ABSTRACT
John Mearsheimer explores Liddell Hart’s persistent efforts and elaborate techniques in using his connections with the German generals for extracting, inviting, and planting accolades, which he later inflated beyond their original context, modified, and disseminated widely by any possible means. As Mearsheimer has shown, three cases were of particular significance for Liddell Hart: Hans Guderian, Erwin Rommel, and Erich Manstein. Liddell Hart’s claim for influence on the Germans has lost credibility in the eyes of historians. As with Fuller and Liddell Hart, it has become apparent that Guderian monopolized the history of the Panzer arm. It will attempt to outline the genesis of the Panzer arm and the growth of its operational doctrine, with special attention to the British influence on these developments, including that of Liddell Hart. Extrapolations from Liddell Hart’s disputed papers and turning to the interwar German records themselves, the results produced may appear either exciting or dull.
