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Tanks in Russia. After World War I, Guderian remained in the army of 100,000 left to Germany. At the time his chance of becoming a tank expert was slim; tanks were forbidden to the Reichswehr. But the Junker generals could always find a way. Russia was an outcast country, too, and a secret agreement was worked out in 1922 allowing the establishment of German training bases on Russian soil. Because he spoke fluent Russian and Polish, Guderian was sent to study tank warfare; the tank became his obsession.
Soon after Hitler's rise to power, he got the green light to proceed with the formation of 24 motorized infantry companies and lay the foundation of a tank corps to work with them. Around this time he was riding his hobby so hard that many fellow officers regarded him as something of a crackpot, like the tank-minded De Gaulle in France or air-minded Billy Mitchell in the U.S. More fortunate than either, he was a prophet with official support in his own country.
He dashed about briskly, campaigning for tanks and tank warfare. He even appealed to the public. He whipped off pieces for the magazines on the Motor v. the Horse. He hit the market in 1938 with a book, Achtung Panzer! U.S. readers would find it heavy going, but to generals like Rundstedt and Beck it was a disgusting popularization of matters which were none of a civilian reader's business.
Worst of all, the book became a bestseller. Then Guderian brashly declared his opinion that the armored-force commander ought to command the whole army in battle. If this unseemly activity had continued, the Prussians might have decided to do something about Guderian, but the war came along, and presently, in Poland, in France, in Russia they found the man with the tanks mowing down the opposition. He was popular: he won victories, laurels, decorations, occasionally even field marshals' batons for his superiors.
Tank Defense. Guderian's own baton presumably was waiting for him at Moscow, but, like a Chekhov character, he never got there. After that defeat he apparently did some sober thinking, and set out to rewrite his tank doctrine in terms of defense tactics. In the past year he has reorganized German Panzer formations, especially training units of Panzer Grenadiers for antitank warfare. He also had dealings with Himmler's SS troops, supervising the transformation of several SS divisions to SS Panzers, and trained higher SS officers to serve as tank commanders. This willingness to do anything to get along in the world may have helped restore him to Adolf Hitler's favor.
When the call for Chief of Staff came, Guderian made no public show of reluctance. A man of great ambition and vast self-confidence, he could no more have turned down such a promotion than he could give up breathing.