The first of a series of five books on the German army of World War II. This volume focuses on their achievements from 1935 to 1940, and how the military traditions of Germany were used by Hitler to dominate Europe. Nigel Thomas examines the ways in which this army was trained and organized to allow them to dominate large areas of Europe so successfully. He looks at the campaigns and uniforms during the Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Belgian, Dutch and French campaigns between September 1939 and June 1940, and also considers the pre-war campaigns in Rhineland, Spain, Austria and Czechoslovakia from between 1936 and 1939.