Hitler's Great Panzer Heist

The prowess of the German panzers is the stuff of legend, but it is not generally known that Hitler stole over 10,000 British, Czech, French, Italian, Polish and Soviet tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles to feed his war machine. He also gained another 6,000 through various alliances. At the height of his extraordinary military success over 25 per cent of the German tank fleet was of foreign origin. The triumph of the blitzkrieg of 1939-41 was partly attributable to the great panzer heist he carried out across the continent of Europe. In this fascinating and meticulously researched investigation Anthony Tucker-Jones tells this hitherto unrecorded story. He traces the development of Germany's foreign armour before and during the war and describes how captured fighting vehicles - tanks, self-propelled guns, assault guns, armoured cars and personnel carriers - were reused by the German army throughout the conflict.