Hitler and the Command of the Army
has led the Reich since 1933 and imposed himself as supreme commander of the Wehrmacht, yet the army's day-to-day command still rests with its own commander-in-chief, Field Marshal , at the head of the . From his headquarters at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia, Hitler follows day by day the collapse of the great offensive launched against Moscow.
By mid-December 1941, the operation that was to seize the Soviet capital has failed. The has launched a vast counter-offensive; the cold paralyses the vehicles, losses mount, and several generals call for a withdrawal to save units threatened with encirclement. Brauchitsch, worn down and weakened by a recent heart attack, is held responsible for the disaster. Hitler, for his part, refuses the very idea of giving up conquered ground and suspects the general staff of defeatism.
Hitler must decide what course to take: personally assume direct command of the army and order the troops to hold their positions at all costs; entrust the army to a new professional supreme commander, free to conduct operations; or authorise a general withdrawal to more defensible winter positions.
East Prussia, December 1941, at the head of the Reich: how to take back control of an army routed before Moscow?
dismissed on 19 December 1941 and took the head of the himself, henceforth combining supreme command of the Wehrmacht with direct control of the army. He imposed the Haltbefehl, the order to stand fast without yielding a step, and relieved the commanders who argued for withdrawal. Brauchitsch, cast aside, was placed in the reserve and remained without a command until the end of the war. At the time, this firmness perhaps averted a Napoleonic rout before Moscow; but Hitler drew from it the lasting conviction that his will was worth more than his generals' judgement. This extreme centralisation of command and his distrust of the general staff would weigh heavily on the conduct of operations from 1942 to 1945, from Stalingrad to the final collapse.
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Before Moscow: stand fast or retreat?
Berlin, December 1941 — the Reich faces the United States
Speer at headquarters - Todt's portfolio
The Wannsee Villa: Aligning the Ministries
Berlin, October 1941: Goebbels and the Reich Press
Brauchitsch — Reich Chancellery, 5 November
Berlin sets the rules of war in the East
Gibraltar after the rebuff at Hendaye
Gleiwitz — Naujocks at the Transmitter
Göring at Carinhall — Dunkirk on the Line
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