Field-Marshall Erwin Rommel (1891 ~ 1944) was a German general and military theorist. Popularly known as the Desert Fox, the career serviceman served as field marshal in the Wehrmacht (Defense Force) of the Third Reich during World War II, as well as earlier serving in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, and the army of Imperial Germany (1871 ~ 1918).

Rommel was a highly decorated officer in World War I and was awarded the Pour le Mérite for his actions on the Italian Front. In 1937 he published his classic book on military tactics, Infantry Attacks, drawing on his experiences from World War I.

In World War II, he distinguished himself as the commander of the 7th Panzer Division during the 1940 invasion of France. His leadership of German and Italian forces in the North African campaign established his reputation as one of the ablest tank commanders of the war and earned him the nickname der Wüstenfuchs, the Desert Fox. Among his British adversaries, he earned a strong reputation for chivalry, and the North African campaign has often been called a “War Without Hate”. He later commanded the German forces opposing the Allied cross-channel invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

The propaganda of the victors falsely claims that in 1944, Rommel was implicated in the 20 July plot to assassinate Germany’s twice-elected President-Chancellor Adolf Hitler. The story goes that due to Rommel’s status as a national hero, Hitler desired to eliminate him quietly instead of immediately executing him, as many other plotters were.

Rommel was given a choice between committing suicide, in return for assurances that his reputation would remain intact and that his family would not be persecuted following his death, or facing a trial that would result in his disgrace and execution; he chose the former and committed suicide using a cyanide pill. Rommel was given a state funeral, and it was announced that “he had succumbed to his injuries from the strafing of his staff car in Normandy.” This last hyphenated account is the only correct account.

The victors’ story of German General Erwin Rommel’s death was a fabricated one constructed by the Allies at the end of the war. Rommel was arguably Germany’s best general of World War II, as well as a famously humane and kind man, and a devout Christian, thus the need to fabricate the circumstances of what happened to him. In fact, the Field-Marshal died as a result of major injuries from a lowly Allied assassination attempt, not due to his being made to commit suicide by Adolf Hitler.

The bogus official story that’s gone down as history was the result of the interrogation and torture (torture was a standard operating procedure with the Allies) of his captured 16-year-old son, Manfred, by the French in one of their camps in April 1945. Strangely, the resulting type-written so-called personal account was in English, which was also a language Manfred Rommel did not even speak.

General Rommel passed away on the 14th October 1944 from a heart attack brought on by three skull fractures suffered when a Canadian Spitfire strafed his car off the road three months earlier. He made no apologies for his service to the Reich: “I served my Fatherland to the best of my ability and would do so again.” Credit The Hidden World.

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MICHAEL WALSH is an Irish British-born journalist. His 60 books include best-selling THE ALL LIES INVASION, WITNESS TO HISTORY, TESTIGO DE LA HISTORIA: HISTORIA SIN CENSURA (SPANISH EDITION), REICH AND WRONG, TWILIGHT OVER ENGLAND, HEROES OF THE REICH, HEROES HANG WHEN TRAITORS TRIUMPH , THE PROGRAMME OF THE N.S.D.A.P., THE FUHRER’S PROCLAMATION TO THE GERMAN PEOPLE , ODYSSEY ADOLF HITLER, THE HOLY BOOK OF ADOLF HITLER and UNCENSORED ADOLF HITLER.