Warlimont, General Watcher

1894–

   Warlimont held the post of Deputy Chief of OKW Operations Staff under General JODL from September 1939 to September 1944 and his importance lies in his postwar writings on the activities and operation of HITLER’s HQ. As a close observer of and participant in many of the important military decisions of the war his evidence and accounts have been invaluable. An officer since World War I, and with service in the Spanish Civil War, Warlimont was appointed Chief of the National Defense Section (General Staff) in the OKW in September 1938 and the following year was promoted to Deputy Chief of the Operations Staff. Warlimont was only a few feet away from Hitler, when STAUFFENBERG’s bomb exploded on 20 July 1944 and he received minor injuries. Warlimont continued working until September when he collapsed from the delayed effects of the bomb and remained on sick leave for the rest of the war.