In October 1944 the death of the German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was reported in the press. Popularly known as The Desert Fox for his brilliant military achievements in Africa (1941-1943), Rommel was said to have died from complications arising out of severe wounds he had sustained when his car was strafed while in France at the Western Front in June 1944. A grandiose funeral with full military honors was accorded to Rommel and while - curiously - none of the top Nazis attended the services, Hitler personally sent an enormous wreath.
In fact, Hitler had turned against Rommel following the disastrous end of the African campaign. Rommel and the German troops had fought on valiantly despite lack of supplies and reinforcements which Hitler kept promising but never delivered. (Unbeknownst to the Germans, the Allies had broken their radio code and were thus able to track and sink supply ships approaching the African coast, preventing ammunition, vehicles, fuel, food and other necessities from reaching port.)
Despite his perceived failure in Africa, Rommel was considered one of the all-time great military strategists and was vastly loved by the German troops and idolized by the German public. Hitler, with the war already going badly for the Axis, could not afford to pubicly chastise Rommel and so gave him a top command post on the Western Front. Disillusioned, Rommel served honorably while already envisioning the fall of the Third Reich. Following the landing of the Allied troops at Normandy in June 1944, Rommel was a high-profile figure frequently seen at the front line. On July 17, 1944 his car was strafed by Allied aircraft. Badly wounded, he was returned to Germany for treatment and convalescence.
On July 20, 1944 an attempt was made on Hitler's life: a bomb hidden in a briefcase planted beneath a conference table at Hitler's military headquarters in Rastenburg, Prussia exploded. Miraculously, Hitler survived. The conspirators, who had hoped to destroy Hitler and end the war before Germany was thoroughly devastated, were rounded up and executed. Although Rommel was not directly implicated in the assassination plot, his name was found near the top of a list of names of men who might succeed Hitler after the war ended. Hitler now viewed Rommel as a defeatist and a traitor.
Some three months after the failed attempt on Hitler's life, the public, struggling with the deprivations of wartime, were stunned by the news of Rommel's death; they accepted the official story that the general's demise was a result of complications from his war wounds.
It was US Army Captain Charles Marshall who uncovered the true story about Rommel's death. As the Nazi regime collapsed and the Allies closed in on Berlin from both East and West, Captain Marshall was in charge of interviewing captured German officers on the Western front and reviewing seized documents to ascertain what charges should be brought against those who had been active on Hitler's behalf.
Although Rommel had been dead for several months, his widow still lived in their home in Herrlingen. Captain Marshall called on Frau Rommel to obtain her husband's papers. Their first meeting was cordial; weeks later when the Captain - as promised - went back to Herrlingen to return those of the general's papers which were not relevant to his investigation, the widow revealed to him the truth about Rommel's death: he had been forced by Hitler to commit suicide.
On October 14, 1944 two generals had arrived at the Rommel home in a chauffered car. They met with Rommel privately and offered him a choice: he could be taken prisoner, tried for conspiracy and treason, and publicly hung, or he could take the poison that they would provide and be given a hero's funeral. If he chose suicide his wife and son would be spared imprisonment and degradation. Rommel agreed to end his own life; he met with his wife and son briefly and explained to them what was about to happen. Then he was driven in the chauffered car to a nearby country lane where he bit down on a cyanide capsule. Rommel was then rushed to a nearby hospital where - as had been pre-arranged - he was pronounced dead from 'a heart attack resulting from his battle injury'.