After 1941, OKH was largely responsible for operations on the Eastern Front only ( and administration of the army as a whole ), while OKW directed operations on the other fronts.

However, after 1941, the OKW de facto directly commanded operations on the Western front while the OKH commanded the Eastern front.

However, more time was lost at various critical moments as Hitler and the OKW suspended operations in order to argue about strategic objectives.

Nevertheless, Hitler decided against the OKH and in favor of the OKW overseeing operations in many land theaters.

The OKW ran military operations on the Western front, in North Africa, and in Italy.

In the west operations were further split between the OKW and Oberbefehlshaber West ( OBW, Commander in Chief West ), who was Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt ( succeeded by Field Marshal Günther von Kluge ).

There was even more fragmentation since the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe operations had their own commands ( Oberkommando der Marine ( OKM ) and Oberkommando der Luftwaffe ( OKL )) which, while theoretically subordinate, were largely independent from the OKW or the OBW.

In December 1939, following the success of German infiltration and sabotage operations in the Polish campaign, the German Office for Foreign and Counter-Intelligence ( OKW Amt Ausland / Abwehr ) formed the Brandenburger Regiment ( known officially as the 800th Special Purpose Training and Construction Company ).

On 27 October Rundstedt and Model met with General Alfred Jodl, chief of operations at OKW, and told him flatly that they considered this impossible with the available forces.

General Alfred Jodl, chief of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW ) operations, presented Hitler with a formal plan to cut off Britain from its eastern empire by invading Spain, Gibraltar, North Africa, and the Suez Canal instead of invading the British Isles.

From this point onwards, neither OKW nor OKH could independently plan or conduct operations, but could merely implement Hitler's often flawed commands.

Built in the middle of a protecting forest, and located far from major roads, the complex occupied more than and consisted of three separate security zones, the most important of which was Sperrkreis 1 ( Security Zone 1 ), in which was located the Führer Bunker and concrete shelters of members of the inner circle such as Hermann Göring, Martin Bormann, OKW chief Wilhelm Keitel and " chief of operations " OKW Alfred Jodl.

It used double agents and fake documents to mount a series of deception operations to confuse the OKW, OKH and Hitler about Allied plans.

With only KG 26 engaged in anti-shipping operations against Soviet sea communications the OKW looked to the Kriegsmarine to supply Schnellboot ( S-Boat ) motor torpedo boats to help eliminate Soviet shipping supplying and evacuating the port.

After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the OKH became primarily responsible for planning operations in that theater, while the Armed Forces High Command ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW ) was responsible for other theaters.

The OKW believed it too risky to allow German Corps and Army Groups to be operated and commanded independently by one field commander.

These groups — the Nazi party and government leadership, the German General Staff and High Command ( OKW ); the Sturmabteilung ( SA ); the Schutzstaffel ( SS ), including the Sicherheitsdienst ( SD ); and the Gestapo — had an aggregate membership exceeding two million, making a large number of their members liable to trial if the organisations were convicted.

The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW ), the overall command for all German military forces, ordered reductions in raw and steel materials for armament production.

* 1945 – World War II: Ratification in Berlin-Karlshorst of the German unconditional surrender of May 8 in Rheims, France, with the signatures of Marshal Georgy Zhukov for the Soviet Union, and for the Western Headquarters Sir Arthur Tedder, British Air Marshal and Eisenhower's deputy, and for the German side of Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.

** Alfred Jodl, German Nazi Chief of the OKW ( b. 1890 )

Rundstedt urged OKW to halt the offensive, lest the " bulge " created by the German advance become a " second Stalingrad ", but Hitler was determined to press on.

Peter Hoffmann's biography of Hitler assassination conspirator Claus Graf von Stauffenberg (" Stauffenberg, A Family History ," 1992 ) indicates that after the failure of Stauffenberg's bomb plot in July 1944, Gisevius went into hiding until January 23, 1945, when he escaped to Switzerland by using a passport that had belonged to Carl Deichmann, a brother-in-law of German Count Helmuth James von Moltke, who was a specialist in international law serving in the legal branch of the Foreign Countries Group of the OKW ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, " Supreme Command of the Armed Forces ").

