his views about his poor leadership very easy to argue away.There is bery little actual combat action in the book, and most of that is at the battlegoup, or division level. This is not an action packed book, but the author did his homework, and has some very interesting information on German tanks and their operational useage during the war. You won't see this information in any other book or History Channel show.

An Excellent, Helpful Source

Bryan Perrett's Knights of the Black Cross is a brief guide to German panzer units during the Second World War. In the book, you can reach good detailed information about the history of the panzer units as well as you can benefit from Perrett's valuable analysis of comparison of German panzers with their opponents' weapons. His comparison of tanks, armored carriers, assault guns self-propelled artillery and anti-tank guns will help new researchers' studies. Perrett also emphasised and focused on influence of German panzer commanders during the war. In the book, you can find, for example, strength of panzer divisions in the major operations, development of the panzer quality between operations, captured tanks used in operations by German units and more... His information giving in the book was well-supported by good statistics. Each major operation was supported by a map. There are also some maps showing selected local operations. The book consists of eleven chapters and four appendices. In the first chapter, Perrett has written the establishment and first experiences including panzers' first using in the Spanish Civil War. Next three chapters, he has continued with the role of panzers interdependently to the major events during campaigns in Poland, Norway and Denmark, France, Balkans and Barbarossa up to the end of Moscow. In the fifth chapter, he has made comparison of panzers, their critics, upgrades and early actions for preparing German Summer Offensive in 1942. In the next chapter he has included the Operation Case Blue, Stalingrad disaster and Battle for Kharkov. He has set apart the seventh chapter for about the panzer actions in North Africa and Meditterennean. Eighth chapter has a significance due to the development of superior class of panzers and their first experience in the Battle of Kursk. This chapter also covers the events in the Eastern Front during the first half of 1944. In the next chapter, Perrett has completed the previous events upto 1945. In chapter ten he has focused on the Italian and Western Fronts. In the last chapter, Perrett compiled all fronts focusing on panzer foeces in 1945. In appendices you can find more information about German tank design, short histories of German panzer divisions, orders of battles of German, Soviet, British and the US armored units. The book is very helpful for military history researchers and it is an excellent guide to the German panzers.