Pallud, Jean Paul German Command Headquarters in the West. Hitler's Commanders at OB West

The Wehrmacht won a quick victory in the West in 1940, the Netherlands and Belgium capitulated in May and France signed an armistice on 22 June. Army Group A remained in France, and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt and his staff set up in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and soon began working on preliminary instructions for Operation "Sea Lion", the invasion of Great Britain. In October, von Rundstedt was appointed Commander-in-Chief West and given responsibility for the entire area occupied by Germany in Western Europe. In April 1941, he and his staff were secretly transferred to the east to take command of the right wing of the offensive against Russia, and the function of Supreme Commander West was taken over by Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben. In March 1942, von Witzleben retired from his command for health reasons and from 8 March, von Rundstedt returned to the west as supreme commander. From Saint-Germain, von Rundstedt directed the defence against the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944. The German forces were unable to stop the Allied operation, Hitler criticised the local commanders and decided to relieve von Rundstedt of his command. General Field Marshal Günther von Kluge was then appointed as OB West, who found a grim situation when he arrived in Saint-Germain on 3 July. In Saint-Germain, four of the Third Reich's most important field marshals successively took command of Ob. West, and a fifth, the famous Erwin Rommel, was also part of this story. Of these five field marshals, three died because of their involvement in the conspiracy to eliminate Hitler or because of their sympathy for the conspiracy: von Witzleben was executed after a summary judgement, von Kluge and Rommel committed suicide. The OB West left behind some remarkable buildings in Saint-Germain, most of which are still visible today, embedded in the city, witnesses to this strange episode in the city's history.