Word: guderian
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...Chief of the Army General Staff, the Führer chose a different sort of man. He was neither an all-out Nazi nor an old-line Prussian officer, but an adroit military technician, with links to both camps. He was Colonel General Heinz Guderian (rhymes with agrarian), the Wehrmacht's No. 1 tank general, the kind of officer (Hitler hoped) who would not break, no matter how sure was defeat, how dismal the amateur attempts of the Party high command to stave...
What Manner of Man? Guderian's appointment to replace bumbling, Nazified Colonel General Kurt Zeitzler surprised military observers in the Allied capitals (and perhaps in Germany as well). The choice raised puzzling questions. Why did an Army everywhere in retreat need a tank specialist as its top planner? Was Guderian to be the strong man for the Army, or a figurehead for Hitler himself? Was his main job military (to revise Army strategy) or political (to hold the lid down during a ruthless purge of "unreliable" elements)? Was Guderian himself politically reliable, as far as the Party was concerned...
...Heinz Guderian's career, there were a few clues. At 56, taking over the biggest command of his life, Guderian was judged by his enemies a sound tactician and dynamic leader. His personal courage and tactical aggressiveness were well established. A singleminded, painstaking planner, he was always willing to take a calculated risk. He had won some of Germany's most striking victories in World War II. But he was also a general who had lost his most important battle-at a high-water mark of Nazi conquest...
What he needed was an able officer, acceptable to the old-line officers and to the Party men, but not too deeply involved with either group. In bringing Heinz Guderian back from obscurity Hitler may well have tapped the only general who could and would take...
...corroding the mighty German war machine; Army officers had tried to kill Adolf Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime (see FOREIGN NEWS). The attempt itself marked a fateful trend within the Reich; even more significant were the admissions by Hitler and his new chief of staff, Colonel General Heinz Guderian, that the proud German officer corps was disaffected, that officers on active service were involved in the plot...