Need help figuring this out

So hitlers odd at poland for something and decides to invade poland.What i want to know is how does it all travl down the food chain to the privates at the end of the line.

1.He calls over his commander-in-chief and he in turn calls over the chief of staff.
They then assemble a team they think capable,i assume the army group commanders and they figure out timelines and objectives.

2.Each of the group commanders then travel down to a field(?)HQ and set the tasks for their army and corp commanders.

3.corp commanders the go down to division HQ to inform divisional commanders

4.i guess by now ye can see where this is going.........

How many HQs does the orders have to go through before it hits the private on the ground and how long does it take to mobalise and get to jump off point on average?

Appreciated one and all.

 

Thread moved to Information Request Section.

 

oh right,

bump

 

As I understand it, planning a major exercise like the invasion of Poland, or the Normandy landing, takes months. However, some plans may be prepared in advance based on likely scenarios, cutting the timeline a little.

The actual orders to go would only take a few hours, or less, to send out to all units via radio, telephone or messenger. Everyone would already know their part in the attack due to earlier planning. The troops would have been doing exercises to rehearse their role, probably for weeks.

 

I remember watching Mein Krieg. At least one of the line soldiers involved in the invasion of Poland spoke about having received minimal notice that they were going on the move, not even knowing where they were headed until they got there. I believe they were already on some kind of ready notice for some period of time and from this lowly soldier's perspective, his notice to mount-up was a matter of "we're pulling out shortly".

 

What it is i'm very interested in is how many HQs,how many hops an order has to make.

A decision is reached at high command,certain details are trashed out and at some point it goes to the field armies.
I think what would really help me is figureing out what the highest echelon hq is outside berlin/washington is,i should be able to figure out the command and control from there.

Kudos to the people who've answered already.

 

Hmmm,i really thought this would be quite easily answered,if i ever get it down for definate i'll post it up for future knowledge.

 

really the plan was in some spots blured some units moved in to early. at the end the soviets and germans actually started to open fire on each other the lack of cordination was very suprising.

 

indeed,when they both attacked poland the germans and russians began to fire on each other by mistake,so much so the hitler had to personally order the german forces back behind the agreed line.

 

It is not just with the German Armed Forces, it is with any military force. Also, it would depend on the kind of orders being issued from the top. For instance, the private would not be receiving any kind of orders involving an operation like barbarossa. What he would end up with are specific tasks for his area. That would not be assigned by any commander in chief. The original order gets broken down as it is going down the line of HQs respective of the unit type.