In this fascinating account of the battle tanks that saw combat in the European Theater of World War II, Mary R. Habeck traces the strategies developed between the wars for the use of armored vehicles in battle. Only in Germany and the Soviet Union were truly original armor doctrines (generally known as "blitzkreig" and "deep battle") fully implemented. Storm of Steel relates how the German and Soviet armies formulated and chose to put into practice doctrines that were innovative for the time, yet in many respects identical to one another. As part of her extensive archival research in Russia, Germany, and Britain, Habeck had access to a large number of formerly secret and top-secret documents from several post-Soviet archives. This research informs her comparative approach as she looks at the roles of technology, shared influences, and assumptions about war in the formation of doctrine. She also explores relations between the Germans and the Soviets to determine whether collaboration influenced the convergence of their armor doctrines.
"In a brilliant recounting of parallel developments recorded in extensive documentation from both sides, much of it exposed by the demise of the Soviet state, this book sets forth a stunning review of the next twenty years of development of national goals and accompanying military doctrine from which were derived requirements for equipment, organization, and force structure, training, and educatio
Journal of Military History
"How the two states developed similar doctrines during the interwar period, why the Soviets eschewed such a valuable innovation, and why and how the Germans took the lead in doctrinal theory and the practice are the questions that Storm of Steel addresses.... This is a fascinating work of great importance to understanding the origins and outcomes of the Second World War."
Virginia Quarterly Review
"The titanic struggle between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia from 1941 to 1945 remains the subject of popular and scholarly interest. The tank was the dominant weapon in this contest and mastery of armored combat the key to victory and defeat... Mary Habeck's Storm of Steel sheds light on the evolution of armored vehicles and doctrine in Germany and Russia during the interwar decades.... Storm of
