Alfred Jodl Biography

Alfred Jodl is born in Würzburg into a Bavarian military family.

Jodl enters the Bavarian Cadet Corps in Munich and begins formal military education.

Jodl joins the 4th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment as a Fähnrich after completing cadet schooling.

Jodl attends the Bavarian War School as part of his preparation for commissioned service.

Jodl is commissioned as a lieutenant in the Bavarian artillery.

Jodl serves with his artillery unit during the fighting around Sarrebourg.

Jodl is wounded in the thigh during fighting on the Western Front.

Jodl receives the Iron Cross Second Class after his early wartime service and wounding.

Jodl returns to active service after recovering from his 1914 wound.

Jodl is promoted to Oberleutnant while serving in the First World War.

Jodl leaves the Western Front for service connected with an Austro-Hungarian artillery formation.

Jodl commands a battery in the 72nd Royal Hungarian Field Artillery Regiment.

Jodl serves as a regimental adjutant after his period of battery command.

Jodl returns west as adjutant to an artillery commander.

Jodl serves in a staff role on the Western Front during the final year of the war.

Jodl receives the Iron Cross First Class for wartime service.

Jodl commands the Volkswehr Battery Augsburg during the transition from the imperial army to the Reichswehr.

After leading a Volkswehr battery in Augsburg, Jodl is accepted into the postwar Reichswehr.

Jodl begins Führergehilfen training, the Reichswehr's concealed system of general staff education.

Jodl begins a year of university study in Berlin as part of his continuing staff education.

Jodl begins extended staff service with the 7th Bavarian Division in Munich.

Jodl performs staff duties in Munich dealing with training and operational planning.

Jodl temporarily leaves divisional staff work for a period of battery command.

Jodl transfers to the Truppenamt in Berlin and works in its operations department under Ludwig Beck.

Jodl is promoted to Lieutenant Colonel while serving in the Truppenamt.

Jodl takes charge of the new National Defence Section under the Reich War Ministry.

Jodl is promoted to Colonel while serving in the Reich War Ministry.

Jodl develops inter-service planning within the National Defence Section as German rearmament accelerates.

Jodl records and supports military pressure used during the crisis leading to the annexation of Austria.

Jodl initials and supplements directives connected with Case Otto during the Austrian crisis.

Jodl participates in detailed planning connected with a possible German attack on Czechoslovakia.

Jodl discusses operational timing requirements for a manufactured incident before any planned attack on Czechoslovakia.

After Munich, Jodl records approval of Hitler's success in neutralising Czechoslovakia without immediate war.

Jodl leaves staff work temporarily to command Artillery Command 44 in the Linz area.

Jodl is promoted to Generalmajor while serving as Artillery Commander 44.

Shortly before war begins, Jodl returns to the OKW to head the Wehrmachtführungsamt.

Jodl returns from troop command to senior operational work at OKW shortly before the invasion of Poland.

Jodl serves in the OKW operations leadership as Germany begins the invasion of Poland.

Jodl participates in planning for a German offensive through the Low Countries and France.

Jodl works on plans as Hitler considers whether the western offensive should include the Netherlands.

Jodl's operations staff develops military preparations for the planned invasion of Norway and Denmark.

Jodl discusses plans for an invasion of Norway with Hitler, Keitel and Raeder.

Jodl signs or processes repeated postponement orders for the western offensive as weather and readiness delay the attack.

Jodl coordinates army, navy and air-force planning for the Scandinavian operation.

Jodl, Warlimont and Jeschonnek discuss operational possibilities involving Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Jodl participates in high-level decisions as German forces face uncertainty during the Norwegian campaign.

Jodl's OKW staff coordinates the opening of the invasions of Denmark and Norway.

Jodl's operations staff monitors the rapid campaigns through Belgium and the Netherlands.

Jodl works within OKW as Germany launches the western offensive against the Low Countries and France.

Jodl briefs and coordinates operational information during the final stages of the campaign in France.

Jodl is promoted from Generalmajor directly to General der Artillerie.

Jodl instructs Warlimont to begin planning for a possible attack on the Soviet Union.

Jodl initials a directive ordering continuation of preparations for a future campaign against the Soviet Union.

The Wehrmachtführungsamt develops into the Wehrmachtführungsstab, with Jodl remaining its chief.

Jodl initials Directive 21, the formal planning directive for Operation Barbarossa.

Jodl initials Hitler's order preparing German intervention in support of operations connected with Greece and Albania.

Jodl attends a conference where German concentrations in Romania are discussed as forces for operations against Greece.

Jodl joins Hitler and Keitel in a detailed conference on preparations for Operation Barbarossa.

Jodl is present when Hitler states that Greece must be fully occupied before any settlement.

Jodl attends the conference that decides on the attack on Yugoslavia and bombing of Belgrade without prior declaration of war.

Jodl attends Hitler's conference ordering rapid military preparations to destroy Yugoslavia.

Jodl's office issues a tentative plan coordinating German and Italian military operations against Yugoslavia.

Jodl monitors the rapid German advance through Greece from the OKW operations staff.

Jodl's OKW staff coordinates high-level operations as German forces invade Yugoslavia and Greece.

German forces enter Belgrade during the invasion whose planning Jodl helped coordinate at OKW.