He called Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel Chief of German Armed Forces High Command ( OKW ) in Fürstenberg.

The OKW plan was for all German forces ( except the stationary fortress-troops ) in southern France to move north to link up with Army Group B to form a new defensive line from Sens through Dijon to the Swiss frontier.

On Hitler's insistence, the OKW developed a revised plan for the capture of Gibraltar, which might be implemented once the German invasion of the Soviet Union had been completed.

On 7 May, the day General Alfred Jodl, Chief-of-Staff of German Armed Forces High Command ( German acroynym OKW ), was negotiating the surrender of all German forces at SHAEF, the last the OKW had heard from Schörner was on 2 May.

During July 1941, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW, or German High Command ) displayed a lack of coherent strategy.

Walter Warlimont ( born 3 October 1894 in Osnabrück, Germany ; died 9 October 1976 in Kreuth near the Tegernsee ) was a German officer and war criminal known for his role as a deputy chief in the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW ), Germany's Supreme Armed Forces Command during World War II.

At the start of 1941, the OKW decided to create the German XI Air Corps, which would include the 7th Flieger Division.

* General Erich Fellgiebel, head of communications German High Command ( OKW )

General Walter Warlimont — the Deputy Chief of Staff at OKW, the German armed forces headquarters — was also sent to von Kluge's headquarters to ensure these orders were complied with.

The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces or OKW ) commanded OKH only in theory.

While the Waffen-SS remained officially outside the armed forces ( Wehrmacht ) and under Himmler's authority, they were placed under the operational command of the Armed Forces High Command ( OKW ) or Army High Command ( OKH ), and were largely funded by the Wehrmacht.

In the following year, after the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair, the Ministry of War ( Reichskriegsministerium ) was replaced by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW ), and Keitel was appointed as its chief.

The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW ) ( English: " Supreme Command of the Armed Forces ") was part of the command structure of the armed forces ( Wehrmacht ) of Nazi Germany during World War II.

During this time Wilhelm Keitel had headed the ministry and Hitler promoted Keitel to head OKW under the title Chef des OKW, or Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.

During the entire period of the war, the OKW was led by Keitel, who reported directly to Hitler, from whom most operational orders actually originated as Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht ( Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces ).

Hitler sent the chief of staff of the Armed Forces Supreme Command ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW ), General Wilhelm Keitel, to Rundstedt's headquarters, to urge caution.

The order for the operation was issued by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW ; Supreme Command of the Armed Forces ) to Oberkommando des Heeres ( OKH ; Army High Command ) and Oberkommando der Luftwaffe ( OKL ; Air Force High Command ) on 6 February 1941.

The armed forces command structure was changed by Hitler in 1938, with an Armed Forces HQ ( the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, usually contracted to OKW, placed over the army command Oberkommando des Heeres or OKH, and the other service commands and almost entirely displacing the Reich War Ministry.

Moltke was immediately drafted at the beginning of the Polish campaign by the Abwehr — specifically, the High Command of the Armed Forces ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht — OKW ), Counter-Intelligence Service, Foreign Division — under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, as an expert in martial law and international public law.

Hitler used the situation to transfer the duties of the Ministry of War ( Reichskriegsministerium ) to a new organization — the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW )— and Wilhelm Keitel, who became the new head of the OKW on 4 February 1938.

* Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW )-" High Command of the Armed Forces ".

* OKW – Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or High Command of the Armed Forces

* Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW ) — " High Command of the Armed Forces ".

In January 1943 the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW ), or Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, decided to raise a second élite parachute division.

The OKW or Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( High Command of the Armed Forces ) reported that the SS-VT had unnecessarily exposed themselves to risks and acted recklessly, incurring heavier losses than Army troops.

In the middle of 1941 the German Armed Forces High Command ( German acronym OKW ) created a larger command structure in Africa, forming a new headquarters called Panzer Group Africa ( Panzergruppe Afrika, Gruppo Carro Armato Africa ).