Commander in Chief West
Oberbefehlshaber West , short form OB West , was a high command for the troops of the German armed forces in the occupied territories created after the end of the western campaign on October 25, 1940 . H. in the Netherlands , Belgium and the occupied part of France excluding Alsace , Lorraine and Luxembourg , which were under the CdZ administration .
OB West was not responsible for the occupation administration; the authority to issue orders with respect to the civil authorities lay with a so-called “pure” military administration under the French military commander , which was subordinate to the OKH . However, this form of occupation administration did not prove successful and was abandoned again. With the implementation of the company Anton , the non-fighting occupation of the previously unoccupied France , by the OB West subordinate associations on 10/11. November 1942, his area of responsibility extended to all of France.
The command of the Supreme Commander West was initially identical to the commander of Army Group A , since March 15, 1941, the commander of Army Group D , which now instead of the Army High Command the High Command of the Wehrmacht was assumed. The official name was OB West (Hgr. Kdo. D) . It was not until after the Army Group B with the Army Group G , another Army Group should be assumed this additional accounted from 10 September 1944.
In addition to the defense against British air raids, the only significant combat operation in the area of OB West was a British - Canadian attempt to land at Dieppe in August 1942 , which was repulsed. This changed with the successful landing of the Western Allies in Normandy in June 1944. In anticipation of this, the units subordinate to OB West had already been reinforced to almost two complete army groups, with the renaming of Army Group G to Army Group G on September 12, 1944 this is also nominally the case. On November 11, 1944, the newly established Army Group H was also subordinated to OB West .
With the exception of a subordination of the troops on the Upper Rhine under the Reichsführer SS in the function of OB Upper Rhine , which lasted from December 2, 1944 to January 24, 1945 , OB West maintained supreme command over the entire western front , even when it fell behind the Reich border up to her breakthrough. After the meeting of American and Soviet troops near Torgau on April 25, 1945 , OB West was renamed Oberbefehlshaber Süd with the supreme command in southern Germany including the Eastern Front .
OB West
- October 10, 1940 to April 1, 1941 - Field Marshal General Gerd von Rundstedt
- May 1, 1941 to March 15, 1942 - Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben
- March 15, 1942 to July 2, 1944 - Field Marshal General Gerd von Rundstedt
- July 2 to August 16, 1944 - Field Marshal General Günther von Kluge
- August 16 to September 3, 1944 - Field Marshal Walter Model
- September 3, 1944 to March 11, 1945 - Field Marshal General Gerd von Rundstedt
- March 11 to April 22, 1945 - Field Marshal Albert Kesselring
Structure early June 1944
Web links
- Finding aid for inventory RH 19-I: High Command of Army Group South (Supreme Commander East), Army Group A (Supreme Commander West), Army Group South, Army Group B 1939–1943 in the Federal Archives
- Finding aid for inventory RH 19-IV: High Command of Army Group D (Commander-in-Chief West, Commander-in-Chief South) in the Federal Archives