4 Jan. 46
The High Command of the Armed Forces is
responsible in peacetime for the unified preparation of the defense of
the Reich in all areas according to my directives."
Dated at Berlin, 4 February 1938; signed by Hitler, by Lammers, and by
Keitel.
Underneath the OKW come the three supreme commands of the three
branches of the Armed Forces: OKH, OKM, and the Air Force. The Air Force
did not receive the official designation OKL until 1944. The Defendant
Raeder remained after 1938 as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, but Von
Fritsch, as well as Blomberg, passed out of the picture; Von Fritsch
being replaced by Von Brauchitsch as Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Göring
continued as Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force. In 1941 Von
Brauchitsch was replaced as Commander-in-Chief of the Army — that
is the first box in the left column — by Hitler himself; and in
1943 Raeder was replaced as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy by the
Defendant Dönitz. The Defendant Göring continued as
Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force until the last month of the war.
OKW, OKH, OKM, and OKL each had its own staff. These four staffs did
not have uniform designations. The three staffs of the Army, Navy, and
Air Force are the three boxes in a horizontal line next to the bottom.
The staff of the OKW is the little box to the right at the top, bearing
the names of Jodl and Warlimont.
In the case of OKH — that is the Army — the staff was known
as the Generalstab or the General Staff. In the case of OKW, it was
known as the Führungsstab or Operations Staff, but in all cases the
functions were those of a general staff in military parlance.
It will be seen, therefore, that in this war there was no single German
General Staff; but, rather, that there were four, one for each branch of
the service and one for the OKW as the over-all inter-service Supreme
Command.
So we come to the bottom line on the chart. Down to the bottom line we
have been concerned with the central staff organization at the center of
affairs. Now we pass to the field. Under OKH, OKM, and OKL come the
various fighting formations of the Army, Air Force, and Navy,
respectively.
In the Army the largest army field formation was known to the Germans,
as indeed it is among the nations generally, as an army group, or in
German "Heeresgruppe." Those are shown in the box in the lower
left hand comer. An army group or Heeresgruppe controls two or more
armies — in German, "Armeen." Underneath the armies come
the lower field formations, such as corps, divisions, and regiments,
which are not shown on the chart.
In the case of the German Air Force, the largest formation was known as
an air fleet or "Luftflotte," and the lower units under the