Thomas Anderson
Reconnaissance, and in particular close reconnaissance is, and was, vital to the success of any military operation. In Die Panzertruppen General Heinz Guderian wrote: Recce units shall provide facts about the enemy for the own leadership. We distinguished between air reconnaissance, ground reconnaissance, signal intelligence and intelligence corps reconnaissance. Here, I want to focus only on the second term. In the 1930s Germany developed armoured cars, which were used with success throughout the war. However, as early as 1935 a heavy half-tracked reconnaissance vehicle (the H 8 H) was planned, and in mid- 1939 the first ideas on fullytracked reconnaissance vehicles evolved. The latter would result in the Panzerspähwagen ‘Luchs’, but the H 8 H design did not enter mass production and disappeared.