FOREWORD
This manuscript is part of a narrative history of events in the German Armed Forces Supreme Command Headquarters during World War II. The writer, Hellmuth GREINER, was charged with writing the War Diary at that headquarters from August 1939 to April 22, 1943. He has based his work on notes taken at various conferences, copies of final drafts for entry in the War Diary, copies of HITLER’S directives, orders and documents he was able to save from destruction at great personal risk.
With the aid of these sources and the trained mind and memory of a professional historian, he has presented a vivid picture of HITLER’S method of command as well as his reaction to reverses end success and the various other factors which influenced decisions in both the military and the political spheres.
In addition to a general description of procedures in the supreme headquarters it includes details of organization and the composition of HITLER’S immediate staff. Brief graphic descriptions are also included of the outstanding characteristics of its chief members who served HITLER in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Commander in Chief of the Army.
The completed work to date is divided into a number of manuscripts. For easy reference the manuscripts have been listed chronologically for inclusion in the English copies.
LOUIS M. NAWROCKY Lt Colonel, Armor Chief, Foreign Military Studies Branch
Author
Helmuth GREINER
Ministerialrat im OKW1
Born: 30 April 1892
Leipzig, Saxony
Helmuth GREINER joined the Army in December 1913, entering the 132d Prussian Infantry Regiment as an officer candidate, and in July 1914 was promoted lieutenant with commission dated 23 June 1912. In World War I he served at the various fronts from the outbreak of war to June 1917, with two brief breaks to recover from wounds. In June 1917 he was detached to serve as military attache on the staff of the German Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, from which he was transferred to the Historical Division of Army General Staff, Berlin, in January 1919, remaining there until discharged from the Army in March 1920, with rank of captain. Less than a month later GREINER was appointed archivist in the Military History Section of the Historical Branch of the Reichs Archives at Potsdam. He remained in this service until 1935, and it was during this period that he continued his studies in national economy and history at the Berlin university from 1921-24. Also during this period he did a great deal of writing on the German official history of World War I and was promoted Archivrat.
On 1 April 1935 GREINER was re-called for service in the Wehrmacht, promoted Regierungsrat (equivalent to major in rank) and attached to the re-organized Historical Division of the Reichs Archives, a branch of the Military History Research Institute of the Army. On 18 August 1939, he was transferred to the National Defense Branch, which later was re-designated Wehrmacht Operations Staff (Wehrmachtsfuehrungsstab), in Hitler’s headquarters, as Keeper of the War Diary. Promoted Oberregierungsrat on 1 May 1936 and Ministerialrat on 1 October 1940, GREINER was removed from his post on 22 April 1943, because of his known antinationalsocialist sentiments, Following this he was detached to the Office of the German General Attached to Italian Armed Forces Headquarters in Rome for a brief spell, 15 June - 31 July 1943.
From that date to the end of the War, GREINER was not employed, being considered politically unreliable. He was captured
