On the German Art of War: German Army Manual for Unit Command in Word War II

Truppenführung, the twentieth-century equivalent of Sun Tzu's Art of War, served as the basic manual for the German army from 1934 to the end of World War II. This astonishing document provided the doctrinal framework for blitzkrieg and, as a consequence, for the victories of Hitler's armies. Rather than giving German military leaders a "cookbook" on how to win battles, Truppenführung offered instead a set of intellectual tools to be applied to complex and continually changing battle conditions. The keys to understanding the psychology, philosophy, and social values of the German army that fought World War II are to be found here. This first complete English-language translation is annotated to help the contemporary reader understand its military and social context. The late Bruce Condell worked with defense contractors in the United States and Asia and was been involved with the development of numerous military aircraft, including the PC-6 Tactical Transport and the PC-7 Multi-Role Training Aircraft. Col. David T. Zabecki is the editor of Vietnam Magazine, the editor of World War II in Europe: An Encyclopedia (1999), and the author of Steel Wind: Colonel Georg Bruchmüller and the Birth of Modern Artillery (1994). An assistant professor of military history with American Military University and a brigadier general in the U.S. Army Reserve, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1966, and served as an infantryman in the 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam.