example, a reflection of the early days when he lectured
at West Point. Quiet, dependable, an excellent adminis-
trator and a sound tactician—this was Omar Bradley.”
References: Bradley, Omar Nelson, A General’s Life: An
Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983);
“Bradley, Omar N.,” in Command: From Alexander the
Great to Zhukov—The Greatest Commanders of World
History, edited by James Lucas (London: Bloomsbury
Publishing, 1988), 194–195; Windrow, Martin, and
Francis K. Mason, “Bradley, Omar,” in The Wordsworth
Dictionary of Military Biography (Hertfordshire, U.K.:
Wordsworth Editions Ltd., 1997), 36–37; North Brace,
“Bradley, Omar Nelson,” in Encyclopedia of American War
Heroes (New York: Checkmark Books, 2002), 25.
Brauchitsch, Heinrich Alfred Hermann
Walther von (1881–1948) German general
Born in Berlin, Germany, on 4 October 1881, Walther
von Brauchitsch joined the German army unit called the
Third Garde Grenadiers when he was 19. Starting as a
lieutenant, he rapidly moved up through the ranks, and
when the First World War broke out, he was a major.
Brauchitsch saw action on the western front, and after
the war ended, he remained in the army, becoming the
commander of a regiment of artillery in 1925.
Brauchitsch seems to have remained outside the
politics engulfing Germany following the end of the First
World War, and he continued his rise in the military,
earning promotion to major general in 1930 and two
years later becoming inspector of artillery. In 1932, he
rose to become chief of the artillery wing of the Reichs-
wehr, also known as the German Defense Force. The fol-
lowing year, when Nazi leader Adolf Hitler became the
leader of Germany, Brauchitsch was named commander
of the East Prussian military area, also called the First
Army military area.
Although he was to rise through the German mili-
tary ranks, Brauchitsch was himself not a Nazi and did
not sympathize with the Nazis’ program. Because he was
not a party loyalist, he frequently clashed with many of
his fellow officers. However, Hitler saw Brauchitsch’s
value, retained him as one of his commanders, and, in
1937, promoted him to general of artillery. A year later,
Hitler dismissed General Werner von Fitsch as com-
mander of the Wehrmacht (the Germany army), replac-
ing him with Brauchitsch. At the same time, Brauchitsch
ceded much of his authority as commander to Hitler,
a move that infuriated his fellow officers. However,
Brauchitsch did not support the German invasion of
Austria and Czechoslovakia (1938), agreeing with many
of his officers’ misgivings that such a move was certain
to spark a war in Europe for which Germany was unpre-
pared. He was aware of a 1938 plot by several German
officers to unseat Hitler in a coup but did nothing to
stop it or encourage it. He is quoted as saying, “I myself
won’t do anything, but I won’t stop anyone else from
acting.”
In 1939, when the German invasion of Poland
began the Second World War, Brauchitsch directed the
army in carrying out the offensive. The following year,
Germany invaded France, and Brauchitsch was one of
12 field marshals named by Hitler. In 1941, he was one
of the leaders in the planning of Operation Barbarossa,
Hitler’s Napoleonic-like invasion of Russia. Although he
had tried to convince Hitler that such an action would
be nothing short of disastrous, Brauchitsch launched
the invasion of Russia in June 1941. Enforcing Hitler’s
Order for Guerilla Warfare, he participated in the mass
slaughter of tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war,
an act that would make him a war criminal. His plan
was to take Moscow quickly; however, when Hitler or-
dered him to change the plan, move troops and supplies
toward Leningrad, and secure the Caucasus, Brauchitsch
realized this diversion would cost them the advantage the
rapid initial advance had gained them and involve the
Wehrmacht in a long, debilitating war. He warned Hit-
ler about the cost of the diversion, but to no avail. When
two separate elements of the army became trapped in
fighting for every inch of ground, and Moscow’s capture
became less of a reality, Hitler blamed Brauchitsch for
the failure. Brauchitsch’s health suffered, and on 19 De-
cember 1941, just a few months into Barbarossa, he was
removed from command, and Hitler took direct control
of the German army.
Brauchitsch took no part in the war thereafter. At
the war’s conclusion, he was arrested by the Allies and
placed on trial with the Nazi hierarchy at Nuremberg
in 1946. Charged with crimes against humanity, as well
as complicity in the Nazi plan to take over Europe, he
pled innocent, declaring that he was unaware of any war
crimes and even denying that he signed the order for
the extermination of Soviet guerillas. Because his crimes
were considered less than those of other German mili-
tary leaders, Brauchitsch was separated from the others bRAuchitSch, heinRich AlFReD heRmAnn wAltheR von