Wilhelm Keitel

German Nazi Field Marshall and Chief of Staff of the High Command of the German Armed Forces (OKW), Hitler's closest military advisor and second only to him. He was reviled among his military colleagues as Hitler's habitual "yes-man".

Keitel was 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) tall, later described as a solidly built and square-jawed Prussian. He married Lisa Fontaine on 18 April 1909 and had three sons and two daughters.

In October 1940, he took over the Axis African Command. He condoned measures leading to mass murder in Poland and Russia. Described as hard, unsmiling and mysterious, he was tried by the International Military Tribunal, found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and hanged on 16 October 1946 in Nuremberg Prison.

Before his execution, Keitel published his memoirs which were titled in English as In the Service of the Reich. It was later re-edited as The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Keitel by Walter Görlitz. Another work by Keitel later published in English was named Questionnaire on the Ardennes offensive.

He was played by Scottish actor Kenneth Cranham in Valkyrie, a 2008 historical political war thriller film.