My Opa was in the 8th Panzer Division. He often would tell this story. (And so do I) He was working on his vehicle trying to break a bolt loose but it wouldn’t budge. He heard a voice behind him saying “May I help you?” Opa turned and saw Guderian walking towards him. Before Opa could say anything the General grabbed the breaker bar and they both got the bolt loose. After that he asked Opa if he was getting enough food and if he was getting his mail? Another time Opa said they were in active combat. He was a Panzerjager and they were dug in. He looked over and there was Guderian standing on the hood of his vehicle looking through his binoculars. Calmly talking to his aid. Opa said that the regular panzer men would follow him anywhere. They loved him.
.... One of my favorite bits about him... In order to keep headquarters in the dark and prevent command from issuing him orders to halt... He told his men to turn off the radios and issued an order that they start laying telephone wire... Hundreds of miles of telephone wire... Just let him stay in touch with his forward deployed units and completely prevented headquarters from being able to issue him any commands... So he couldn't be blamed for disobeying orders he never received... Lol
In defense of Heinz regarding the letter to his wife approving of Hitlers micromanaging, he knew very well that any correspondence would be read by the Gestapo, and he was already skating on thin ice. Hilarious to see him have to brownnose the Boss like that though 😂
Sure, the Gestapo had nothing to do but employ millions of men (which did not have) to open and read the letters of ALL important German civil servants and military officers. You have been watching too many American and British films.
@arslongavitabrevis5136 As the highest ranking general who had long record of dissent within the Nazi apparatus, not having his correspondence monitored would be an egregious error within that apparatus. Even the allied democracies had censors in great number checking GI letters for "opperational security". Nice try with the little unnecessary ad hominem at the end. Shows a juvenile sense of preemptive self defense of the indefensible.
Guderian, as with all historical figures, was just human. He had some officers, even among the Allied forces, such as Liddell Hart, who were laudatory of him. And I am sure he had his detractors also. But no one is all good or all evil.
Liddell Hart was kind of a fanboy though and has a questionable reputation as a reliable military historian and theorist. He took everything men like Guderian and Mannstein wrote in their memoires for granted.
It's shocking how FEW friends Guderian had among the generals. He had a TON of rivals/ opponents. Kluge comes right to the top of the list. Adolf deliberately placed Guderian underneath Kluge during Barbarossa -- standard practice for that dictator. You'll see such pairings, by Adolf, just all over. When generals really got along -- Adolf would send them different ways. (Rundstedt & Manstein)
My father served under Heinz Guderian and was wounded in Moscow. According to him, he was well respected and admired. After the war I am not aware that the Americans put him for an extended period of time into a jail for war crimes. He retired after the war in the Bavarian city of Schongau
The Soviets killed him in 1953 once Stalin realized that Guderian was still alive. Of course, this assassination was done on the down low. For the Soviets, Guderian was undoubtedly a Nazi war criminal -- starving hundreds of thousands by food confiscation (1941, Typhoon) with countless deaths.
It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about a great German commander ( Gudarian) during WW2. Shared by an excellent ( War academy) channel... I think this work about (Gudarian) donated accurate evaluation and sufficient military appreciated to his military biography .
The only general close to Hitler that never shyed away from confronting Hitler or keeping quiet after Hitler launched into a tirade BTW Posen was not in E Prussia. Implied by your narration.
Von Rundstedt, Heinricki are two others. Especially von Rundstedt despised the "Böhmische Gefreiter" (Bohemian private first class) as he called Hitler with the disdain of a German aristocrat.
@@martijnb5887 interesting your comment about von Rundstedt, I read that Hitler was in some way intimidated by him and would keep control of himself in his presence.
Air Field Marshal Albert Kesselring was more widely known as the smiling General or "smiling Albert" than Heinz Guderian. Guderian was more known to his men as "Hasty Heinz", for the hastiness in which he pushed his subordinates to implement his Blitzkrieg in Operation Barbarrosa in USSR.
@@lychan2366 He became known as the Schneller Heinz for his race through the Ardennes and towards Dunkirk, advancing so fast with his Panzers and smashing everything in his way, that even HQ lost trayck of where he was for a time. He also protested against the Halt Order at Dunkirk, but obeyed, if he had his will, Dunkirk with all soldiers within would have fallen long before any ships had arrived.
@@1Ashram You may be right about your second sentence. But on your first sentence, it was Erwin Rommel who was more known for his race through the Ardennes, advancing so fast that his 7th Panzer Division earned its nickname "Ghost Division" for its skillful surprise attacks during its invasion of Belgium and France. Rommel was so far ahead at the spearhead of his division's attack that HQ lost track of its division commander. Hitler later affectionately said to Rommel. "We were worried for you".
