Warlimont, Walter

On February 18, 1913 he graduated from high school and was accepted as a fan-cadet in the 10th regiment of infantry artillery in Lower Saxony . From August 1913 to May 1914 he studied at the military academy in Danzig .

June 19, 1914 in the rank of lieutenant was seconded to the 10th regiment of infantry artillery. He was a battery officer, adjutant and battery commander in Italy . In 1918, a lieutenant in the Merker Corps .

In 1922 he was transferred to the Reichswehr in Minden . He was temporarily seconded to study at the General Staff. In 1926 he lived and studied language for three months in Great Britain , in the autumn of that year he was promoted to captain and appointed to the General Staff as the second assistant chief of the General Staff, then to the economic department of the Ministry of Defense and temporarily to the intelligence department (foreign armies). In May 1929 he was sent to the United States to study mobilization issues.

From 1929 to 1933, the battery commander of the 1st artillery regiment in Allenstein , then promoted to major and transferred to the industrial mobilization department in the Ministry of Defense. Since 1935, he heads the economic department in the management of armaments. In 1936 he was a representative of the Wehrmacht under General Franco in Spain . In 1937 , as a colonel in one of the departments of the War Ministry, Varlimont developed and prepared a plan for the reorganization of the German armed forces, which attracted Hitler's attention. Varlimont's project was taken as the basis for the creation in 1938 of a new structure of the army and high military command.

July 1, 1938 was appointed head of the Department of Defense of the country - the most important unit of the headquarters of the operational leadership of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht. From November 10, 1938 to August 23, 1939, without leaving his post, he served as chief of staff of the operational leadership instead of General Jodl who was transferred to the combat post

On August 8, 1940, Hitler entrusted Generals Jodl and, Varlimont, his subordinate, with the development of Aufbau Ost's plan, which consisted of secret troop transfers to the borders of the Soviet Union. On December 6 of that year, he was entrusted with the publication of a directive on the implementation of the OKH plan of war against the USSR . The duties of the department included all issues of warfare, coordination of propaganda events, cooperation of the armed forces with civilian institutions. In addition, the department was to participate in the development of the Fuhrer directives to the highest state bodies. Varlimont is one of the main developers of Directive 21, code-named Fritz, and later Barbarossa . On April 1, 1942 , while remaining the head of the department, he simultaneously became deputy chief of staff of the operational management of OKV.

In the 2nd half of 1944 , after the assassination attempt on Hitler and the subsequent purge in the army, he was removed from his posts. In May 1945, arrested by the Allies. At the trial of the American military tribunal in the case of the highest command of the Wehrmacht , October 27, 1948 sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1954 he was released.

• Iron Cross , 1st grade (1914)
  • 1st Class Iron Cross Buckle
• Iron Cross , 2nd Class (1914)
  • 2nd Class Iron Cross Buckle
• Honorary Cross of a War Veteran
• 1st degree military merit cross with swords
• 2nd degree military merit cross with swords
• Spanish bronze cross with swords
• Sign for the wound black ^[1]
• Order of the Cross of Liberty 1st class with swords (March 25, 1942)
• Order of Mihai the Brave 3rd class (December 12, 1942)

• Walter Warlimont. At Hitler’s headquarters. Memoirs of a German general. - Moscow: Centerpolygraph, 2005 .-- 575 p. - ISBN 5-9524-1851-1 .

• Biography of Walter Warlimont on the Chronos website