A leading architect of armoured warfare and a general of Nazi Germany
In May 1940, he argued that the armoured forces across the Meuse should keep moving toward the Channel rather than wait for the infantry.
Heinz Guderian was a professional soldier who helped develop the doctrine of concentrated armoured manoeuvre and shape Germany’s panzer force and early wartime victories. He presented himself after the war as the “father” of the panzer arm, but his ideas rested on work by Oswald Lutz and many other officers. During the 1940 invasion of France, he pressed for a rapid thrust through the Ardennes, across the Meuse and onward to the English Channel, helping isolate Allied forces around Dunkirk. He nevertheless collaborated with the Nazi regime and commanded in an eastern war of aggression marked by occupation crimes, while his postwar memoirs minimized his responsibility and political ties.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1908Officer, Hanoverian Light Infantry Battalion
- 1914–1918World War I, signals and staff officer
- 1927–1931Staff officer and instructor in army transport and motorized units
- 1935–1938Commander of 2nd Panzer Division, Inspector of Motorized Troops
- 1938–1940Commander of XIX Army Corps, armoured command in the Western Campaign
- 1941Commander of 2nd Panzer Group, Operation Barbarossa
- 1943–1945Inspector General of Armoured Troops, Acting Chief of the Army General Staff
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarGerman signals and staff officerHe served in the First World War as a German signals and staff officer.
- 1940–1944The Fall of France and the Vichy RegimeGeneral who advocated the armored breakthroughHe argued for a rapid armored advance from the Meuse to the Channel, rather than pausing for infantry.
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarPanzer group commander in Operation BarbarossaIn 1941, he commanded the 2nd Panzer Group in Operation Barbarossa.
- 1944.08–10Warsaw UprisingChief of staff who did not object to the uprising’s suppressionAs chief of staff, he did not object to the orders during the 1944 suppression of the Warsaw Uprising.
Acting Chief of the Army General Staff, 1944-1945
Immediately after the 20 July 1944 attempt on Hitler's life, Guderian was appointed Acting Chief of the General Staff of the Army High Command, with responsibility for advising Hitler on the Eastern Front. He took up the post when Germany's defeat was already inevitable and could shape neither the military situation nor Hitler's strategic decisions. Hitler placed him in charge of the "Court of Honour" that screened those accused of involvement in the plot. The court discharged the accused from the armed forces so that they could be tried by the People's Court; those handed over were tortured by the Gestapo and executed by hanging. Guderian claimed after the war that he had tried to avoid this duty, but in practice he applied himself to it with the vigour of a Nazi adherent.
A 29 July order demanding that all officers join the party completed the Nazification of the army general staff, and he made the Nazi salute obligatory throughout the armed forces. As chief of staff he did not object to the orders Hitler and Himmler issued during the brutal suppression of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, nor to the atrocities committed against the city's civilian population. At a Volkssturm rally in November 1944 he said there were "95 million National Socialists who stand behind Adolf Hitler". On 28 March 1945, following the failed operation to retake Küstrin and a further dispute with Hitler over the control of armoured units, he was dismissed and sent on leave, replaced by Hans Krebs.