Was Alfred Jodl the military having the biggest influence in the eastern front after hitler ? Like was he the guy giving order to AGN Von Leeb AGC Von Bock and AGS Von Runstedt ?
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Well, it was Brauchitsch, but once he fired Brauchitsch (December 1941), it was Hitler who gave all the orders (as commander of the Wehrmacht.) The Eastern Front after that was run by OKH, and everything else army-ish by OKW.
So the guy giving the orders to the Army Groups after that was Halder (until September 1942), then Zeitler (until just after D-Day, when he had a nervous breakdown), then Heusinger (for 6 weeks, until after the attempt on Hitler), then Guderian, until March 1945, then Krebs (for a month), then Keitel (for a week - until the end of the war), then Jodl (technically - he was from May 13-May 23, 1945.)
Jodl, on the other hand, was head of OKW. So it wasn’t Jodl.
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@xfilesfc Thank you for the clarifications ! I was thinking it was OKW that was in charge of the eastern front…
Thanks !
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Yeah, I get that switched around sometimes too. You’d think it would be Oberkommando des Wehrmacht (Military High Command) under which would be Oberkommando des Heeres (Command of the Army.)
But Hitler hated leaving too much power in just one underling, which is why he endlessly handed partial powers from one branch to another. The only indispensable person in Hitler’s Germany was Hitler.
So he wanted two military hierarchies, and that’s why it’s so silly.
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I was thinking that OKW had the control over OKL OKH and OKM, but true that hitler was always giving power to different entities as you said, thanks for the clarifications !
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