Killing Rommel - The Demise of the Desert Fox

[Music] field marshal even rommel who the british called the desert fox was one of the most famous generals of world war ii a brilliant tactician who with meager resources turned around the war in north africa in the favor of the axis after the italians had suffered a series of humiliating defeats the hands of a numerically inferior british empire adversary in 1940-41 the desert fox respected not only by his own africa core soldiers and italian allies but held in equal respect by the british australian new zealand south african indian and polish soldiers who campaigned against him was rightly identified as one of the allies most dangerous opponents and no matter how honorable the war in the western desert appeared in comparison to other theaters the british wanted rommel dead commando operations were launched to rub him out but failed largely because of incompetence and poor intelligence gathering rommel was also nearly killed or captured several times during the desert battles as he was often right up on the front directing events in person a favorite of hitler's rommel had once commanded the fuhrer's escort unit during the invasion of poland in 1939. he was a favorite of the national socialists because of his humble origins the son of a schoolmaster when most of germany's other generals originated from the juncker land owning class or high aristocracy rommel however became increasingly disillusioned with hitler as military strategist and would eventually flirt dangerously with the military resistance to hitler a resistance that plotted the fuhrer's assassination rommel eventually found himself on the defensive faced with the renewed advance by british forces from the east led by general suburn of montgomery and by the anglo-american invasion of french north africa to the west operation torch german forces were eventually pushed into tunisia and slowly overwhelmed following defeat of german italian forces in north africa in may 1943 rommel who had actually left africa in march exhausted and dispirited by the long chain of victories that had morphed into defeats was reassigned to italy later helping to disarm the italian army after italy changed sides but then in november 1943 rommel was assigned to the western front's most important sector north west france where a massive allied invasion was expected in a few months time hitler appointed rommel general inspector of the western defenses but his recommendation on how to counter an invasion ran contrary to those of the command in chief west field marshal gaird von runstedt rommel wanted to hold the powerful panzer divisions close to the coastal defenses believing that because of superior allied air power the germans had to hit the allies hard as they landed instead of holding back the panzers for a later assault further inland a powerful pincer assault favored by von roonstedt rommel believed that allied aircraft would not permit the panzer divisions to mass for an assault raunchded disagreed with rommel's plan as he feared the panzers would be very vulnerable to allied naval bombardment the question over who was right has rumbled on in historical circles since world war ii and will continue for decades to come rommel was at least able to overhaul the static defenses of the atlantic wall making the coast a more challenging prospect for allied attackers hitler couldn't make up his mind whether to follow rommels or von rundstedt's plan leading to a useless compromise and a division of command that weakened the german front hitler and his staff believe that the allies would take the shortest route to france and land in the pada calais region whereas rommel supported the idea of invasions at the par de calais and the beaches of normandy unfortunately for rommel when d-day commenced on the 6th of june 1944 hitler believed it to be a faint to draw away german armor and the real target to be the parde calais by the time it was realized that normandy was the only invasion hitler's refusal to allow the speedy movement of panzer divisions to normandy coupled with the holding of panzers already in theater well back from the coast meant that the allies secured beach heads that they could not be dislodged from interestingly one armored division the 21st panzer had been permitted to be close to the coast as a sop to rommel and this division launched an immediate counter-attack on d-day and actually drove through to the coast coming to a halt between the british beach at sword and the canadian juno beach but without support the panzers were forced to withdraw the 21st panzer's aggressive advance seemed to prove rommel's theory of holding the tanks close to the bishops but as i said this is very debatable rommel's next idea was to pull german forces well back from the rapidly expanding allied beachhead and instead of feeding infantry and panzer divisions into the fight-piece meal regroup and re-engage later from a position of strength von runstedt agreed that hitler did not a despairing and frustrated rommel the master of the war of movement saw germany's best remaining forces being ground away in a war of attrition it couldn't win the panzers in particular unable to mask for proper attacks due to the relentless allied fighter bomber attacks precisely as he had warned in 1943 but rommel continued to try and direct the battle of normandy as best he could little did he realize that allied fighter bombers the bane of the german armor in normandy would also pose a direct threat to the desert fox himself on the 17th of july 1944 rommel had attended a meeting with ss obersgruppenfuhrer zep dietrich of the first ss panzer corps located at irville rommel was driving back to his own headquarters in a castle at laroche george normandy had become so dangerous that any german vehicular movement led to allied fighter bomber attacks rommel's hawk staff car being a prized target one of several staff vehicles were driving around normandy that afternoon and which were also attacked causing confusion as to which allied pilot actually shot up rommel's car rommel's starved car travelled unescorted and rommel as was his habit from north african days sat in the front passenger seat next to his driver unterfeld verbal daniel riding in the back of the open top car were three members of his staff a sergeant bodyguard and two staff officers an allied fighter normally identified as a spitfire flown by either squadron leader chris leroux a south african ace commanding number 602 city of glasgow squadron royal air force or by the appropriately named pilot charlie fox of number 412 squadron royal canadian air force attacked rommel's staff car chasing it down the road and hitting it with cannon fire rommel's driver being mortally wounded and rommel himself either thrown out of the car during the shooting where he actually jumped out at speed to avoid the shells ripping through the hawk the car veered into trees and crashed the location of the crash the small village of salford montgomery another strange name coincidence considering rommel's greatest nemesis in the desert and in normandy was british field marshal suburn at montgomery rommel was quickly rescued and rushed for treatment it appearing at the time that his injuries would prove fatal the left side of his face was torn up from glass fragments and contact with the road surface and he had four skull fractures but incredibly rommel pulled through and was hospitalized in germany before undertaking a convalescent period