General Guderian is a well-known German colonel general who led the armored forces and the headquarters of the ground forces, an authoritative military theorist. His book of memoirs was considered by many to be considered a textbook on conducting tank battles. He became one of the founders of motorized methods of warfare, and in Germany - the founder of tank building. Companions and rivals gave him many nicknames, the most famous - Heinz-Hurricane and Fleet Heinz.
Childhood and youth
The future general Guderian was born in 1888 in the town of Kulm in the German Empire, now it is the territory of Poland.
His father was a career officer, which affected the hero of our article choosing his path. His ancestors owned land in the Prussian region under the name Warta, were considered small landowners. They were Armenians by origin, so General Guderian is Armenian. Mother, whose name was Klara Kirgof, came from a family of hereditary lawyers.
In 1901, he and his brother Fritz, who was two years younger, were admitted to the cadet corps. In 1903, the hero of our article was transferred to an older building, which was located near Berlin. In 1907, he successfully passed the matriculation exams.
At the beginning of a military career
Immediately after the cadet corps, Guderian went to military service, becoming a candidate for officer at the Jaeger battalion, based in Hanover. At that moment, his father commanded him.
After a six-month training course, he became a lieutenant. After that, he served in the third telegraph battalion for more than a year and was transferred to the military academy in Berlin, where he studied before the outbreak of World War II.
Participation in the First World War
When the war began, the future general Guderian was appointed head of the third heavy radio station of the fifth cavalry division.
After he was sent to the encryption service of the Fourth Army. In November 1916, he was awarded the First Class Iron Cross. By June 1917, the hero of our article reached the quartermaster at the headquarters of the Guards Corps. By the end of the year, he became commander of a battalion in the 14th Infantry Regiment, and then head of the operations department at the headquarters of Army Group C. In February 1918 he was appointed to the General Staff.
At the very end of the war he was the chief of the operational headquarters of the German command, which was based in the occupied territories in Italy. During the First World War, in addition to the Iron Crosses, he was awarded the Knight's Cross - the Austrian award for military merit.
After signing a peace treaty
When the First World War ended, Guderian remained in service in the Reichswehr, and after he was transferred to the headquarters of the Iron Division, which was located in Latvia.
He was a company commander in a jaeger battalion, led the military units of the 20th infantry regiment. In 1922 he was transferred to Munich, where he served in the motor battalion.
Two years later, the hero of our article became an instructor in a non-commissioned officer school in the infantry division based in Stettin, was an instructor in the motor transport headquarters of Berlin, responsible for the tactics of the battle. In the summer of 1932, Guderian came to the USSR to a tank school called "Kama", which was based in Tatarstan. They carried out an inspection with General Lutz. Moreover, the hero of our article in Kazan did not undergo any training.
Motorized troops
In fact, Guderian began his career in motorized troops in 1934, when he was appointed chief of staff of the relevant unit, and then began to lead the tank division, located in Würzburg.
From this time he begins to show himself as the author of educational works. In 1937 he published a book entitled "Attention, tanks! History of the creation of tank troops." In it, he tells in great detail and details about the appearance of tank troops and their modern use.
In the book, he talks about the use of tanks during the First World War, as well as their development until the end of the 30s. The ideas that were proposed to him in this work in the future radically influenced the tactics of conducting tank battles during the Second World War.
Since February 4, 1938 he became commander of tank forces, received the rank of lieutenant general.
The beginning of World War II
The Second World War on September 1, 1939 began with the invasion of German troops on Polish territory. General Guderian just commanded the 19th motorized corps. The command highly appreciated the operation he carried out, having awarded the Iron Cross with the first degree, and a little later with the Knight's Cross.
Interestingly, during the Polish campaign, Soviet and German troops, which at that time were not yet at war (a non-aggression pact was concluded between them), met in Brest nad Bug. There is even a photograph of the meeting of General Wehrmacht Guderian with Soviet officers at the parade on the occasion of the transfer of Brest to the control of the Red Army. In the picture, he is captured with the brigade commander Semyon Krivoshein.
Operation in France
General Guderian, whose biography is given in this article, also participated during the invasion of France. The motorized infantry regiment with the pathos name "Great Germany" was part of the tank group, whose command was taken over by Ewald von Kleist.
German tank general Guderian successfully used blitzkrieg tactics. True, he did not always coordinate his actions with the command, which caused irritation in his immediate superiors. Moving on the offensive, he sought to produce maximum devastation far beyond the supposed front line. At the same time, General Heinz Guderian blocked communications, captured whole headquarters, depriving them of the ability to quickly manage and command units. So, for example, he acted with the French corps, who naively believed that the Germans were still on the other side of the river Meuse.
This led to the fact that German General Heinz Guderian had a reputation as a poorly managed and wayward commander. For example, in the midst of an offensive operation in May 1940, von Kleist even removed Guderian from command of the corps because he did not obey the direct orders of the leadership. The incident was soon settled, the hero of our article was able to regain command post.
