Heinz Guderian's Top 3 Legendary Tactical Moves | Fired for Being Right
Warfare Genius
239,612 views
Heinz Guderian broke the French Army in 1940 and helped trap an entire Soviet army group in 1941. On Christmas 1941, he was sent home in disgrace for pulling his freezing soldiers back from ground they could not hold.
He was a signals officer who did not sit inside a tank until 1929. By 1937 he had written the book on armoured warfare. In May 1940 his panzers crossed the Ardennes, a forest the French high command called impenetrable, and forced the Meuse at Sedan in 57 hours. Six days later they were standing on the English Channel.
This mini documentary breaks down the three moves that made Guderian the most famous tank commander of the Second World War: the breakthrough at Sedan, the race to the Channel, and the encirclement at Kiev. Then it follows him into the Russian winter, where a five-hour argument with Hitler ended his command.
Three campaigns, one method. Concentrate everything at the point the enemy believes is safe. Never stop moving. And never let a no-retreat order destroy an army that could have been saved.
WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS
→ The winter of 1941 and the order to hold frozen ground at any cost
→ Guderian's career as a signals officer and why radio was the secret of the panzer division
→ Achtung – Panzer! (1937) and the theory of the concentrated armoured fist
→ Pétain, Gamelin and the myth of the impenetrable Ardennes
→ The rolling air attack at Sedan and why it destroyed almost nothing
→ 13 May 1940: rubber boats on the Meuse and the panic of Bulson
→ "Klotzen, nicht kleckern" and the principle of concentration
→ The halt orders, the "reconnaissance in force" loophole, and 90 kilometres in a single day
→ Abbeville, the English Channel, and the trap that led to Dunkirk
→ Hitler's turn south to Ukraine and Guderian's reversal at headquarters
→ Stalin's refusal to abandon Kiev
→ The Desna bridge and the link-up at Lokhvitsa on 14 September 1941
→ 665,000 prisoners claimed, and what Soviet records actually show
→ The Moscow counteroffensive, the Frederick the Great argument, and "you feel too much pity for them"
→ Field Marshal von Kluge and the dismissal of Christmas 1941
→ What Guderian's memoir left out
CHAPTERS
0:00 The Frozen Order
1:22 The Signals Officer
2:50 Move One: The Breakthrough at Sedan
7:05 Move Two: The Race to the Channel
10:46 Move Three: The Encirclement at Kiev
14:59 Winter 1941
16:21 Fired for Being Right
16:42 The Verdict
RESEARCH AND SOURCES
Figures and quotations in this script were drawn from the following:
Karl-Heinz Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend, for the Sedan crossing, the air attack and the French casualty figures
Julian Jackson, The Fall of France, for the Allied plan and the collapse on the Meuse
David Stahel, Kiev 1941, for the Kiev operation and the critique of the German prisoner claim
G.F. Krivosheev (ed.), Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century, for Soviet loss figures
Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945: Nemesis, for the 20 December 1941 meeting
Russell A. Hart, Guderian: Panzer Pioneer or Myth Maker?, for the assessment of his reputation
Heinz Guderian, Panzer Leader, used as memoir testimony rather than neutral record
A NOTE ON THE NUMBERS
The 665,000 prisoners announced after Kiev is a German wartime claim, not an established figure. Soviet archival data give roughly 616,000 men killed, captured or missing across the whole Kiev defensive operation. Sources differ on whether Guderian was relieved on 25 or 26 December 1941; the video says Christmas 1941 for that reason. The distance from Sedan to the Channel is a straight-line estimate of about 225 kilometres. And Panzer Leader is indispensable on the mechanics of armoured warfare, but it polished its author's image and left out his command's role in criminal orders on the Eastern Front.
FURTHER READING
Heinz Guderian, Achtung – Panzer!, 1937
Karl-Heinz Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West
David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East
David Stahel, Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany's Winter Campaign, 1941–1942
David M. Glantz and Jonathan House, When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi–Soviet War, 1941–1945
Which of the three do you rate highest: Sedan, the Channel, or Kiev? And which commander should Warfare Genius cover next? Leave it in the comments.
Subscribe for more tactical breakdowns of the commanders who changed how wars are fought.
#HeinzGuderian #MilitaryHistory #WW2
20 Comments
Even when pervetin is the key for push or retreat
In the end, the unit perservered and the British? withdrew
I would love series of Karl XII the Karolinerna from Sweden and the Great Nordic war and from World War II, I would like i see from German General Von Manstein and Russian general Zhukov.
