Countdown to D-Day

by Peter Margaritis

  Hearing this from the interpreter, Rommel smiles. “So,” he concludes with mock surprise, “you regard this as an invitation?”

  Lane looks at him and replies solemnly, “I do, and I must say that I’m highly honored.” With that, he bows majestically in his chair.

  Everyone in the room laughs. Rommel smiles and changes the subject. “And how’s my old friend General Montgomery?”

  Lane smiles back and, now a little more at ease, answers casually, “Very well, thank you. I hear he’s planning some sort of invasion.”

  Rommel plays along and arches his eyebrows. “Oh? You mean there really is going to be one?”

  “Well, so The Times tells us, and it’s usually reliable enough.”

  Still in a light tone, Rommel continues. “Do you realize that this is going to be the first time that the British have had to put up a proper fight?”

  Lane scowls. “What about Africa, then?”

  “Ah! That was child’s play!” Rommel retorts affably with a wave of his hand. Looking back on it now, compared to the enormous forces that he commands in France, it actually seemed to have been.

  He launches into a we-should-have-won speech. “The only reason I had to retreat there was that no more supplies were getting through to me,” he replies truthfully. Which is why the British outgunned him at El Alamein. Now if the odds had been just even…

  He states that Africa was just an unfortunate detour that had only delayed their inevitable victory. On the other hand, the British Empire, he explains, is meeting its doom. Its navy is slowly being pummeled at sea, with all its naval resources going to build merchant ships that keep going to the bottom. The RAF cannot expand in any real way, and is only holding its own because of the massive influx of American products. And England’s real resource, its men, are steadily being killed off.

  Rommel pauses. It is true, he continues, that Germany has sustained some costs; but mostly on the Eastern Front. Against the British, their manpower pool is tremendous. And that is why, in the end, the Reich will win out—superior manpower, highest quality equipment, and a determination to win, fired up by a pride born out of the depths of economic disaster and tempered by global shame…

  Lane sits and listens to him, totally absorbed by the lecture, as the interpreter tries desperately to keep up with the field marshal.8

  Rommel tells Lane that there is no need for the British to be consumed by this conflict. Germany is not their enemy. England and Germany have to unite and fight side by side.

  Lane is obviously impressed by the monologue, but disturbed by the idea of such an alliance. “That, your Excellency, might be difficult at this time,” he says slowly. “Many German policies repel the British.”

  Rommel’s eyebrows go up. “Such as?” he asks.

  The prisoner hesitates, clearly uncomfortable. Finally, looking Rommel in the eyes, he says softly, “The problem of the Jews.”

  Rommel stirs a bit, uncomfortable about the words. But he cannot let this man know it. They have to overcome their differences if their two countries are to unite. He forces himself to make light of the remark. “Ah, every country has its Jews. Ours are just different than yours. Or those here in France. Ah, the French! What a country!” Rommel continues on about the French. If Lane looked around, he would see a population at ease with life and its temporary occupiers.

  The prisoner replies dryly that it has been kind of hard for him as of late to do that, since he has only been able to tour the country in blindfolds.

  Rommel smiles. The man has a sense of humor. He replies, “Well, if you could, you would see how really happy they are…”

  Rommel keeps talking, telling this fellow soldier from the other side what the new German movement has been all about. Its original purpose, he notes, was not to dominate, but just to make the country rise up to be the best there was. And others had found that unsuitable. Well, now they are paying.

  Lane raises his hand a bit, almost as if in school, and requests permission to ask a question. Rommel pauses and then nods.

  “Would your Excellency tell me whether you regard military occupation as an ideal situation for a vanquished country?”

  Rommel thinks about the question and then answers tactfully, “The ideal situation is for a country to be run by someone who knows what they need. For that very reason, soldiers make the best rulers.” He explains how soldiers are conditioned for the worst emergencies, and can handle crises better than civilians can. Soldiers are more ready for critical situations and have more contingencies to deal with them. That is why the Germans are able to run the French countryside so well.

