List of Adolf Hitler's directives

This article is about the numbered Führer directives. For Adolf Hitler's directives in general, see Adolf Hitler's directives.

The following is a list of the Führer directives and Führer Orders issued by Adolf Hitler over the course of World War II:

The directives

Directive No	Date issued	Subject	Notes	Full text
1	September 1, 1939	Plan of Attack on Poland	Invasion of Poland	[1]
2	September 3, 1939	Hostilities in the West
3	September 9, 1939	Transfer of Forces from Poland to the West
4	September 25, 1939	Finishing the War in Poland
5	September 30, 1939	Partition of Poland, removing restrictions on naval warfare.
6	October 9, 1939	Plans for Offensive in the West
7	October 18, 1939	Preparations for Attack in the West
8	November 20, 1939	Further Preparations for Attack in the West
9	November 29, 1939	Instructions for Warfare against the Economy of the Enemy
10	January 19–February 18, 1940	Concentration of Forces for "Case Yellow" (Fall Gelb)	Manstein Plan
10a	March 1, 1940	Case "Weser Exercise" against Denmark and Norway	Operation Weserübung
11	May 14, 1940	The Offensive in the West
12	May 18, 1940	Prosecution of the Attack in the West
13	May 24, 1940	Next Object in the West
14	June 8, 1940	Continuation of the Offensive in France
15	June 14, 1940	Advance on the Loire
16	July 16, 1940	Preparations for Operation Sea Lion	Specifies a broad front landing on south coast of England from Ramsgate to Isle of Wight.	[2]
17	August 1, 1940	Battle of Britain		[3]
18	November 12, 1940	Seizure of Gibraltar	Operation Felix	Full text
19	December 10, 1940	German occupation of Vichy France	Operation Attila	Full text
20	December 13, 1940	German invasion of Greece	Operation Marita	[4]
21	December 18, 1940	Invasion of the Soviet Union	Operation Barbarossa	Full text; Alt. Full text
22	January 11, 1941	German Support for Battles in the Mediterranean Area	Operation Sonnenblume
23	February 6, 1941	Directions for Operations against the English War Economy
24	March 5, 1941	Co-operation with Japan
25	March 27, 1941	Plan of Attack on Yugoslavia	Operation Strafe[5]	Original text
26	April 3, 1941	Co-operation with our Allies in the Balkans
27	April 4, 1941	Plan of Attack on Greece
28	April 25, 1941	Invasion of Crete	Operation Mercury	[6]
29	May 17, 1941	Proposed Military Government of Greece		[7]
30	May 23, 1941	Support of anti-British forces in Iraq	(see Führer Directive No. 30)
31	June 9, 1941	German Military Organisation in the Balkans	Battle of Crete
32	June 11, 1941	Plans following defeat of the Soviet Union	Operation Orient	Full text
32a	July 14, 1941	Use of resources following defeat of the Soviet Union		Full text
33	July 19, 1941	Continuation of the War in the East	Two Panzer Groups were removed from Army Group Centre, depriving it of the armour which it would otherwise have used to attack Moscow.[8]
33a	July 23, 1941	Supplement to 33
34	July 30, 1941	Strengthening Soviet resistance
34a	August 12, 1941	Supplement to 34
35	September 6, 1941	Closing the encirclement of Leningrad, destruction of the Southwestern Front	Battle of Moscow, Siege of Leningrad
36	September 22, 1941	Instructions for Winter operations in the Arctic	Instructions to the Army High Command, Norway, the navy and the air force for winter operations in and around northern Norway, Finland, and the Soviet Arctic regions.
37	October 10, 1941	Reorganizing forces in the Arctic
38	December 2, 1941	Transfer of air units to the Mediterranean
39	December 8, 1941	Abandoning the Offensive on the Eastern Front	Cancels Operation Barbarossa in reaction to the massive Soviet winter counter-offensive
40	March 23, 1942	Competence of Commanders in Coastal Areas	Command Organization of the Coasts Atlantic Wall;[9]	[10]
41	April 5, 1942	Summer Campaign in the Soviet Union	Operation Blue	[11]
42	May 29, 1942	Instructions for operations against unoccupied France and the Iberian Peninsula	Operation Attila replaced by Case Anton; Operation Isabella cancelled;	[12]
43	July 11, 1942	Continuation of Operations from the Crimea
44	July 21, 1942	Operations in Northern Finland
45	July 23, 1942	Continuation of Operation Brunswick
46	August 18, 1942	Instructions for Intensified Action Against Banditry in the East	Attempting to suppress Soviet resistance movements
47	December 28, 1942	Outlines the Chain of command for the South Eastern Mediterranean, and defensive strategies for a possible Allied attack on the Balkans and surrounding islands.
48	July 26, 1943	Command and defence measures in the southeast
49	July, 1943	Believed to be a contingency plan to seize Italian positions in the event of their withdrawal from the war.	Did not survive?
50	September 28, 1943	Concerning the preparations for the withdrawal of 20th Mountain Army to Northern Finland and Northern Norway
51	November 3, 1943	Preparations for a two-front war		[13]
52	January 28, 1944	Battle of Rome	Battle of Monte Cassino
53	March 8, 1944	Establishment of fortified areas and strong points
54	April 2, 1944	Measures to halt the Soviet advance in the East
55	May 16, 1944	Utilization of long range bombardment against England	V-1 and later V-2 missile strikes
56	July 12, 1944	Orders for the protection of shipping
57	July 13, 1944	Protocols for how authorities should operate in the event of an invasion of the Reich
58	July 19, 1944	Preparations for the defense of the Reich
59	July 23, 1944	Reorganization of Army Group North's command structure
60	July 26, 1944	Defensive measures for the Italian Alps
61	August 24, 1944	Establishment of defensive positions in the West
62	August 29, 1944	Establishment of defenses along the German northern coastal regions
63	September 1, 1944	Order for the West Wall to be on the defensive
64	September 3, 1944	Orders for Commander-in-Chief West
64a	September 7, 1944	Conferring powers to Commander-in-Chief West
64b	September 9, 1944	Supplement to 64a
65	September 12, 1944	Defensive measures for the South-East
66	September 19–22, 1944	Second decree on command authority within the Reich in the event of invasion
67	November 28, 1944	Exercise of command for isolated units
68	January 21, 1945	Reestablishing the command supremacy of the Fuhrer
69	January 28, 1945	Employment of the Volkssturm
70	February 5, 1945	Evacuation of refugees from the East to Denmark
71	March 20, 1945	Orders for a scorched earth campaign within the Reich	"Decree Concerning Demolitions in the Reich Territory" also known as Nero Decree
72	April 7, 1945	Reorganization of command in the West
73	April 15, 1945	Organization of command in the event Northern and Southern Germany are separated
74	April 15, 1945	Order of the day to soldiers on the Eastern Front		[14]

