German success in the Second World War was built upon its tank forces, however many of its leading generals, with the notable exception of Heinz Guderian, are largely unknown.

This biographical study of four German panzer army commanders serving on the Eastern Front is based upon their unpublished wartime letters to their wives. David Stahel offers a far more complete picture of the men conducting Hitler’s war in the East, with an emphasis on the private fears and public pressures they operated under. He also illuminates their response to the criminal dimension of the war as well as their role as leading military commanders conducting large-scale operations.

While the focus is on four of Germany’s most important panzer generals - Guderian, Hoepner, Reinhardt and Schmidt - the evidence from their private correspondence sheds new light on the broader institutional norms and cultural ethos of the Wehrmacht’s Panzertruppe.