 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Walter Warlimont | |
|---|---|
 Warlimont in 1939 | |
| Deputy Chief of the Operations Staff of theArmed Forces High Command | |
| In office 1 September 1939 – 6 September 1944 | |
| Leader | Alfred Jodl |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Horst Freiherr Treusch von Buttlar-Brandenfels |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1894-10-03)3 October 1894 |
| Died | 9 October 1976(1976-10-09) (aged 82) |
| Spouse | |
| Parent(s) | Louis Warlimont (father) Anna Rinck (mother) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch/service | |
| Years of service | 1914–1945 |
| Rank | General der Artillerie |
| Battles/wars | World War I World War II |
Walter Warlimont (WAH-li-moh;[1] 3 October 1894 – 9 October 1976) was a GermanArmystaff officer andgeneral duringWorld War II. He served as deputy chief of the Operations Staff, one of the departments in theOberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the Armed Forces High Command. Following the war, Warlimont was convicted in theHigh Command Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment as awar criminal. He was released in 1954.
Warlimont was born inOsnabrück,Germany. In June 1914, just before the start ofWorld War I, he was commissioned as asecond lieutenant in the 10th Prussian Foot Artillery Regiment based inAlsace. During the war, he served as an artillery officer and battery commander inFrance and later inItaly. In late 1918, he served in GeneralLudwig Maercker'sFreikorpsJäger rifle corps.
In the inter-war years, Warlimont served in various military roles. In 1922, he served in the 6th Artillery Regiment and in 1927, as a captain, he was the second adjutant to GeneralWerner von Blomberg, chief of theTruppenamt, the covert German General Staff.[2] In May 1929, Warlimont was attached to theU.S. Army for a year to study American industrial mobilization theory during wartime. This led to his service between 1930 and 1933 as a major on the staff of the Industrial Mobilization Section of the German Defence Ministry. He became the Section's chief in 1935.
Between August and November 1936, following the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War, Warlimont served as the Reich War Minister (OKH General Staff)'sWehrmachtPlenipotentiary Delegate to the government of Spanish GeneralFrancisco Franco inSpain. Reich War MinisterWerner von Blomberg directed Warlimont to coordinate German aid in support of Franco's battle against the Spanish government forces.
In 1937, he wrote theWarlimont Memorandum calling for the reorganisation of the German armed forces under one staff unit and one supreme commander. The plan was to limit the power of the high officer caste in favour ofAdolf Hitler. On the basis of this memorandum, Hitler developed theOberkommando der Wehrmacht (High command of the armed forces), with Hitler as supreme commander. Warlimont was rewarded in 1939 with a post as deputy to GeneralAlfred Jodl. In 1938 he was promoted to colonel and became commander of the 26th Artillery Regiment.
In late 1938, Warlimont became Senior Operations Staff Officer to GeneralWilhelm Keitel. This was a coveted position, and so between September 1939 and September 1944 he served as Deputy Chief of the Operations Staff (Wehrmachtführungsstab: WFSt: Armed Forces Operations Staff). General Jodl was his superior officer, who served as Chief of the Operations Staff, which was responsible for all strategic, executive and war-operations planning.
While serving on this military operations planning staff, in early 1939 he assisted in developing some of the German military invasion plans of Poland. On 1 September 1939, German military forces invaded Poland, thereby starting World War II.
1940 saw his promotion toGeneralmajor, and he assisted in developing the invasion plans of France. During theBattle of France, on June 14, 1940, Warlimont, in an audacious move, asked the pilot of his personalFieseler Storch to land on thePlace de la Concorde in central Paris.[3] In 1941, he continued to assist in developing invasion operations into Russia. This earned his promotion toGeneralleutnant in 1942.
His meteoric advancement in rank almost sputtered out on 3 November 1942 when he was relieved of his job after a junior subordinate failed to process a message from Field MarshalErwin Rommel sufficiently promptly. However, only five days later he was recalled to duty to visit the FrenchVichy Government in France to coordinate the defense of their colonial territories from possible occupation by the Allies.
