Walther Buhle

Walther Buhle

General Walther Buhle in 1944
Born 26 October 1894(1894-10-26)
Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg
Died 28 December 1959(1959-12-28) (aged 65)
Stuttgart
Allegiance German Empire (to 1918)
Weimar Republic (to 1933)
Nazi Germany
Service/branch Heer
Rank General der Infanterie
Commands held Chief of Organizations Section Oberkommando des Heeres
Chief of Armaments for the Army
Battles/wars World War I
World War II

General Walther Buhle (26 October 1894 – 28 December 1959) was an infantry General in the German army who was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht from 1942 and chief of armaments for the army in 1945.

He was born in Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg and joined the army as a Cadet in July 1913. During World War I he was an officer in the infantry. Between the wars he served on the General Staff of the Reichswehr and the infantry and cavalry and by the outbreak of World War II he had reached the rank of Oberst in the Wehrmacht and was appointed chief of the organizations section of the Oberkommando des Heeres as senior officer to Claus Von Stauffenberg.

He was injured in 1944 by the 20 July plot bomb planted by von Stauffenberg at the Wolf's Lair headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia. He entered the conference room with von Stauffenberg and when a point was raised that von Stauffenberg might have been expected to answer, Buhle was perplexed that he was no longer present and looked for him in the corridor. A telephonist said he had left the building so he returned to the conference.

Buhle recovered from his injuries and in the last days of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler appointed him chief of armaments for the army. After the war he was imprisoned for two years, he then lived in Stuttgart where he died aged 65.