  “If you travel around occupied France today and keep your eyes open,” Rommel repeats, “you’ll see everywhere just how happy and contented the French people really are. For the first time they know just what they have to do—because we are telling them. And that’s the way the man in the street likes it!”

  They talk some more. To Rommel, Lane’s points do not seem to carry much conviction. Talking of after the war, Rommel asks Lane if he thinks a military man could successfully handle Germany’s reconstruction. Lane says he does. He also admits candidly that in his opinion, Rommel would be the right man for the job.

  At some point in the conversation, von Tempelhoff interrupts. He has noticed that Lane speaks English with some sort of accent, possibly Eastern European. He observes that Lane has an accent. If Lane is indeed a British officer, why is this so?

  Lane hesitates. Admitting to being a Hungarian Jew by birth would definitely be dangerous. On the defensive, he replies, “Because I am Welsh.”9

  “Ah, of course,” von Tempelhoff replies as the German officers nod.

  After what seems like a half-hour of visiting, the meeting is concluded, and the prisoner is ready to be escorted from the study.

  “What will happen to me, your Excellency?” Lane asks a bit anxiously.

  “We’ll keep you out of the hands of our police, and my staff will take you and your friend to get safely to a prisoner of war camp,” Rommel reassures him. “You have my personal guarantee on that, ja?”

  Lane smiles back, obviously relieved and grateful, though embarrassed. “Danke, Herr Feldmarschall,” he replies.

  Rommel nods and smiles, and Staubwasser leads Lane off with Speidel, the interpreter, and the guards. The Ia lingers behind.

  Rommel looks at him. “An interesting fellow,” he ventures.

  “Indeed he was, Herr Feldmarschall,” von Tempelhoff replies.

  “Make sure they get to a prisoner camp. I don’t want the SS or the Gestapo to get their hands on them.”

  “Jawohl. Lane seems like a good fellow. I sort of took a liking to him.”

  Rommel looks at him with a smile. “I hope you’re not going to marry him too?” Rommel chides, teasing Tempelhoff about his English wife.

  Tempelhoff smiles. “Pustekuchen!” he replies. No chance.

  They are still talking when, a few minutes later, Staubwasser comes back into the study, beaming. “Well, they’re gone,” he says.

  Rommel glances over at him and replies, “Good. They should have a safe journey to their prisoner of war camp.”10

  Although obviously dismissed, Staubwasser remains standing, still smiling. Rommel picks up on it and raises an eyebrow. “What is it?”

  “Well sir, when we left the room and were putting the blindfold back on him, he gripped my arm and begged me to tell him where we were.”

  “Oh?” Rommel’s smile slips a bit. “You didn’t, did you?”

  “No sir,” Staubwasser replies, frowning at the question, “although he persisted. He even swore that he wouldn’t tell anyone.”

  Rommel shrugs. “I suppose it doesn’t make too much difference. We’re protected enough here, what with all the bomb shelters in the cliff and the flak positions. And anyway, I’m sure Montgomery knows by now where I am.”

  “Herr Feldmarschall,” Staubwasser says, still smiling, “He wanted to remember the place, so tha
t after the war, he can bring his wife and children back here and tell her that this was where he met the great Rommel!”

  They all grin, and Rommel, chuckling softly, shakes his head, flattered.

  Staubwasser adds that Lane was adamant about that, and vowed after the war that he would scour the French countryside until he found the castle.

  It is only after the staff members have left his study that Rommel’s smile fades. He had told Lane why France was so well off with the Germans here. And it made sense. Some day the French would be united with them. So why is he feeling so guilty? That question about the Jews. It has unsettled him.

  That evening, several large formations of enemy bombers pass over La Roche- Guyon, no doubt on their way to the Fatherland.

  1Hauptman Karl-Heinrich Wolter was spending the night in his private quarters with his mistress when the bombing began. The building was demolished, and they both perished. Oberleutnant Raimund Steiner succeeded him.

