| Ernst Volckheim | |
|---|---|
Lieutenant Volckheim (arrow) with his World War 1 "506" crew next to their tank, "Old Fritz" shortly before the end of the war |
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| Born | 11 April 1898 Bornheim, Germany |
| Died | 1 September 1962 (aged 64) Germany |
| Allegiance | German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany |
| Service/branch | Imperial German Army, German Army (Wehrmacht) |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Commands held | Oberkommando des Heeres |
| Battles/wars | World War I World War II |
Ernst Volckheim (11 April 1898 – 1 September 1962) was one of the founders of armored and mechanized warfare. A German officer in the First and Second World War, Volkheim rose to the rank of a German Lieutenant Colonel, during World War II in the German Army. Little known outside of professional military and historical circles, Volkheim is considered the foremost military academic influence on German tank war proponent, Heinz Guderian, because both Volkheim's teaching as well as his 1924 professional military articles place him as one of the very earliest theorists of armored warfare and the use of German armored formations including independent tank corps.
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Ernst Volckheim joined the Army in 1915 as a war volunteer and in 1916 was made an officer, at the rank of lieutenant. In 1917 he was given command of a machine gun company and served on the Western Front in the Imperial German Army, Reichswehr and Wehrmacht during the First World War. In April, 1918, as a member of the imperial tank corps, Volckheim fought in the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and won the tank battle's armor insignia. Shortly before the end of the war he was severely wounded. With the end of World War I, Volkheim was elected to the newly established Reichswehr, and served in the rank of lieutenant in the Kraftfahrtruppe. With his transfer to an inspector of transport troops in 1923, Volckheim also began his theoretical work on the use of armored vehicle as an element of combat leadership. In 1925, Volckheim, a young lieutenant, was ordered to the officer school in Dresden and there began to teach armored combat theory and operational concepts including in the use of motorized troops. Between 1923 and 1927, he published numerous articles and books on the subject of armored combat in the military journal, Militär Wochenblatt. (Military Weekly). This work caught the attention of retired General Konstantin Altrock, the publisher of the newspaper, Militär Wochenblatt. Soon, Volckheim became the magazine's editor in chief and frequent contributor to the monthly magazine. From 1932 to 1933, Volckheim was a tactics instructor training Soviet military exchange officer instructors at the secret German-Soviet tank school "Kama" in Kazan. There, Volckheim both lectured and gained practical experience with tanks and motorized warfare. In the late 1930s, he worked on the development of the guiding principles of armored combat doctrine for the newly developed and still largely secret German armored forces.
While the much better known German officer, General Heinz Guderian would claim by the 1930s to be the 'Father of Blitzkrieg,' and give Volckheim only passing credit, this claim has been challenged in modern times by such military historians as James S. Corum as a gross self-exaggeration. In fact, Guderian's actual publications before 1936 were relatively few in number, and some historians such as Corum have claimed that they did not address questions of fundamental armored combat doctrine. Guderian's famous book, Achtung Panzer was an influential early publication on armored warfare, and while forcefully written, when compared to Volckheim's early writings, Guderian's book was not particularly original. Modern historians now see Guderian's true inspiration for German armored doctrine to be the largely unsung Volckheim. Guderian made only passing mention of Volckheim in his memoirs. Nevertheless, no matter how much Guderian was or was not directly influenced by Volckheim's ideas, with Guderian's much higher rank as a general officer and subsequent influence within both Army and Nazi Party circles, it would be Guderian who would become one of the driving forces in both the development and wider acceptance of the possibilities of armored and mechanized forces in the German Army.
At the onset of World War II, Lieutenant Colonel Volckheim served on the staff of the First Armored Division 1940 in Norway. In 1941, he was given command of the armored troops academy.