These Prussian generals and marshals were arrogant beyond belief. The British took several as POW's during the war. They were all placed in a mansion that had microphones installed in every room to record what they said! They were also given the five stars treatment with a British lord as their liaison to keep them happy and cater for their needs and wants. The "lord" was of course a fake. But these allegedly superior military brains fell for the ruse. And they talked freely about the war when among themselves and not realizing they were bugged!
I tell everyone who reads "Panzer Leader" to take it with a big grain of salt. Keep in mind he also served on the court of honor that purged the army after the July 20 plot, and wasted no time professing his loyalty to a guy he said he never agreed with.
It seems that nothing distracted Guderian from doing what he did best. This is what is important. If Lionel Messi continuously looked at the news media to see what was said about him, I wouldn't grudge him that. What he was given because of his talents was always insignificant in front of his achievements. How did this become a topic for discussion at all? However, it is unfortunate that the estate given to him deprived its previous owner in the manner that it did. Guderian didn't live an austentatious lifestyle with the one million marks that the estate that was given to him earned.
Typicall RU-vidr every WW2 vid full of incorrect footage. Very basic knowledge of the evolution of weapons and uniforms can generally narrow down time and place of the video.
Highly recommend reading Guderians memoir, " Panzer Leader " , He comes down pretty hard critiquing many incompetent leaders Hitler kept appointing to key positions . Lots of internal politics governing the German army General staff. Since it was written after the war, I'm pretty sure some of it was hindsight.
Are you (the creator or uploader of this video or channel) a fan of the old classic game Empire Earth? Because you using its soundtrack in your videos, specifically the soundtrack Time, and even the exact same sound of the ship bells is nostalgic for me!
I am curious about the pronoun used in the anecdote (beginning at 8:31) about Guderian and attributed to your correspondent's grandfather. Why is the pronoun "she" twice used to refer to the grandfather?
Well, he missed the greatest bits of the was from German point of view when he was dismissed in 1941. And since his return in 1943, he was doing mainly inspectory and office work (General isnpector of the armed forces and later chief of staff of the OKH). Not really jobs for getting promoted to the highest rank. Even Model, the so called "Führer's fireman" got promoted in 1944 and after him, only Schörner got promoted (and he remains to this day the last German Fieldmarshall) because he agreed with Hitler and Goebbels that the main Soviet offensive in April 1945 would be situated at Prague and not Berlin. Meanwhile, Guderian got dismissed once more in March 1945 for defending the troops that failed the Kustrin offensive (9th army of Busse) and ended it with a shouting match with Hitler after which he was finally dismissed. It is reported that he often did this with Hitler in 1945 and people do not get promoted to field marshalls for shouting at their boss. Though of course that was the right and courageous thing to do back then.
I did not like your insulting suggestions about Guderian´s supposed ambition or greed. Anyone who has studied and knows the Prussian, and later German, military system and its officer's corps knows that the immense majority of Prussian/German officers were honourable men fully dedicated to their careers and the honour of the Army. Having said that, if Hitler rewarded his generals or marshalls with properties or sums of money he was following the tradition of all European monarchs who rewarded his military heroes in such a manner. Napoleon was famous for awarding not only nobility titles to his successful marshalls and generals but also mansions and lands which brought a huge revenue. To finish off, Guderian was one of the very few who dared to answer back to Hitler. In my opinion he was one of the finest and more honourable German generals of WW2.
His drive east coupled with Halder's conniving to facilitate the drive on Moscow instead of Ukraine hurt the strategy AH wanted. ( Granted he vacillated too. ) Even if they had taken Moscow ..I don't think they could have held it and I doubt it would have been much useful if they had. German Generals had little training in officer's school on strategy. Hitler's frustration with this is well founded . Halder's arrogant belief that his idea of taking Moscow to win the war shows the same self centered attitude that many of the German Generals had. They never seemed to want to work together for the grand strategy.. most seemed to think they were right and they were jealous of each other. They were mission focused and seemed to have blinders to anything that was not their mission. Every country's Generals were good at making themselves look good. ... But I can only remember the Germans blaming AH or someone else... I don'r know of any really admitting they were wrong. These are my opinions after years of reading all I can find on the subject. I know i can be wrong but I have come to my conclusions from my understanding of what happened. Guderian... like all of us , couldn't see all his faults and he wasn't the only German that understood the German idea of tank movement but he defiantly wanted everyone to think that he was .
Germany starts fighting a multi front war . Not understanding material supply . . . Lack of oil . Understanding the effect weather on personal and machinery . America could build in a day what took Germany a month .Good luck everyone.