  2Landgraf was a deception operation created by Army Group B to attempt to convince the Allies that the German defenses were stronger than they appeared. Dummy tanks and fictitious divisions were created for this. The operation was supported by specially prepared radio broadcasts.

  3Forty-three-year-old Karl Kaufmann was a founding member of the Nazi party, having joined in 1921. His close relationship with the Führer landed him the position of Gauleiter for the Ruhr valley and then for Hamburg in 1928. In 1933, the Nazi party made him Reichsstatthalter(Regional Governor) of the Hamburg district. In the fall of 1941, after the Hamburg population had suffered some from Allied bombings, Kaufmann petitioned and was granted permission to be allowed to seize homes owned by Jews, have them deported “east,” and then turn over the seized property to Aryan Germans who had lost their own dwellings. Kaufman, arrested by the British in 1945, was as expected convicted of war crimes and sent to prison. He was released because of bad health and re-arrested a couple times before he was finally let out in 1953.

  4In the orderly’s office of the command bunker at St. Germain, the younger staff officers had two large maps of Paris put up that showed nightlife entertainment. To update them, information was gathered from all visitors, who were asked to recount their Parisian experiences. On one map, numbered blue dots represented locations for a great meal; on the other, numbered red dots showed the locations of establishments where “something for the heart was to be found.” Amusingly, von Rundstedt one day happened to come into the room. Seeing the maps, he went over to them as several young officers stood nearby. Studying the dots, he finally growled, “Here… Your red map isn’t nearly full!”

  5The SS Security Service.

  6Sergeant George Jemru Lane, 29 years old, had actually been born in Hungary on January 18, 1915 as Dyuri Lanyi. A persecuted Jew, he had fled to England and after the war, became a member of the Hungarian Olympic water polo team. With the establishment of the Third Reich, Lane had seen how things were in Europe and moved to England. Given a commission in 1943, he eventually joined the infamous X Troop (made up of foreigners) of Commando Unit 10. It consisted of Europeans who had fled the continent, assumed new identities (especially since many of them were Jewish), and were now working for the British, raiding the French coast. This was Lane’s fourth trip across the Channel, checking out mines off Ault. Woodridge was a sapper and mine expert who Lane had brought along to investigate German improvements in underwater mining.

  7The Germans never found out that Lane and Woodridge had brought some infrared photographic equipment to photograph the German Teller mines that they had found on their last couple missions. Fortunately, they managed to jettison the equipment into the Channel before they were captured.

  8Lane could speak a fair amount of German, but of course feigned ignorance at understanding it.

  9Pryce-Jones, David, “R.I.P. George Lane,” David Calling, March 29, 2010.

  10Later that day, Lane and Woodridge were taken to Fresnes Prison near Paris. Again they were told that they would be hanged or shot, and Lane recalled later that he had even occasionally heard screams from other cells. Nevertheless, after a couple days, they were sent on to the officer POW camp in Spangenberg castle prison, 35km southeast of Kessel. Near the end of the war, while the prisoners were being relocated to avoid the approaching Allies, Lane was able to escape. After several dangerous days of hiding and running, he was finally liberated. After the war, he moved his family to the United States and became a stockbroker, but eventually returned to London. He died March 19, 2010.

  Sunday, May 21

  Today, the Western Allies launch Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo, a renewed, combined, concentrated effort to disrupt rail services in Western Europe. Dozens of fighter and tactical bomber groups, especially some 500 long-range fighters from Jimmy Doolittle’s US Eighth Air Force, make low-level attacks on trains all over Germany. Air Chief Marshal Leigh-Mallory’s Allied Expeditionary Air Forces send over 760 multi-national fighters on similar hunts over northern France. The initial results are impressive. The Eighth Air Force alone will eventually hit some 225 locomotives, destroying over 90 of them, along with several railroad stations, bridges, road crossings, barges, and of course, vehicles along the road.

  The attacks in France will force daytime railroad runs to be cut off in five days.

