Heinz Guderian
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Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (17 June 1888 – 14 May 1954) was a military theorist and innovative General of the German Army during the Second World War. Germany's panzer forces were raised and fought according to his works, best-known among them Achtung - Panzer! He held posts as Panzer Corps commander, Panzer Army commander, Inspector-General of Armored Troops, and chief of staff of the army (Chef des Generalstabs des Heeres). He rose to the rank of full general (Generaloberst) or Colonel General in July 1940. Although he never became a Field Marshal, Guderian is recognized as one of the most prominent generals of WWII.
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[edit] Early career
Guderian was born in Kulm, West Prussia. From 1901 to 1907 Guderian attended various military schools. He entered the Army in 1907 as an ensign-cadet in the (Hanoverian) Jäger Bataillon No. 10. His father was the battalion's commander then. In 1911 Guderian joined the 3rd Telegraphen-Bataillon (Wireless-Battalion), Prussian Army Signal Corps. In October of 1913 he married Margarete Goerne, with whom he had two sons.
During the First World War he served as a Signals and General Staff officer. After the war, Guderian stayed in the reduced 100,000-man German Army (Reichswehr), where he was made company commander of the 10th Jäger-Bataillon after which he joined the 'General Staff'-in-waiting, the Truppenamt ( a General Staff being explicitly forbidden by the Versailles Treaty). In 1927 Guderian was promoted Major and transferred to the Truppenamt group for Army transport and Overseer of motorised tactics based in Berlin. This key role put him at the centre of the development of the resources that would later come to dominate what became known as blitzkreig. Fluent in both English and French, he gathered ideas by the British maneuver warfare theorists J.F.C. Fuller and, debatably [1], B.H. Liddell Hart, as well as the writings, interestingly enough, of the then-unknown Charles de Gaulle. Their works were translated into German by Guderian. In 1931 he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel and became chief of staff to the Inspectorate of Motorised troops and in 1933 to full Colonel. In this time he had written many papers on motorised warfare which were seen as authoratative and moving the development of this area significantly. These papers were based on extensive wargaming without troops, with paper tanks and finally wih armoured vehicles. In October 1935 he was posted to the newly created 2nd Panzer Division (one of three) as commander. On the 1 August 1936 he was promoted Major General and on 4 February 1938 he was again promoted to Lieutenant General and given command of the XVI. Army Corps
Achtung - Panzer!, was written in 1936-37 as an explanation of Guderian's theories on the tank and aircraft's role in modern warfare. It was actually a compilation not only of Guderian's own theories, but also the ideas of other proponents of armored and combined-arms warfare within the general staff, though the bulk of the credit rightly is Guderian's. The panzer force he created would become the core of the German Army's power during the Second World War, and deliver the core of the fighting style known as blitzkrieg. To this day, his contributions to the combined arms tactics are studied throughout military schools from West Point to Sandhurst.
[edit] World War II
In the Second World War Guderian first served as the commander of the XIX Army Corps in the invasion of Poland and the invasion of France. He personally led the attack that traversed the Ardennes Forest, crossed the Meuse River and broke through the French lines at Sedan. Guderian's panzer group led the "race to the sea" that split the Allied armies in two, depriving the BEF and the French armies in Northern France and Belgium of their fuel, food, spare parts and ammunition.
In 1941 he commanded Panzergruppe Guderian in Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, receiving the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves in July of that year. From October 5, 1941 he led the redesignated Second Panzer Army. During the Barbarossa campaign he led his panzer forces in rapid Blitzkrieg style advances and earned the nickname "Schneller Heinz" (Fast Heinz) among his troops. His armored spearhead captured Smolensk in a remarkably short time and was poised to launch the final assault on Moscow when he was ordered to turn South towards Kiev (see Lötzen decision). He was relieved of command on 25 December 1941 after Gunther von Kluge claimed that he had ordered a withdrawal in contradiction of Hitler's "standfast" order and transferred to the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) reserve pool. Guderian would forever deny that he did anything of the sort, and it seems that, indeed, he did not[citation needed]. Ironically this apparently mythical insubordination is still cited by his admirers as proof of his independence of spirit before Hitler. Guderian's own view on the matter was that he had been victimised by Kluge and at some point so abused Kluge with accusations related to his dismissal that he provoked Kluge into challenging him to a duel, which Hitler naturally forbade.
After the German defeat at Stalingrad, Guderian was recalled to active service and on 1 March 1943 became the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops. Here his responsibilities were to determine armoured doctrine, oversee tank design and production, and the training of Germany's panzer forces.
On 21 July 1944, after the failure of the July 20 Plot, he became chief of staff of the army (Chef des Generalstabs des Heeres) as a successor to Kurt Zeitzler, who had departed July 1st with a nervous breakdown. During his tenure as Chief of Staff he had a long series of violent rows with Hitler over the way in which Germany should handle the war on both fronts. Hitler finally dismissed Guderian on 28 March 1945 after an argument over the failed counterattack of General Theodor Busse at Küstrin; Hitler told Guderian that his health problems demanded him taking 6 weeks of convalescent leave. He was replaced as Chief of Staff by General Hans Krebs.
[edit] Life after the war
Despite Soviet and Polish government protests, Guderian was not charged with any war crimes during the Nuremberg Trials, as his actions and behavior were ruled to be consistent with those of a professional soldier.
Poland argued that at the Battle of Wizna, Guderian had threatened the Polish commander Władysław Raginis with shooting prisoners of war if he did not order the remaining Polish forces to surrender. Some military historians view this as a masterful bluff; however Poles generally do not regard it as such. Guderian also accepted an estate in the newly annexed Warthegau region in German territory annexed from Poland after the invasion. The previous Polish owners of the estate were evicted. The Warthegau comprised roughly the formerly Imperial German Province of Posen (1871–1918). Guderian also received and accepted a state gift of money from Hitler after his retirement in 1942.[1]
Guderian surrendered to American troops on May 10, 1945, and remained in U.S. custody as a prisoner of war until his release on June 17, 1948. He died on May 14, 1954, in West Germany.
Guderian's son, Heinz Günther Guderian, became a prominent General in the post-war German Bundeswehr and NATO.
[edit] Books by Heinz Guderian
- Guderian, Heinz (1937). Achtung - Panzer, reissue, Sterling Press. ISBN 0-304-35285-3. Guderian describes what he would do if he was in charge of German tank forces.
- Guderian, Heinz (1952). Panzer Leader. Da Capo Press Reissue edition, 2001. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81101-4. Guderian describes what he did when he was in charge of German tank forces. It was originally published with the German title 'Erinnerungen eines Soldaten' (memories of a soldier).
[edit] References
- ^ Panzer Leader, Heinz Guderian, 1996, p 7 where the p 20 credit is ascribed to dogged suggestion at the time of the first English Publication with Liddell Hart's forward. The credit is of course therefore not present in the other language versions.
[edit] Further Reading
- Macksey, Kenneth, Guderian: Panzer General (1992, revision of Guderian, Creator of the Blitzkrieg, 1976)
- Walde, Karl J., Guderian (1978)
- Kershaw, Ian, Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis (2001)
[edit] External links
- Personality Profile - General Heinz Guderian by the Journal of the Singapore Armed Forces
- Generaloberst Heinz Wilhelm Guderian at Achtung Panzer!