Heinz Guderian's Top 3 Legendary Tactical Moves | Fired for Being Right
Warfare Genius
239,612 views
Heinz Guderian broke the French Army in 1940 and helped trap an entire Soviet army group in 1941. On Christmas 1941, he was sent home in disgrace for pulling his freezing soldiers back from ground they could not hold.
He was a signals officer who did not sit inside a tank until 1929. By 1937 he had written the book on armoured warfare. In May 1940 his panzers crossed the Ardennes, a forest the French high command called impenetrable, and forced the Meuse at Sedan in 57 hours. Six days later they were standing on the English Channel.
This mini documentary breaks down the three moves that made Guderian the most famous tank commander of the Second World War: the breakthrough at Sedan, the race to the Channel, and the encirclement at Kiev. Then it follows him into the Russian winter, where a five-hour argument with Hitler ended his command.
Three campaigns, one method. Concentrate everything at the point the enemy believes is safe. Never stop moving. And never let a no-retreat order destroy an army that could have been saved.
WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS
→ The winter of 1941 and the order to hold frozen ground at any cost
→ Guderian's career as a signals officer and why radio was the secret of the panzer division
→ Achtung – Panzer! (1937) and the theory of the concentrated armoured fist
→ Pétain, Gamelin and the myth of the impenetrable Ardennes
→ The rolling air attack at Sedan and why it destroyed almost nothing
→ 13 May 1940: rubber boats on the Meuse and the panic of Bulson
→ "Klotzen, nicht kleckern" and the principle of concentration
→ The halt orders, the "reconnaissance in force" loophole, and 90 kilometres in a single day
→ Abbeville, the English Channel, and the trap that led to Dunkirk
→ Hitler's turn south to Ukraine and Guderian's reversal at headquarters
→ Stalin's refusal to abandon Kiev
→ The Desna bridge and the link-up at Lokhvitsa on 14 September 1941
→ 665,000 prisoners claimed, and what Soviet records actually show
→ The Moscow counteroffensive, the Frederick the Great argument, and "you feel too much pity for them"
→ Field Marshal von Kluge and the dismissal of Christmas 1941
→ What Guderian's memoir left out
CHAPTERS
0:00 The Frozen Order
1:22 The Signals Officer
2:50 Move One: The Breakthrough at Sedan
7:05 Move Two: The Race to the Channel
10:46 Move Three: The Encirclement at Kiev
14:59 Winter 1941
16:21 Fired for Being Right
16:42 The Verdict
RESEARCH AND SOURCES
Figures and quotations in this script were drawn from the following:
Karl-Heinz Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend, for the Sedan crossing, the air attack and the French casualty figures
Julian Jackson, The Fall of France, for the Allied plan and the collapse on the Meuse
David Stahel, Kiev 1941, for the Kiev operation and the critique of the German prisoner claim
G.F. Krivosheev (ed.), Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century, for Soviet loss figures
Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945: Nemesis, for the 20 December 1941 meeting
Russell A. Hart, Guderian: Panzer Pioneer or Myth Maker?, for the assessment of his reputation
Heinz Guderian, Panzer Leader, used as memoir testimony rather than neutral record
A NOTE ON THE NUMBERS
The 665,000 prisoners announced after Kiev is a German wartime claim, not an established figure. Soviet archival data give roughly 616,000 men killed, captured or missing across the whole Kiev defensive operation. Sources differ on whether Guderian was relieved on 25 or 26 December 1941; the video says Christmas 1941 for that reason. The distance from Sedan to the Channel is a straight-line estimate of about 225 kilometres. And Panzer Leader is indispensable on the mechanics of armoured warfare, but it polished its author's image and left out his command's role in criminal orders on the Eastern Front.
FURTHER READING
Heinz Guderian, Achtung – Panzer!, 1937
Karl-Heinz Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West
David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East
David Stahel, Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany's Winter Campaign, 1941–1942
David M. Glantz and Jonathan House, When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi–Soviet War, 1941–1945
Which of the three do you rate highest: Sedan, the Channel, or Kiev? And which commander should Warfare Genius cover next? Leave it in the comments.
Subscribe for more tactical breakdowns of the commanders who changed how wars are fought.
#HeinzGuderian #MilitaryHistory #WW2