Heinz Guderian was victorious in Poland and France but within the Soviet invasion campaign, his and the Nazi Blitzkrieg tactics were useless. The Russian front was to large to use encirclement tactics over and over again. The Soviets played for time until the reality of the immemorial then Soviet front began to sink in. Guderian was reprimanded for outrunning his supply lines and leaving his flanks wide open to Soviet counterattacks. Tactically this was a novice mistake and led to infighting with his superiors for not protecting his flanks and front lines. The Soviets knew Guderian’s arrogance and took advantage of Hitlers carelessness at Kursk. Guderian’s stubbornness and love for fame sometimes caused his inability to take advice.
General Panzertruppe Hermann Balck, along with Feldwebel Kurt Knispel were the two most talented but uncelebrated German commanders during the Second World War. General Heinz Guderian received most of the accolades for his victories on the Western Front, Ukraine, and Poland, where the land scale was less than a quarter of that of the Soviet Union. Blitzkrieg was useful on flat terrains found in Poland and parts of western Galicia or rather Ukraine. In the Soviet heartland, the vastness of its interior was only useful if the force had more tanks, spare parts, warplanes, soldiers, and fuel than the Soviet Defenders.
Napoleon reached Moskow by horses. The germans didn't by motorised units. Napoleon took Moskow but it didn't count. Germans did the same mistake. Germans needed ressources. They didn't go for them. Their poor choices in handling the war coupled with the cracking of the enigma code, made their already poor choices predictable. I don't know why they didn't even study Napoleon? Out of disrespect for french? They made copy/paste of Napoleon's mistakes and didn't have not even half of the genius Napoleon posessed.
Your Napoleon the Corsican had French youth massacred by the hundreds of thousands just out of fantasy and self-love and broke his nose in the Russian winter just like the Nazis.
Did u guys know about 1928 and the secret military experimantation gudarian and tukhac2csky did at khazan It was in Khazan were both blitzkrieg and deep battle originated.Primarly because Russsians wanted to reform the Russian military after disappointments whit Russo Japanese and ww1.And Germans because they lost ww1
Any German German in WW2 knew they had to watch what they said and who they said it too, if Guderian had been a Hitler lackey he would have been promoted to Field Marshal, he was very few Generals who would hold his ground against Hitler
Other officers -- well, most anybody -- didn't trust Guderian. He was brilliant, but self-involved. Think of Patton on steroids. Of course, Patton was honorable as well as beloved. Guderian was NOT an honorable general -- which is why Adolf never gave him a baton. Of course, Guderian felt slighted. Even Adolf didn't trust him. And yes, Guderian did have advance knowledge of the assassination plot. Which is why he famously was in the woods all during the magic hours, getting in touch with nature -- and out of touch with everyone else. Brilliant! George C. Marshall pulled the same trick, 12-7-1941. Amazing! At least he could point to 'Sunday afternoon.'
This castle in this video is not the house he got by Hitler as a donation or endowment. The Deipenhof was much smaller, had no tower and had not such high columns at the entrance. I went there with my father Heinz-Günter Guderian, also General of the German Bundeswehr, in 1991. The Polish family, named Tradowsky (the German way of spelling), who were the owners of it, survived in Bavaria. My youngest sister and younger brother met them in Poland some years ago. Neither they nor our family owns nowadays the house and the farm what my grandfather restaurated wonderful, now over eighty years ago and had to leave just after he finished. Also after the war the Polish owners didn't get back their property. The polish people around the Deipenhof loved my grandmother and respected both Guderians very much. And the reason for that was: My grandparents were a lovely, nice and gentle couple, very helpful to the people next to them.
The house which is shown in the Video is not the one Guderian was given. In the Internet you find it with this description: An example of the expansion of a classicist manor house with a neo-Gothic turret in Tarnogóra (Lublin region)
Did you know that guderian would have gone undefeated if it weren't for Hitler? He was willing to tell you all about it if you just bought his book. Lol.
@coochykilla I think it's pretty common knowledge that German logistics were their weak spot. You also have to consider their lack of natural resources.
@coochykillalol Soviets sheer manpower, war production, natural resources , vast territories and adaptation beats anything the Germans had , remember Germany sneaked attacked the Soviets with the majority of its military power and still got pushed back all the way to it's borders and why not talk about Soviet partisans they were causing the Nazis problems
Heinz Guderian is a political opportunist. Hitler gifted him lavishly (konto 5) and guderian turned a blind eye to him. Hitler also gave him a lavish mansion in Poland and guderian was pissed off/complained because polish communist govt did not return it back to him after the war.
Guderian was a man who allowed his units to round up Jews and he did not speak out about it, also he was willing for the Civilian population of the USSR to starve to death, he was wanted for War crimes in Russia, but he like Manstein was used by the US for their Knowledge whereas, the British opinion was that both could be sent to the USSR. He was a Glory Hunter like all the Nazi's !
He took leave from Barbarossa to drive around Poland looking for a suitable villa that the German government would 'gift' him. He chose 3 and the locals were immediately kicked out of their homes......