  On this same day, another Japanese transmission to Tokyo from Ambassador Oshima is intercepted by Allied Intelligence. It states that his main German contact, Under-Secretary Adolf von Steengracht, believes that the recent Allied attacks in Italy are meant to force the Germans to divert more divisions down there and away from the upcoming invasion. Von Steengracht also feels that some recent recon photos of southern England show that there are not yet enough troops there to mount a successful invasion. He also reports though, that a few partially covered photos of troop units in Scotland show (according to German senior officials) that a possible upcoming diversionary landing might very well be mounted against Norway.

  Grinning among themselves, Allied Intelligence charitably give von Steengracht one out of three.

  Recent reports have indicated that Allied tactical aircraft have been strafing civilians. A couple gun cameras taken from shot-down fighters have confirmed this, and when they were played at the Berghof, Hitler had watched civilians running out in the open and getting cut down. In response he had told Göring to select a couple captured pilots who had done this and shoot them. When the Reichsmarshal objects to executing pilots like that, someone on Jodl’s staff suggests that the jail commandant just turn these perpetrators over to the SS. Again Göring and Keitel object to this “lynch mob” behavior. Göring suggests they be publicly tried in court for murder.

  Based on the discussion, Luftwaffe chief of staff General Korten records the following:

  Memorandum

  The Führer has rendered the following decision regarding measures to be taken against Anglo- American air crews in special instances; downed enemy airmen are to be shot Standgerich1 in the following instances:

  1.In the event of the shooting of our own (German) downed air crews while they are parachuting to earth;

  2.In the event of aerial attacks upon German planes that have made emergency landings, and whose crews are in the immediate vicinity;

  3.In the event of attacks upon railway trains engaged in public (civilian) transportation;

  4.In the event of low-level aerial attacks upon individual civilians (farmers, workers, single vehicles, etc.).

  The memorandum will go to Warlimont, but is to be initialed by Jodl, Warlimont, and Keitel.2

  ***

  Despite the fact that it is a heavily overcast day, there is heavy Allied air activity all over Europe, although there do not seem to be many enemy aircraft over La Roche- Guyon. Rommel spends the morning at the château, going over administrative details.

  Around noontime, Vizeadmiral Rieve, commanding the naval forces for the Kanalküste out of his headquarters in Calais, 3 comes to the château to discuss Rommel�
�s earlier ideas of pulling back the army coastal batteries from the shoreline. Rieve likes the idea, but points out a number of problems that this would entail, especially the lack of transport at this time for the heavier guns. They continue the discussion of this and of control of the coastal artillery with Admiral Ruge over lunch.

  Afterwards, the two admirals go outside to walk off the meal. Rommel meets with Assistant Secretary Michel, from the military governor’s office. Rommel complains to him about the shortages of coal and electricity for his units. Both commodities are needed to run lathes, generators, and plants that manufacture his war materials, especially the offshore obstacles and cement for the coastal gun emplacements.

  Around 4 p.m., Rommel calls it a day. He, Ruge, Meise, Treff and Elbo go for a long promenade around the area, including through the town. It seems strange how the people, while they may notice the field marshal, do not bother him.

  During the walk, the three officers chat about a number of things, including the country’s leadership. The subject of removing certain “key leaders” from office is discussed—Keitel, for one. Also Göring, and Jodl. With Rommel leading the conversation, they explore the possibilities of how that could happen. Rommel eventually admits to his two staff members that he often feels troubled about such things happening. At any rate, they had all better be careful what they say to whom. It is one thing to grumble about the state of affairs, and quite another to be reported.

  That night, he writes to Lucie of von Rundstedt’s visit and about his talk with Lane. But then he also lets her know that things are getting close:

  Dearest Lu:

  Things were very lively in the air again yesterday. We ourselves were left alone. It’s quieter today, so far. The enemy successes in Italy are very unfortunate. Strength on the ground was not unfavorable to us. It’s simply that their superiority in the air and in ammunition is overwhelming, the same as it was in Africa. I hope things will go better here in the West. There’s been no real air preparation so far. The damage caused some days ago has long since been put right.