References

1. "Directive No. 1 for the Conduct of the War". Alternate Wars. 31 August 1939. Archived from the original on Apr 26, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
2. "Directive No. 16 On preparations for a landing operation against England". Alternate Wars. 16 July 1940. Archived from the original on Apr 26, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
3. "Directive No. 17 For the conduct of air and sea warfare against England". Alternate Wars. 1 August 1940. Archived from the original on Apr 26, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
4. "Führer Directive x". Alternate Wars.
5. Crete 1941: Germany’s lightning airborne assault, Peter Antill p.12
6. "Directive No. 28: 'Undertaking Mercury [Merkur]'". Alternate Wars. 25 April 1941. Archived from the original on Apr 26, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
7. "Führer Directive x". Alternate Wars.
8. Peter Antill; Peter Dennis (2007). Stalingrad 1942. Osprey Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-84603-028-4.
9. Zaloga, Steven J. (2007). The Atlantic Wall. Osprey Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 9781846031298.
10. "Führer-Directive 40". Alternate Wars.
11. "Führer Directive 41". WW2DB.
12. "Führer Directive 42". Alternate Wars.
13. "Führer-Directive 51".
14. Full text

• "Adolf Hitler and World War II: Operational Orders". 3 August 2009. Retrieved 2 Nov 2009.