Heinz Guderian (1888-1954) was born in Kulm, West Prussia (now Chełmno, Poland). His family, like many Prussians, was historically composed of noble landowners and lawyers, and his father was the only soldier to whom he was closely related. Guderian, being the son of a soldier, moved around a lot during his youth until he himself joined the army in 1907. During World War I Guderian served as a signals officer, giving him an idea of ​​how technology could be used to facilitate military actions. . Post-war Guderian found himself in the German army (Reichswehr) reduced to 100,000 men, where he slowly began to develop his ideas of mobile warfare, gathering ideas from fellow military theorists JFC Fuller, BH Liddell Hart and Charles de Gaulle. This culminated in Guderian's book Achtung – Panzer! which outlined his ideas on armor and aircraft in modern warfare. Guderian eventually managed to test his theories in action with the onset of World War II, making dramatic advances in Poland, France, and Russia. Perhaps because of his role as one of the first to espouse both theoretical and practical implementations of blitzkrieg, he is sometimes called the father of blitzkrieg and modern military theory. Panzer Leader, or Erinnerungen eienes Soldaten (Memoirs of a Soldier) in the original German, is apparently Heinz Guderian's autobiography covering perhaps the most critical and important years of his life; its early struggles within the German Army to create and develop the German armored forces, the first German successes from 1939 to 1941 starting with the incorporation of Austria and the Sudetenland into the Reich, followed by campaigns in Poland, France and the initial invasion of the S...... middle of paper ...... ago at the depot of war literature should prove interesting to the student of the author's specialized mind and personal career. It is of less interest as a study and analysis of German strategy and tactics. ”and, in general, I agree. But it will forever be a shame that one of the major forces behind blitzkrieg and modern military theory provided so little direct information about his life and ideas. Works Cited Addington, Larry H., The Blitzkrieg Era and the German General Staff, 1865-1941 (New Jersey, 1971) Guderian, Heinz, Panzer Leader (Toronto, 2000) Macksey, Kenneth, Guderian: Panzer General (London, 1975) Norman, Albert, 'Review: Panzer Leader', The American Historical Review 58, no. 4 (1953), pp. 918-920.Rothbrust, Florian K., Guderian's XIXth Panzer Corps and the Battle of France: Breakthrough in the Adennes, May 1940 (New York, 1990)