Stories of battles and famous generals in the Second World War are legendary and fascinate us till today. Erwin Rommel, known as ‘the desert fox’ was a dashing and handsome Field Marshal from the German army who met with a sad end.
Rommel was implicated in the famous July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler and was informed that the Führer did not wish to lower his prestige with the German people and offered him the chance of a voluntary death by means of a cyanide pill. Rommel was forced into an honourable suicide by Hitler to spare his family the suffering. He was given the choice between suicide or a court trial which would have led to his conviction and execution. Hitler had also communicated to Rommel that in the event of his suicide, his family would not be persecuted in any way.
On the dreaded day, Rommel received two generals at his house. Rommel bid goodbye to his wife and explained to his young son that Adolf Hitler had given him the choice between taking poison or appearing before the People’s Court. After he bid farewell, he left the house in his uniform and drove off followed by the generals. Around 15 minutes later, they received a call from the general hospital to which Rommel had been taken saying that he had succumbed to an attack of cerebral apoplexy.
Rommel was a highly decorated officer in World War I and was awarded the Pour le Mérite for his exploits on the Italian front. In World War II, he distinguished himself as the commander of the 7th Panzer Division during the 1940 invasion of France. Erwin Rommel was one of Germany’s most respected military leaders. He is remembered for two very significant battles during the war — at El Alamein in North Africa and on D-Day. It was his skilled leadership of the German and Italian forces in the North African campaign that made him a legend and earned him the nickname Desert Fox from the British. He was considered one of the most skilled commanders of desert warfare .
Rommel was a humane, professional and principled man which made him a misfit amongst the Nazis. His Afrikakorps was never accused of any crime, unlike the Nazis generals who had been accused of horrendous acts of torture, abuse and terrible war crimes. In fact, Rommel ignored orders to kill captured commandos, Jewish soldiers and civilians. Rommel was a legend even then and revered by the Germans and so Hitler was keen to avoid the public trial of his most famous general and a deal was made in order to eliminate Rommel quietly. Hitler knew that branding Rommel as a traitor would severely damage the already sagging morale on the home front. Rommel died on October 14, 1944 and was accorded a state funeral.
Later it was revealed that he had committed suicide.
After the war, an edited version of his diary was published as The Rommel Papers. He is the only member of the Third Reich establishment to have a museum dedicated to him. His grave can be found in Herrlingen, a short distance west of Ulm.