Walter Warlimont - After The War

After The War

With the German defeat in May 1945, Warlimont was held as a prisoner-of-war.

In October 1948, Warlimont was tried as a war criminal before a United States military tribunal in the High Command Trial because he passed on Hitler's directive that Allied commandos should be executed instead of being held as prisoners-of-war. Although he argued that he had tried to dilute Hitler's directive, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, in 1951 his sentence was reduced to 18 years. In 1957 there was an amnesty for certain prisoners, and he was finally released from Landsberg Prison. After the war he engaged in writing various war-historical studies.

In 1962, Warlimont wrote Inside Hitler's Headquarters 1939 - 1945.

In an appraisal of Warlimont's military capabilities, German Field Marshal Erich von Manstein wrote:

Keitel, Jodl and Warlimont had never been in the war....Their lack of fighting experience tended to make them underrate practical difficulties, and encourage Hitler to believe that things could be done that were quite impossible..... —(as noted in The Battle of the Bulge: The German View by Parker

From an Allied perspective, Hugh Thomas (in his The Spanish Civil War) opined:

Warlimont became renowned, with Keitel and Jodl, as one of the German officers most loyal to Hitler and was accordingly sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment in 1949 as a minor war criminal....

Warlimont was interviewed for two episodes of The World at War - 3. France Falls (May – June 1940) & 5. Barbarossa (June – December 1941)