In February 1943, Warlimont travelled toTunis to confer withRommel as to whether or not the Germans should abandonNorth Africa.
In early 1944, Warlimont was promoted toGeneral of the Artillery. As Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces Operations Staff, he continued to give almost daily briefings to Hitler regarding the status of German military operations.
OnD-Day, when the Allies invadedNormandy, France, Warlimont telephoned Jodl to request that the German tanks in Normandy should be released to attack the Allied invaders. Jodl responded that he did not want to make that decision; they would have to wait until Hitler awoke. Once Hitler awoke and authorised the release of the tanks for a counter-attack, it was too late to blunt the successful Allied invasion. The following day, Hitler sent Warlimont to inspect the German defences inItaly.
On 20 July 1944, Warlimont was wounded during theassassination bombing against Hitler in a war-briefing building inRastenburg. He suffered a mild head concussion. Later in the day, he telephoned Field MarshalGünther von Kluge and convinced him that Hitler was alive; this prompted Kluge not to continue in the anti-Hitler coup. Even though Warlimont was wounded alongside Hitler, he was wrongly suspected of having been involved in the anti-Hitler conspiracy.[citation needed] In spite of this, he belatedly received the special20th of July Wound Badge, which was awarded only to those few wounded or killed in the 20 July explosion.[4]
On 22 July, Warlimont travelled to France to meet with Field Marshal Rommel (who had been wounded a week earlier by an Allied aeroplane attack) and Rommel's naval aide Vice AdmiralFriedrich Ruge, to discuss the deteriorating battlefield situation in Normandy.
Even though Hitler (inWolfsschanze) ordered Warlimont to travel to Paris on 1 August to study the German military situation there with Field Marshal von Kluge, Hitler thought that Warlimont might have been involved in the conspiracy to have him assassinated (an action which Warlimont denied). On 2 August, Warlimont met outside Paris with GeneralGünther Blumentritt and advised him that Hitler wanted the Germans to regain the offensive initiative against the Allies throughOperation Lüttich. Later, Warlimont urged GeneralHeinrich Eberbach to continue his attacks in theFalaise pocket region. Although all the German generals informed Warlimont that they believed the attack would fail, he cabled Hitler that the generals were "confident of success".
At Warlimont's request, due to his dizzy spells resulting from the 20 July assassination bombing against Hitler, he was transferred and retired to the OKH Command Pool (theFührerreserve), and was not further employed during the war.
In October 1948, Warlimont was tried before a United States military tribunal in theHigh Command Trial, part of theSubsequent Nuremberg Trials. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, in part for his responsibility for drafting theBarbarossa Jurisdiction Order which allowed the murder of civilians on the pretext of counteracting partisan activity.[5] He also signed theorder to execute Russian political Commissars on sight.[6] His sentence was reviewed by the "Peck Panel", which made a more lenient recommendation. This leniency was heavily criticized byRobert R. Bowie who stated: "they [Reinecke,Kuechler and Warlimont] were all directly implicated in the program which encompassed the murder of commandos, commissars and captured allied airmen as well as in brutal mistreatment of prisoners of war".[7] His sentence was commuted to 18 years in 1951. He was released in June 1954.[4]
Walter Warlimont was a son of Louis Warlimont (1857–1923) and Anna Rinck (1860–1931). His parents came fromEupen, today part of theGerman-speaking Community of Belgium, and migrated to Osnabrück. His father was abookseller andantiquarian.
In 1927 Walter Warlimont married Anita von Kleydorff (1899–1987), daughter ofFranz Egenieff (born Marian Eberhard Franz Emil von Kleydorff), a son of Prince Emil zuSayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and US-born Paula Busch, a niece ofAdolphus Busch.
His brother was head of a factory in Vienna which made components for theV-2 rocket, using forced labour from theSoviet Union.[4]
In 1962, Warlimont wroteInside Hitler's Headquarters 1939–1945. He died in 1976 inKreuth near theTegernsee.
