PANZERGRENADIER
OSPREY PUBLISHING 2021
BY THOMAS ANDERSON
ISBN 9781472841797
H/B 304PP £30
“Tanks conquer, the riflemen tidy up and hold on to what the tanks have won.... Their permanent cooperation enables them to be very versatile when in combat” – an evaluation from the 1st Panzer Division exercise. Guderian and others had demanded an integrated infantry force for his Panzers, but the early motorised units would have to rely largely on wheeled transport - heavy cross country cars and trucks.
Fast moving Kradschutzen motorcycle rifle troops would an important element in early mobile formations. Not until 1942 did motorised rifle infantry received the name Panzergrenadiere, and in 1943 the motor infantry divisions became Panzergrenadier-Divisionen.