Panzer Leader

by Heinz Guderian

  I slept in the room that had been Napoleon’s.

  Unfortunately our host, Count Dohna, was sick in a Berlin clinic, so that I had not the honour of meeting him or his countess. He was kind enough to write telling me to make free of his deer. Since we had not yet received orders concerning our future employment, and only knew that we were to be detached from Fourth Army and placed immediately under the command of Army Group von Bock, I thought that I could accept his kind offer without detriment to the performance of my military duties. While my divisions were crossing the river during the night of the 7th and early morning of the 8th, I therefore went hunting and had the good fortune to bag a large twelve-pointer. The conscientious bailiff responsible for the administration of the Count’s forest lands insisted on personally acting as my guide.

  On the 8th of September all my divisions were across the river at Mewe and Käsemark, and events began to develop more rapidly. In the evening I was told to go to the Army Group headquarters at Allenstein to receive my orders. I left Finkenstein at about 19.30 hrs. and between 21.30 and 22.30 hrs. I was given my new instructions.

  The Army Group’s original intention was to attach my corps to General von Küchler’s Third Army: it was to operate in close coordination with his left flank and to advance from the Arys area, through Lomsha, towards the eastern side of Warsaw. It seemed to me that such close co-operation with an infantry army was not in accordance with the full potentialities of my troops. I pointed out that the proposed operation would not enable me to make use of the speed of my motorised divisions, and that a slow advance on our part would give the Poles in the Warsaw area the chance of withdrawing eastwards and of establishing a new defensive line along the River Bug. I therefore suggested to the Chief of Staff of the Army Group, General von Salmuth, that my Panzer Corps remain under direct Army Group control and be pushed forward on the left of Küchler’s army, through Vizna, along the east bank of the Bug, with Brest-Litovsk as its objective. This would frustrate any attempt on the part of the Poles now in and around Warsaw to establish new defensive positions. Salmuth and Colonel-General von Bock agreed to my suggestion; I received the necessary orders and went at once to the military training area Arys, where I told the corps order group to assemble (to receive fresh orders for the advance on the Narev River). Of my old divisions, I was to retain the 3rd Panzer Division and the 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division. The 2nd (Motorised) Infantry Division was for the time being withdrawn from my command into Army Group reserve. The 10th Panzer Division, which up to then had formed part of Küchler’s army, together with the Fortress Infantry Brigade Lötzen, a newly formed unit of men from the older age-groups, were now subordinated to my XIX Corps: both these units were at present in action along the Narev in the neighbourhood of Vizna.

  Orders were issued to the two divisions which had previously formed part of the corps. This took place at Arys between 02.00 and 04.30 hrs. on September 9th. I then drove to Korzeniste, 11 miles north of Lomsha, to visit General von Falkenhorst, the commander of XXI Army Corps which was now on my right; I wished to find out what his situation was and to hear what he might have to say about the units which I was now to command. I arrived there between 05.00 and 06.00 hrs., woke the officers and let them describe to me the previous battles on their front. I now learned that an attempt to capture Lomsha by means of a coup de main had failed, partly owing to the stubborn defence offered by the Poles, but partly also due to the inexperience of our own troops. XXI Army Corps was immobilised on the northern bank of the Narev.

  At 08.00 hrs. I arrived at Vizna where I found the staff of the 10th Panzer Division. Its commander, General Schaal, had had an accident and the division was now under General Stumpff. The latter informed me that his infantry was over the river and had reported the capture of the Polish fortified positions dominating this sector. The battle was continuing. Reassured by this news I next visited the Lötzen Brigade; originally this unit had been intended to garrison these fortifications, but now had to cross the Narev in open battle. The brigade and its commander, Colonel Gall, made an excellent impression on me. They crossed the river and went into the attack. Quite satisfied with the measures that the brigade commander was taking, I returned to the 10th Panzer Division.

  When I arrived back in Vizna I found to my disappointment that the morning’s report on the successes of the division’s infantry was based on a misapprehension. They were across the river but they had not reached the concrete defence emplacements on the far bank. For the time being nothing was happening. I therefore crossed the river myself to see the regimental commander. I did not succeed in discovering his command post. The battalion’s headquarters were very well hidden, too. I found myself in the front line. There was no sign of the division’s tanks, which were in fact all still on the north bank of the Narev. I therefore sent back my adjutant to order them across. In the front line an extraordinary performance was going on; when I asked what was happening I was told that the foremost companies were being relieved. It looked like nothing so much as a guard-mounting parade. The troops knew nothing about any order to attack. An artillery observer from the heavy artillery was located in the middle of the infantry and had no idea what he was supposed to be doing there. No one knew where the enemy was; there was no sort of reconnaissance being carried out. I first put a stop to the remarkable manœuvre of company reliefs, and then ordered that the regimental and battalion commanders be brought to me. 1 next gave the artillery observer orders to lay down fire on the Polish positions. When the regimental commander at last turned up I immediately set out to find the enemy’s front line and he and 1 went forward until we came under fire. We were by this time immediately in front of the concrete emplacements, where we stumbled on a German anti-tank gun, whose brave commander had advanced this far on his own. It was from here that we mounted the attack. 1 cannot pretend that I was anything but very disappointed by what had so far happened.

  General Sketch Map 2.

  The Advance into Poland. Situation 9.9–18.9.39.

  When I returned to the Narev, I found the tank regiment still on the northern bank. The regimental commander was ordered to cross the river with all speed. Since the bridges were not yet ready the tanks had to be ferried across. It was 18.00 hrs. before the attack could at last be launched. It was immediately successful and our casualties were very light. An energetic and determined leadership could easily have secured these results in the morning.

  Before going to my corps headquarters, which was now established in Vizna, I gave both verbal and written orders to the engineer officer responsible for bridge-building; bridges over the Narev were to be built with all possible speed since they were urgently needed for transporting the 10th and ultimately the 3rd Panzer Divisions to the far side.

  When I arrived at my headquarters I drew up orders for the following day: the 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division was to cross the Narev on the right of the 10th Panzer Division, while the 3rd Panzer Division was to follow behind the 10th. We slept in the newly built vicarage of Vizna, an uncompleted and almost uninhabitable building, but all the others were worse.

  It was not until 05.00 hrs. on the 10th of September that I discovered that the bridges over the Narev, which were to have been ready by midnight, had been dismantled on the orders of the 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division’s commander and moved downstream where they were to be put up anew for his division to cross. The two panzer divisions were therefore compelled to go on using ferries and nothing but ferries. It was desperate. The engineer officer had not informed the divisional commander of my order. The latter had acted in all good faith. Now we had to wait till evening before a new bridge was built for the tanks.

  On this day General Wiktorin’s 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division became involved in heavy fighting near Zambrov. Strong elements of the division were marching towards the Bug in the direction of Nur. I had sent the Reconnaissance Demonstration Battalion ahead of the division to this crossing-place over the Bug, and the batt
alion had arrived there without encountering any resistance. The 10th Panzer Division pushed on to Bransk, fighting a number of engagements on the way. I followed this division towards evening and spent the night in the burning village of Vysokie-Masovieski. My corps staff, which had crossed the Narev that evening and was following behind me, could not get through a small village that was on fire north of Vysokie-Masovieski, and so we were compelled to spend the night in separate villages, a bad state of affairs from the command point of view. I had ordered the move of the headquarters prematurely; we would have done better to have spent another night in Vizna.

  Sketch Map 2.

  Advance of XXI Army Corps to Brest-Litovsk. Situation 8.9”17.9.39.

  I passed the morning of September 11th impatiently awaiting the arrival of my staff. Polish forces, trying to withdraw south-east from Lomsha, had cut across the route of advance of the 20th (Motorised) Division at a point south of Zambrov and were causing that division considerable trouble. The divisional commander decided to order the portion of his command which was beyond the Poles, advancing on the Bug, to turn round in order that he might encircle the enemy and destroy him. I moved a part of the 10th Panzer Division across to help in this manœuvre. Meanwhile a rumour had spread through the 3rd Panzer Division, which was moving up on the left of the 10th, that I was myself in danger of being surrounded by Poles in Vysokie-Masovieski. Motorcycle Rifle Battalion 3 therefore turned off towards Vysokie to get me out. The men were very pleased when they found me standing safe and sound in the middle of the village street. This often-shown feeling of comradeship which the motor-cyclists displayed was good to see.

  Corps headquarters spent the night at Vysokie-Masovieski.

  On the 12th of September the 20th (Motorised) Division, together with those elements of the 10th Panzer Division sent to its assistance, succeeded in surrounding the Poles near Andrzeievo. The 10th Panzer Division reached Vysokie-Litovsk, the 3rd Panzer Division Bielsk. I myself had driven to Bielsk with the foremost troops of the reconnaissance battalion, and was thus able to receive their signal by hand. In the afternoon I saw my son Kurt.

  The corps headquarters was moved to Bielsk. The 2nd (Motorised) Infantry Division was freed from Army Group reserve and once again placed under my command. It was ordered to advance along the line Lomsha–Bielsk and thus rejoin the rest of the corps. The order contained the words ‘the divisional commander to come on ahead.’ When, in the morning of the 13th, General Bader, in accordance to this order, was advancing well in front of his division, accompanied only by a wireless signals truck, he ran into Polish troops between Bransk and Bielsk who had managed to escape from the Andrzeievo pocket; he had to spend a few uncomfortable hours under fire before his competent wireless operator managed to let us know what had happened so that we could get them out. This accident was a lesson to us.

  On this date the Poles near Andrzeievo surrendered. The commander of the 18th Polish Division was among the prisoners. The 3rd Panzer Division reached Kaminiec-Litovsk. They had reconnoitred as far as Brest-Litovsk. Orders for the attack on that fortress were given. We spent the night in Bielsk.

  We knew that Polish forces had reached the famous forest of Bielovieza. I wanted to avoid a battle in the forest since this would have distracted us from our main objective—the capture of Brest-Litovsk—and would have tied up a sizeable portion of our force. I therefore contented myself with leaving troops to observe the edge of the forest.