Jodl's staff participates in OKW coordination as German airborne forces attack Crete.

Jodl contributes comments to planning connected with the criminal policy against captured Soviet political commissars.

Jodl attends final high-level reports on Operation Barbarossa shortly before the invasion.

Jodl serves at OKW as Germany launches the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Jodl participates in frequent operational briefings as the German advance continues deep into the Soviet Union.

The order signed by Jodl calls for Leningrad to be destroyed rather than occupied after surrender.

Jodl signs an order stating that surrender offers from Moscow or Leningrad should not be accepted.

The same order extends a destructive policy to Moscow rather than accepting a capitulation.

Jodl's staff continues coordinating German commitments in the Mediterranean and Balkans.

Jodl's operations staff increasingly directs theatres outside the main Eastern Front.

Jodl participates in high-level briefings as German forces face the Soviet winter counteroffensive.

Jodl continues OKW work after Hitler personally assumes command of the German Army.

The main Eastern Front remains under OKH operational control while Jodl's OKW staff directs other theatres.

Jodl's operations staff assumes broader responsibility for theatres facing the Western Allies outside the main Eastern Front.

Jodl becomes the principal OKW operational adviser for campaigns against the Western Allies and peripheral theatres.

Jodl's staff oversees strategic planning for the defence of occupied Norway against possible Allied attack.

Jodl monitors OKW planning for the defence of occupied France against an expected Allied return.

Jodl advises Hitler on the strategic consequences of the changing Axis position in North Africa.

Jodl's staff reviews the Dieppe raid as evidence of future Allied amphibious threats to Western Europe.

Jodl signs the covering memorandum transmitting Hitler's criminal Commando Order.

Jodl's staff transmits a restricted explanation concerning implementation of the Commando Order.

Jodl participates in decisions concerning reinforcement of Axis forces in Tunisia after Operation Torch.

Jodl evaluates the strategic effect of Allied landings in French North Africa on Axis positions in the Mediterranean.

Jodl's staff reviews the defence of Italy and the Balkans after the Axis defeat in Tunisia.

Jodl participates in high-level responses as Allied forces invade Sicily.

Jodl advises on German strategy for holding Italy after the collapse of Mussolini's alliance.

Jodl's operations staff helps coordinate German measures following Italy's armistice with the Allies.

Jodl works within OKW as German planning gives renewed priority to strengthening the West against an Allied invasion.

Jodl tells Gauleiters that harsh measures are necessary to obtain labour for Atlantic Wall construction in occupied Western Europe.

Jodl's inspection identifies shortages and weaknesses in German defensive preparations in the Channel Islands.

Jodl reports serious weaknesses after inspecting Atlantic Wall defences along the Channel coast.

Jodl reports that major sections of the Atlantic Wall remain incomplete and inadequately prepared.

Jodl is promoted to Generaloberst while continuing as chief of the OKW Operations Staff.

Jodl continues directing the OKW Operations Staff after his promotion to Generaloberst.

Jodl participates in arguments over how mobile armoured reserves should support the Atlantic coast defences.

Jodl's operations staff coordinates reinforcement and withdrawal decisions during the Normandy campaign.

Jodl briefs Hitler and helps coordinate OKW decisions after Allied forces land in Normandy.

Jodl initials an OKW memorandum reaffirming the Commando Order after the Normandy landings.

Jodl suffers minor injuries in the bomb explosion during the attempt to kill Hitler.

Jodl resumes operational duties after receiving minor injuries in the 20 July bomb attack.

Jodl monitors the German retreat from France as Allied armies break out of Normandy.

Jodl transmits an order for evacuation and destruction in northern Norway as German forces withdraw.

The order transmitted by Jodl directs destruction intended to deny shelter and resources to advancing Soviet forces.

Jodl participates in high-level planning for Hitler's offensive through the Ardennes.

Jodl evaluates the deteriorating situation as the Ardennes offensive fails to achieve its strategic objectives.

Jodl's OKW staff monitors the opening of the German offensive in the Ardennes.

Jodl argues that Germany should not renounce the Geneva Convention because doing so would bring greater disadvantages.

Jodl and the OKW Operations Staff move north as the German state collapses under Allied advances.

After Hitler's death, Jodl serves as a senior military adviser to the government headed by Karl Dönitz.

Jodl arrives at SHAEF headquarters and seeks terms that would allow more German forces to surrender in the west.

Allied commanders reject German attempts to limit or delay the unconditional surrender.

Jodl signs Germany's unconditional military surrender at SHAEF headquarters in Reims at 02:41.

Jodl receives authority from Dönitz to sign the unconditional military surrender.

The Reims surrender requires German military operations to cease at 23:01 Central European Time.

Allied forces arrest Jodl with members of the Dönitz government at Flensburg.

The International Military Tribunal served the indictment, Charter and notice of rights on him at Nuremberg.

He entered a plea of not guilty before the International Military Tribunal.

Jodl testified in his own defence regarding German military planning and operations.

Jodl testified in his own defence regarding German military planning and operations.

Jodl testified in his own defence regarding German military planning and operations.

Jodl testified in his own defence regarding German military planning and operations.

Jodl testified in his own defence regarding German military planning and operations.