OB West
Commander in Chief West, short form OB West, was created after the end of the Western campaign on October 25, 1940 military high command for the troops of the German Wehrmacht in the occupied territories, namely in the Netherlands, Belgium and the occupied part of France (excluding the territories Alsace, Lorraine and Luxembourg ), which were under the CdZ management.
Not responsible was the OB West for the occupying administration; the arrangement of authority over the civil authorities was a so-called "pure" military administration under the military commander in France, which was under the OKH. This form of occupation administration did not prove itself and was abandoned. With the implementation of the company Anton, the noncombat occupation of previously unoccupied France, by the OB West imputed associations on 10-11. November 1942 to his remit expanded to the whole of France.
The commander in chief of the Western Command was initially identical to the commander of Army Group A, since March 15, 1941, the commander of Army Group D, which was now subordinated to the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht held the supreme command of the army. The official designation was OB West ( Hgr. Kdo D). It was not until after the Army Group B with Army Group G another army group should be placed under, accounted for this addition as of 10 September 1944.
In addition to air strikes, there were in the field of OB West initially as only significant military action in August 1942 an Allied landing attempt at Dieppe, who was shot blocked. This changed with the successful landing in Normandy in June 1944. In the expectation that the OB West imputed associations were already strengthened to nearly two full army groups, with the renaming of the Army Group G in Army Group G on September 12, 1944 this was also nominally the case. On November 11, 1944 the OB West was also placed under the newly formed Army Group H.
With the exception of a permanent December 2, 1944 to January 24, 1945 Under Status of Forces in the Upper Rhine under the Reichsführer- SS in function of an OB Upper Rhine OB West has consistently maintained the supreme command of the entire Western Front, as these fell back behind the frontier, to to their breakthrough. After the union of American and Soviet troops at Torgau on 25 April 1945 the OB West was renamed commander south to the supreme command in southern Germany including Eastern Front.