Would you have promoted Heinz Guderian to General Feld-Marschall? I know Hitler and he had some severe disagreements but that may be to Guderian’s credit.
Given his record as an armored division and corps commander, I think he more than deserved the rank. I think he ranks with von Manstein and Rommel as perhaps the Heer’s best field commander. He swept the French and British from him on the Western front and came within a hairs breath of taking Moscow.
Opinions?
Personally I got the opinion that “Quick Heinz” -the inventor of the tankforces as an independant branch of arms- deserved to be promoted to Field Marshal. But it has been exactly these “differences” with Hitler (and Field Marshal von Kluge as supreme commander of the 4th army and after that of Heeresgruppe Mitte) that averted this.
As an aside, I’ve got a copy of Achtung Panzer and I’m not terribly impressed. It’s very much a “rah rah” document, trying to make the Panzer forces seem far more important than they actually were, and trying to exaggerate the effects of tanks in WW1.
His promotion would not have been due to publication of his book, whether it was “rah, rah” or not. It would have been due to his absolute effectiveness as a panzer leader in combat in both the western and eastern fronts.
He was not appointed Inspector of the Panzer Forces for nothing. He knew what to do with armor and what kinds were most effective. I maintain his differences with der Fuehrer were based on legitimate military objections to the "corporal’'s war direction.
He should have been promoted prior to the final assault on Moscow IMHO.:shock: