9th Panzer Division 1941-1945 by Castle Rock Publishing

Author:Castle Rock Publishing
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2015-06-16T16:00:00+00:00

The following little incident is typical of the way he used to do things. I had laid some technical question before him concerning tank development. He seemed doubtful, and he said to me: 'You should realise that all technicians are liars.' I replied: 'I admit they do tell lies, but their lies are generally found out after a year or two when their technical ideas can't be put into concrete shape. Tacticians tell lies too, but in their case the lies only become evident after the next war has been lost and by then it's too late to do anything about it.' Fritsch, as was his custom, twisted his monocle in his fingers before replying: 'You may be right.' Though he was extremely reserved and even shy at large gatherings, when he was among friends whom he trusted he proved himself to be open-hearted and affable. He was possessed of a fine wit when he wished to use it and of a most attractively charming manner.

A more difficult personality was that of the new Chief of the General Staff, General Beck. His was an upright character, a calm, almost too calm, and thoughtful man of the old school, a disciple of Moltke; it was Beck's intention to form a General Staff for the new army of the Third Reich of which Moltke would have approved. He had no under­standing for modern technical-matters. Since he inevitably chose men with much of his own attitude to fill the more important General Staff posts, and even more so to form his own close circle, as time went on he erected—without wishing to do so—a barrier of reaction at the very centre of the army which was to prove very difficult to overcome. He disapproved of the plans of the armoured force: he wanted the tanks to be employed primarily as infantry support weapons, and the largest tank unit that he would agree to was the Panzer Brigade. He was not interested in the formation of Panzer Divisions.

I had to win a long-drawn-out fight with General Beck before he would agree to the setting up of the Panzer, Divisions and to the publication of the training manuals for armoured troops. Finally he went so far as to agree to the establishment of two Panzer Divisions, while I was already insisting on three. I described the advantages of these new formations to him in the most glowing terms, and in par­ticular their operational significance. He replied: 'No, no, I don't want to have anything to do with you people. You move too fast for me.' When I maintained that, thanks to the recent developments of wireless, command could still be maintained despite great speed of advance, he did not believe me. It was frequently repeated in our training manuals that all unit commanders should be as far forward as possible, and he did not like this at all. 'But you can't command without maps and telephones. Haven't you ever read Schlieffen?' That even a divisional

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