Purchased this, and cheated a bit by getting the English version.
It's actually translated into American English, which is occasionally a bit slangy for my taste. Was the A7V prototype really taken on "a shake-down run"? The personal and family material to which Ms Zincke obviously had access enables her to tell a very full story of his life. He was, it seems, a distinguished pioneer of motor vehicles, with an illustrious career before and after the Great War. It's all very interesting.
Unfortunately, the part in which we are most interested isn't up to the same standard. It's a bit disturbing to see that the bibliography includes German Tanks and Armoured Vehicles by B.T. White, published in 1966, and the website appears to rely on Sturmpanzerwagen A7V vom Urpanzer zum Leopard 2. It looks as if there wasn't anything like the same access to his wartime work.
For some reason, the translators have taken certain things rather literally, and anglicized quite a lot of German terms. Thus we have the "A7V-E (E for encircling chain-tracks)", "the Lightweight Tank (LT I)", and the "LT II". The LKII is also labelled the "Light-duty tank". A curious decision.
His work between the Wars is, naturally, intriguing. He switched to designing both wheeled and caterpillar tractors, and later assisted the Soviets with their tank development. He was 68 at the outbreak of WWII, and, although a Captain in the Reserve, "was in no way connected to the Nazi government". Of mild interest is that he designed Hanomag caterpillars of the type used as a base for the fake Renaults in the film Westfront 1918.
There's stuff about the K-Wagen and Vollmer's rivalry with Wilhelm Müller, which I must look into further. I think some of that might be new-ish. It's worth mentioning that the translators have formed the impression that the "English Horse Guards' Parade" in which Hagen and Schnuck were exhibited was an actual parade.
But this is the slightly depressing bit. The account of the connection between Vollmer, the LKII, Sweden, et cetera is not especially enlightening. The chain of events isn't really clear, and there's no mention at all of the alleged Hungarian LKIIs. I was hoping to learn a lot from the book, but it rather looks as if the author could have learnt something from Landships.
Especially when you read this, on page 88, on the subject of the A7V: "Several were captured by the Polish and put into their own Army, where they remained in service until 1929."
"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