  On the 14th of September elements of the 10th Panzer Division, consisting of the Reconnaissance Battalion and of Panzer Regiment 8, broke through the line of fortified positions outside Brest. I immediately ordered the whole corps to advance with all speed on Brest in order to exploit this surprise success.

  We spent the night in Vysokie-Litovsk.

  On the 15th of September the ring was closed around Brest on the east bank of the Bug. An attempt to capture the citadel by means of a surprise tank attack failed, owing to the Poles having blocked the entrance gate by parking an old Renault tank at an angle across it, so that our tanks could not force their way in.

  Corps headquarters that night was at Kaminiec-Litovsk.

  The 20th (Motorised) Division and the 10th Panzer Division were deployed for a concerted attack on the citadel to take place on the 16th. They stormed the encircling wall but there the attack faltered owing to the failure of the infantry regiment of the 10th Panzer Division to advance, as ordered, immediately behind the creeping barrage that the artillery was putting down. When the regiment, in whose front line I myself was, did at last attack too late and without orders, it suffered sadly heavy casualties without reaching its objective. My adjutant, Lieutenant-Colonel Braubach, was severely wounded on this occasion, and died of his wounds a few days later. Fire from troops to the rear had been falling among our own advanced units; he had gone back in an attempt to stop this. A Polish sniper on the top of the rampart shot him at a range of 100 yards. His was a painful loss.

  The 3rd Panzer Division, skirting Brest on the east, headed south towards Vlodava; the 2nd (Motorised) Division, following behind, moved east in the direction of Kobryn.

  Corps headquarters remained in Kaminiec-Litovsk.

  Early on September 17th the citadel was captured by the 76th Infantry Regiment under Colonel Gollnik, which had crossed over to the west bank of the Bug during the night. They captured it at the exact moment when the Polish garrison was about to attempt to break out westwards across the undamaged bridge over the Bug. This marked in a way the end of the campaign. Corps headquarters was transferred to Brest and established itself in the Voivodschaft. We learned that the Russians were advancing from the east.

  The Polish campaign was the baptism of fire for my armoured formations. I was convinced that they had fully proved their value and that the work which had gone into building them up had been well spent. We were standing along the Bug, facing west, ready to receive the rest of the Polish Army. The corps’ rear was covered by the 2nd (Motorised) Division, which still had heavy fighting to do before Kobryn. We were expecting at any moment to establish contact with the armoured forces moving up from the south. Our most forward reconnaissance troops reached Luboml.

  Meanwhile the Fourth Army under Colonel-General von Kluge had caught up with us, and we were once again placed under its command. The Fortress Brigade Lötzen, which had fought so bravely on the Narev, had continued for a few days to be our left wing before it was subordinated to Fourth Army. Fourth Army now ordered that XIX Army Corps move forward, one division to go south, one to go east towards Kobryn, and one to go north-east towards Bialystok. Such a move would have split the corps and would have made all attempts at command impossible. The appearance of the Russians rendered these orders obsolete before they could be carried out.

  As forerunner of the Russians there appeared a young officer in an armoured reconnaissance car, who informed us that a Russian Tank Brigade was on its way. Then we received information concerning the demarcation line which the Foreign Ministry had agreed; this surrendered Brest to the Russians, since the Bug was to be the boundary. We did not regard this as a very advantageous decision; and finally we were informed that we only had until the 22nd of September in which to evacuate the territory east of the line of demarcation. This was so little time that we could not even move all our wounded or recover our damaged tanks. It seems unlikely that any soldier was present when the agreement about the demarcation line and the cease fire was drawn up.

  There is one more small incident that occurred in Brest-Litovsk and that seems to me worth recording. The Bishop of Danzig, O’Rourq, together with the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Hlond, had fled east-wards from Warsaw. When the two princes of the Church arrived at Brest they were much surprised to find the Germans already installed. The Cardinal slipped away to the south-east and managed to reach Rumania. The Bishop of Danzig decided to go north-east and thus fell straight into our hands. He asked for an interview with me, which I willingly gave him in Brest. Since he did
not know where he could find safety, and since in no circumstances did he wish to be handed over to the Russians, I suggested that he travel back with one of my supply columns which brought our stuff down from Koenigsberg. Once there he could easily get in touch with the Bishop of Ermland and place himself under the latter’s protection. The Bishop accepted my suggestion, and he and his entourage thus escaped without harm from the war zone. He wrote me a charming letter, in which he spoke of the chivalrous traditions of the German officer corps, to thank me for the assistance I had been able to give him.

  On the day for handing over to the Russians a Brigadier-General Krivochin appeared, a tank man who had some knowledge of French, and with whom I could therefore converse. What the instructions of the Foreign Ministry had left undecided I now settled in a friendly fashion directly with the Russians. All our equipment could be carried away: only supplies captured from the Poles had to be left behind, since in the short time at our disposal we had not been able to organise the transport necessary for their removal. A farewell parade and salutes to the two flags in the presence of General Krivochin marked the end of our stay in Brest-Litovsk.