British Armour Theory and the Rise of the Panzer Arm: Revising the Revisionists

138 Pages·2000·0.62 MB·English

by  Azar Gat

British Armour Theory and
the Rise of the Panzer Arm
Revising the Revisionists
Azar Gat
gat/89536/crc (sam) 21/10/99 1:47 pm Page 1
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British Armour Theory and
the Rise of the Panzer Arm
Revising the Revisionists
Azar Gat
Associate Professor and Chairman
Department of Political Science
Tel Aviv University
Israel
in association with
ST ANTONY’S COLLEGE, OXFORD
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First published in Great Britain 2000 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0–333–77348–9
First published in the United States of America 2000 by
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0–312–22952–6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gat, Azar.
British armour theory and the rise of the Panzer Arm : revising the revisionists /
Azar Gat.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–312–22952–6 (cloth)
1. Tank warfare. 2. Liddell Hart, Basil Henry, Sir, 1895–1970. 3. Germany.
Heer—Armored troops. I.Title.
UE159 .G33 1999
358'.18'0904—dc21
99–046107
©Azar Gat 2000
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
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Contents
Preface viii
Acknowledgements xi
1 Liddell Hart’s Theory of Armoured Warfare 1
i Deep strategic penetration 5
ii Combating ‘Blitzkrieg’ 18
iii The all-arms armoured formation 35
2 British Influence and the Evolution of the Panzer Arm 43
I Origins: the 1920s and early 1930s 49
II The creation of the Panzer arm 68
Conclusion 91
Notes 96
Select Bibliography 119
Index 124
vii
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Preface
This book grew from my work on another. Among the main themes of
Fascist and Liberal Visions of War: Fuller, Liddell Hart, Douhet and Other
Modernists (1998), the third volume of my cultural history trilogy of
modern strategic thought, was the evolution, cross-nationally, of the
theory of mechanized warfare from the beginning of the twentieth
century. In the main, what I wrote there will not be repeated here.
However, as I was writing that book it became clear to me that some
recent scholarly trends in the study of crucial historical questions,
such as the evolution of British armour theory during the interwar
period, the influence of the British school on the Germans, and the
genesis of the Panzer arm itself, are in need of a major reassessment.
The broad cultural perspective of Fascist and Liberal Visions of Wardid
not allow the space required for such a detailed reassessment. A sepa-
rate volume has become necessary.
The questions mentioned above are inseparably historical as well as
historiographical in nature. With respect to both Britain and Germany
the historiography of the theory and practice of armoured warfare
during the interwar period was written, and wholly dominated, by the
armour enthusiasts themselves, whose version of events held sway in
scholarly and popular accounts for more than a generation. Major-
General J.F.C. Fuller and B.H. Liddell Hart were the leading theorists,
brilliant propagandists, and flamboyant historians who captured most
of the limelight in Britain. Liddell Hart further enhanced his hold over
history through his post-Second World War association with the
creators of the Panzer arm, most notably Heinz Guderian, whose own
memoirs dominated the historiography of German armour. It is only
since the 1970s, when these towering figures were no longer around
and as both the British and German archives became available to
scholars, that the armour enthusiasts’ monopoly over the histori-
ography has been broken and their interpretation challenged. In
respect to both Britain and Germany they have been criticized on
similar grounds: there were vast gaps in their visions; they were
dogmatic in advocating their ideas of mechanization and were blind
to anything that stood in the way, such as higher political considera-
tions, strategic priorities, and economic constraints; their polemic
zeal and highly subjective approaches caricatured their perceived
viii
04PR1839 viii-xii 10/8/99 11:34 am Page ix
Preface ix
opponents and distorted the latter’s arguments; their egocentric
personalities made them disproportionately concentrate everything
around themselves.
This process of critical reevaluation has been more than necessary.
As scholars have replaced protagonists and documentary history has
taken the place of memoirs, our understanding of the development of
the theory of armoured warfare in both Britain and Germany has been
put on a wholly different footing and gained much in depth.
Unfortunately, however, in some respects criticism has gone astray.
The main cause of this was the problem of Liddell Hart. Even more
than other armour enthusiasts, doubts regarding his accuracy, and
indeed honesty, began to surface after his death in 1970. Since his
version of events concerning British armour theory, influence on the
Germans, and German theory and practice had been predominant,
much of the accepted historical picture came into question. In partic-
ular, John Mearsheimer’s devastating Liddell Hart and the Weight of
History (1988) developed the question-marks into a far-reaching revi-
sion that has become accepted by many.
As this book will attempt to show, the principal conclusions of this
revision were mostly erroneous. For all of its many shortcomings, the
traditional interpretation was not as far from the truth as it has
recently become the fashion to believe. As we shall see, on the whole,
Britain was indeed the source of the modern theory of armoured
warfare and a model for all armies, most significantly the German.
Fuller and Liddell Hart did play a prominent role in these develop-
ments both at home and abroad.
This book, then, is a monograph about the evolution and diffu-
sion of a strategic doctrine in Britain and Germany during the
interwar period. Fascist and Liberal Visions of War has already dealt
with some of the broader aspects of mechanization, with Fuller’s
conception of mechanized warfare and with his and Liddell Hart’s
overall theory of war and historical significance. Thus, concentrat-
ing on the main points of contention, the first study of this book
focuses on Liddell Hart’s theory of armoured warfare. His own
account of it, as well as the revisionist critique, have between them
been responsible for a great deal of confusion regarding British
armour developments during the interwar period. In view of Liddell
Hart’s pivotal historical and, no less, historiographical role, his ideas
serve here as a prism, through which the evolution of British armour
thinking and of the British armoured forces during the interwar
period is refracted.