When the French campaign was successfully completed, Guderian was promoted to colonel general.
Attack on the USSR
The eastern campaign of the German General Guderian’s unit began as part of Army Group Center by attacking Brest. In the summer of battles against parts of the Red Army, the classic blitzkrieg tactics brought continued success.
Acting with the help of sharp breakthroughs and sweeps of tank wedges, the German units were able to quickly move forward. Minsk was captured on June 28, Smolensk fell on July 16. On the Western Front, the Red Army suffered defeat after defeat. As a reward for these achievements, Guderian was already given the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross on July 17th.
The plan has changed
Despite the fact that outwardly everything turned out well, Hitler decides to change the general plan of the campaign. He cancels the swift attack on Moscow that Guderian planned, ordering him to turn around and head for Kiev. He sends another group of troops to Leningrad.
On August 28, following the order of the Fuhrer, Guderian deploys his tanks to the south. The Soviet units that were part of the Bryansk Front are attempting to strike from the flank within the framework of the Roslavl-Novozybkov operation, but the German general manages to stop this strike, preventing the threat.
In mid-September, he joined the tank army of the South group, commanded by Kleist. As a result of this maneuver, the so-called "Kiev Cauldron" turns out to be almost the entire South-Western Front of the Red Army.
At the same time, due to the fact that the tank units were able to get away from the Moscow direction, the pace of attack on Moscow was irretrievably lost. This was one of the key reasons why the implementation of the Barbarossa plan was disrupted. Guderian himself believed that this was the main reason. When the attack on Moscow resumed, the second tank group quickly occupied Oryol and Mtsensk, but could not enter Tula.
Over time, Guderian got into disagreements with Field Marshal Kluge, who constantly interfered with the career advancement of the general. As a result, due to another violation of the order, he was removed from command. In December 1941, he was sent to the reserve of the High Command, and a month later - to the headquarters of the Third Army Corps, located in Berlin.
Return to the front
They returned to the army of Guderian only after the Battle of Stalingrad. This happened in February 1943. He was appointed inspector of the armored forces, who were responsible for the modernization of units. He established good relations with Minister of Arms Speer, with joint efforts they were able to dramatically increase the number of tanks produced. Guderian made some of the changes in the design of the tanks personally, trying to improve them. During their production, he regularly visited weapons factories with inspections, as well as test sites and shooting ranges.
In May 1943, at the time of considering the plan of Operation Citadel, Guderian quarreled with Kluge and even challenged him to a duel. His ardor and excessive emotionality were fueled by insults at the field marshal, who was involved in the removal of the officer from command in 1941.
Duel with Kluge
The duel did not lead to any consequences. In his memoirs, General Guderian insisted that the duel was initiated by Kluge himself, and did not take place because of Hitler's protest. When von Kluge challenged Guderian to a duel, the Führer conveyed his message to Field Marshal, in which he noted that he expressed regret over the disagreements between the officers that had been going on since 1941.
After the failed assassination attempt on Hitler, Guderian led the headquarters of the ground forces, but in March 1945, after another heated argument with the Fuhrer, he was sent on vacation and lost his post.
After the war
On May 10, 1945, Guderian was captured by American soldiers. At that moment he was in Tyrol. He was brought to Nuremberg, at the trial against the Nazis, he acted as a witness. The Soviet Union sought to accuse him of war crimes, but the Allies were of a different opinion.
Among the accusations that the USSR insisted on were the shooting of captured Red Army soldiers who were captured during one of the deepest breakthroughs in the defense at the very beginning of World War II. Personal orders of the military leader about the executions were not found. The prosecution insisted that he could not have been unaware of what was happening, and therefore did not impede these executions.
Guderian confirmed his knowledge, noting that it was revenge for the executions of German tankers by the Red Army. Soviet units often confused tankers with SS members because of the black uniform and emblem of the German tank troops, which was a skull with crossbones. In everyday life it was called "Dead Head".
In 1946, the general was sent to prison. At first he was in Allendorz, and then in Neustadt. In 1948 he was released.
In the 50s, Guderian served as military adviser in the restoration of the armed forces in Germany. In May 1954, he died at the age of 65 from a serious liver disease, which he had discovered three years earlier. He died in southern Bavaria in the town of Schwangau. The German general was buried in a cemetery on Hildesheimer Strasse.
History of tank troops
The book "Memoirs of a German General" by Heinz Guderian is a detailed and impartial story about the planning of one of the largest land operations of the German command in the history of World War II.
This is a unique historical document. In the Memoirs of a German General Guderian shares his experience and knowledge.
In this book, the author once again emphasizes that he was a supporter of the attack on Moscow, and not on Kiev. He presented his arguments to Hitler, noting that the enemy was on the verge of defeat, and the fall of the Soviet capital would negatively affect the morale of the entire army. The capture of Kiev will lead to material deterioration of the tanks. As history has shown, Guderian was in many ways right.