Heinz Guderian

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Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (ca. 1939)

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.

1 Early career
2 World War II
3 Life after the war
4 Books by Heinz Guderian
5 References
6 External links

[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.

Heinz Guderian (in the middle) with a Soviet kombrig receiving a parade in Brześć (Brest), during the Poland Campaign

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 came to specialize in armored warfare. Fluent in both English and French, he was influenced by the British maneuver warfare theorists J.F.C. Fuller and, to a lesser extent, 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.

Achtung - Panzer!, was written in 1936-37 as an explanation of Guderian's theories on the tank and aircraft's role in modern warfare. The panzer force he created would become the core of the German Army's power during the Second World War, and fight according to what became known as blitzkrieg doctrine. 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 advances according to the Blitzkrieg doctrine 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. 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 fortunately forbade.

General Guderian (left) with General Walther Wenck at a war conference in 1944. (Guderian is wearing a black Panzer uniform.)

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 consistent with that 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; furthermore thousands of Red Army POWs were killed by soldiers under Guderian's command ^{[citation needed]}. 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 in 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

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)