at home in um however just three days after rommel's brush with death in normandy colonel klaus schenk count von stauffenberg succeeded in planting a bomb in the conference hut at hitler's eastern front headquarters the wolf's lair the subsequent explosion nearly killing hitler and killing or injuring many of his staff and generals attending the daily military briefing a coup was then attempted in berlin code-named operation valkyrie led by von stauffenberg and a group of fellow plotters on the assumption that hitler was dead when he was not once the fuhrer's survival became obvious the coup collapsed and the leaders were arrested and summarily shot what then followed was a very extensive gestapo investigation into the german officer corps that resulted in thousands being arrested interrogated and or tortured and many sentenced to death by kangaroo courts from field marshals to lowly subultans rommel's name soon came up and the gestapo looked hard at the field marshall germany's greatest military hero recuperating at home with his wife and son so what was the evidence against rommel once hitler's favorite rommel was noted by several leading german officers that survived the war or in papers only discovered by accident in 2018 making comments suggesting that hitler had to be removed in order for germany to find a way out of the war incredibly photos were found in 2018 of rommel meeting with anti-hitler officers in germany and in france the latter on the 15th of may 1944 a leading plotter was rommel's own chief of staff general hans spider who had joined rommel's staff on the 15th of april 1944 and introduced rommel to general khal heinrich von stokenago another resistance leader it appears that rommel was not in favor of killing hitler wanting him placed on trial for his crimes and feared murder might have led to civil war in germany but how many of these secret conversations and meetings became known to the gestapo ronald couldn't take part in the july plot due to his injuries from the car crash if rommel's car hadn't been shot up it appears that he had the tacit support of most important western front commanders including von rundstedt to end hostilities with the western allies if hitler had been killed on the 20th of july would rommel have assumed overall command in the west and perhaps come to some kind of cease-fire with western allies in france none of this is clear except that rommel and many other senior generals were by now completely opposed to hitler's conduct of the war in the west rommel was first implicated by general von stuknagal who muttered the word rommel in a delirious state following a failed suicide attempt another plotter lieutenant colonel caesar von hoffaker mentioned rommel's name under torture even worse the man who had led the civilian element of operation valkyrie carl girdler had even written rommel's name down on a list of prospective post-hitler reich presidents although rommel was probably not informed of this all the various fragments of incriminating evidence against rommel were presented to hitler's private secretary martin bormann who wasted no time in presenting this information to hitler with rommel's home in um under gestapo surveillance the army was ordered to form a court-martial board to pronounce sentence upon the field martial without his knowledge incredibly one of those on the court marshall was field marshal von runstet who had probably secretly supported rommel's stand against hitler's mismanagement of the western front and perhaps of hitler's removal another was field marshal wilhelm keitel hitler's pet soldier colonel general heinz guderian who would also come increasingly into conflict with hitler this time over the eastern front and general heinrich kersheim whom rommel had relieved of his command after the battle of tabruk in 1941. although the evidence against rommel was examined keitel and the head of the reich main security office ss obergruppenfuhrer dr ernst kaltenbrunner assumed rommel's guilt beyond any detailed real evidence rommel was found guilty but this case was a tricky one under normal circumstances rommel would have appeared before roland freisler's people's court to be harangued and mocked without any defense until sentenced to death but the nazis knew that the german public would be horrified by such a spectacle as rommel was a national hero dr goebbels and hitler and the other senior nazis feared his appearance would damage the regime's standing better rommel was handled quietly generals wilhem bergdorf and ernst maisel both hitler loyalists were dispatched from hitler's headquarters to rommel's home on the 14th of october 1944. in private rommel was given three appalling options option number one go with them to berlin and defend himself before hitler who had already signed off on his death two be arraigned before the people's court the outcome being a death sentence his family would also be arrested and sent to a concentration camp and his staff arrested tortured and probably executed or option number three commit suicide now if he chose the latter option he would be accorded a state funeral the story being that he had succumbed to the wounds he had received in normandy his family would not be touched and his reputation would remain intact also his family would receive his full field marshall's pension faced with such a dilemma rommel chose to protect his family he told his wife and son what was going to happen and paid them a difficult farewell the car was driven by one of hitler's drivers from the reich chancellery motor pool ss shtabs shafir heinrich dosa a short way out of um dozer pulled the car over and got out joined by general maisel general bergdorf stayed in the rear with rommel handing him a glass ampoule of cyanide rommel crunched the ampoule between his teeth and expired soon after the three men then drove his body to an army field hospital telephoning frau rommel to inform her of her husband's death ten minutes later hitler ordered that germany observe a day of national mourning and there followed a state funeral in the town of ulm the gestapo then cremated rommel's body to destroy any evidence of the real cause of death rommel was then buried in herlingen close to um the men who carried out hitler's instructions regarding rommel met different fates general bergdorf shot himself in hitler's bunker on the 2nd of may 1945 shortly before it was captured by the soviets and two days after hitler's own suicide general maisel survived the war being released from u.s captivity in 1947. he died in bavaria in 1978 aged 82. ss driver heinous dosa took part in the breakout from hitler's bunker on the 1st of may 1945. he was later captured and interrogated by the americans concerning rommel's death his ultimate fate is unclear if rommel hadn't been injured in normandy would his involvement in the july plot have been decisive he had the respect of a large part of the german army and people and would have been the highest profile resistor could his involvement have fully galvanized the other western front commanders to get behind the coup these are intriguing historical questions that i'm sure will trigger a lively debate in the comments section many thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 2,545,888

Keywords: Mark Felton, Erwin Rommel, Afrika Korps, Normandy, D-Day, Desert Fox

Id: 5D0bhpf-kQ8

Length: 16min 57sec (1017 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 16 2021

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