4 Jan. 46
Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and not of
the army group, who exercised executive power. Signed: Von
Brauchitsch."
There follows:
"Supplement to the statement of 7
November 1945: "When Hitler had made a decision to support the
realization of his political objectives through military pressure or
through the application of military force, the Commander-in-Chief of
the Army, if he was at all involved, ordinarily first received an
appropriate oral briefing or an appropriate oral command. Operational
and deployment plans were next worked out in the OKH. After these
plans had been presented to Hitler, generally by word of mouth, and
had been approved by him, there followed a written order from the OKW
to the three branches of the Armed Forces. In the meanwhile the OKH
began to transmit the operational and deployment plans to the army
groups and armies involved.
"Details of the operational and deployment plans were discussed
by the OKH with the commanders-in-chief of the army groups and armies
and with the chiefs of staff of these commanders, During the
operations the OKH maintained a constant exchange of ideas with the
army groups by means of telephone, radio, and courier. The
Commander-in-Chief of the Army used every opportunity to maintain a
personal exchange of ideas with the commanders of army groups, armies,
and lower echelons by means of personal visits to them.
"In the war against Russia the commanders of army groups and
armies were individually and repeatedly called in by Hitler for
report. Orders for all operational matters went from the OKH to army
groups, and for all matters concerning supply and territorial
executive power from the OKH directly to the armies. Signed: Von
Brauchitsch."
The
Oberbefehlshaber in the field, therefore — and in the case of the
Army that means the commanders-in-chief of army groups and armies —
participated in planning and directing the execution of the plans, as
those affidavits show. The Oberbefehlshaber were also the repositories
of general executive powers in the areas in which their army groups and
armies were operating. In this connection I invite the Court's attention
to Document 447-PS, which is already in evidence as Exhibit Number
USA-135, this being a directive of 13 March 1941 signed by Keitel and
issued by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. This directive sets
out various regulations for the operations against the Soviet Union
which were actually begun a few months later on 22 June. The documents,
Your Honor, are in numerical order in Document