Does Guderian, anywhere in Panzer Leader or elsewhere (perhaps in letters exchanged with Basil Liddell Hart post war), talk about why he chose to disobey orders on May 15th 1940 during the Battle of Sedan and advance in spite of the order to halt and wait for the infantry to catch up? He alludes to his reasoning but is surprisingly reticent to discuss it in his overview of the XIX Panzer Corps' actions during the Battle of Sedan.
I recall he was allowed to send a reconnaissance unit to go ahead towards the sea and the main troops wait for the infantry as Hitler was afraid the tanks would be surrounded and destoyed. How Guderian read the order is a different thing.
Guderian was a stubborn but very clever General leading his panzers. I recall from 1941 when he was ordered to attack south for the Kiev encirclement. He was angry. He was in the army Group center heading for Moscow and "Now my tanks are heading backwards to help the AGS when we should go forwards". He was not afraid of Hitler why I guess he ended in the reserves for a long time if I recall correctly.
I believe Hitler did have the final say in this however. It is interesting how in the early WW2 He was not ready for gambling on the battlefield and then ca. From Stalingrad he refused to give orders for troops to save themselves and lots of men were Lost in Stalingrad, Tunis, Normandy, Bagration and so on. The most stupid decision almost took place in Kharkov spring 1943 as Hitler ordered the SS panzer corps to stay in the City and the Russians almost pocketed them. Anyway, the stoppage of panzers in France 1940 have also been given to von Rundstedt in the first place and later on Hitler gave his permission to this order...oh well...
Yep, and when Patton (in the eponymous movie) won the battle of El Guettar he shouted "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!" Rommel's book was on infantry tactics.
