Discovering the Rommel Murder

by Charles F. Marshall

  "The marshal laid the cards on the table," said the aide. "He was looking fora strategic decision. He saw the possibility of a resounding success in North Africa if he was given the resources. If they were not to be forthcoming, he proposed the abandonment of North Africa."

  The mention of the strategic question sent the Fiihrer into a fury of wild charges, among them that Rommel's troops had thrown their arms away. This brought a hot response from Rommel, who pointed out that two-thirds of the 15,000 fighting men of the Afrika Korps were unarmed because theirweapons had been destroyed by British tanks, artillery, and bombers.

  "Hitler refused to believe this," continued Aldinger, "and the staff officers present obsequiously nodded agreement to that, as well as to other of Hitler's unfounded charges. Rommel later said to me, 'Those idiots! Most of them have never had a shot fired at them!"'

  As the conference went on, said Aldinger, Rommel asked for direct control of the African Luftwaffe, insisting that Kesselring's direction of the air arm from Rome was illogical. This was refused. Then he demanded immediate and greater shipments of gasoline, ammunition, supplies, and reinforcements.

  "Out of the question!" said Hitler curtly, citing his beleaguered divisions at Stalingrad as priority. To Hitler and the High Command the struggles in the wastes of Africa were of only secondary importance to the campaign in Russia. Supplies were directed to the eastern front and only a small measure was diverted for Rommel's use. The African scene was a sideshow. For the Fuhrer the center ring was the fight against Stalin and the Red Army.

  In the previous months, in a drive to reach the Russian oil fields in the Caucasus mountains, the Teutonic forces had penetrated deep into the heart of southern Russia. Hitler had then ordered the capture of Stalingrad, a city of vital importance to his enemy. It was a center of armaments production and strategically situated on the Volga River, the Red Army's main northsouth supply route. It was to be the capstone of the winter campaign.

  Marshal Friedrich von Paulus's Sixth Army had rapidly advanced toward its target across the open steppes, but as it neared the outskirts of Stalingrad, Russian resistance stiffened. In mid-November a surprise pincer attack by two Russian armies, quickly reinforced by five more, had cut off Paulus and trapped him in a cauldron thirty miles wide and twenty miles deep. Refusing to allow Paulus to retreat, the Fuhrer insisted that the Sixth Army fight on.

  With the impending Stalingrad debacle dominating Hitler's concerns, Rommel then proposed an alternative: the liquidation of the African front, with the troops to be dispatched to Stalingrad.

  "Impossible!" said Hitler. "I owe the African campaign to the Duce. You will hold out to the last man! Mussolini has guaranteed me supplies and air superiority."

  "Mussolini can't fulfill his guarantees," protested Rommel. "I believe Mussolini more than my generals," snapped Hitler, a remark Rommel never forgave. Of the 60,000 tons of supplies Mussolini had committed to deliver, Rommel had received 8,093.

  Rommel left the Fiihrer's headquarters with Goering, whom he considered abitterenemy, on a trip to Rome to see Mussolini. In the Reichmarschall 's special train, Goering gave little evidence of concern for the travail in Africa.

  "To my husband's disgust," said Mrs. Rommel to me, "Goering talked of nothing but jewelry and paintings with his entourage, or, as my husband put it, the imbeciles from his own court."'

  The marshal had a deep distrust for Goering, a man he thought was too fond of his comforts, brilliant but unconscionable, whose means for attaining his ambitions were reprehensible. One of his aims, he felt, was to undermine the marshal's relations with the Fiihrer and the Duce. Another was to have the Luftwaffe put in control of the African campaign. He had illusions that his "Praetorian Guard," the Hermann Goering Panzer Division, would, to his glory, score easy victories in Africa. Units of the division were at the time en route to Tunis.

  This distrust only deepened upon their meeting with the Duce. Seeking to scuttle the Fox, Goering offhandedly declared that Rommel had left the Italians in the lurch at El Alamein. Before Rommel, taken aback by the treacherous remark, could reply, Mussolini interjected, "That's news to me. Your retreat was a masterpiece, Marshal."

  "It was after these conferences," Mrs. Rommel told me, "that my husband said to me again in Rome that we had lost the war and ought to be making an effort to come to a compromise peace."

  Empty-handed, disenchanted, and disappointed, the Swabian returned to his troops, and the tone of his letters changed little. Daily he bewailed the dearth of supplies, particularly gasoline.

  He was the victim of a confluence of negative developments. His visceral desire to capture Alexandria, Cairo, and the Suez Canal conflicted with the High Command's strategic thinking. Its focus was on Russia, particularly the battle for Stalingrad, and hence priority of supplies and reinforcements was given to the eastern front. Said aide Aldinger to me after the war: "Russia got the logs; we got the chips."

  Rommel's biggest headache, though, was the time element favoring his enemies, who could reinforce and resupply faster than he could. Every day's delay before battle resumed widened the disparity between the sides in favor of the British, particularly now that the new advanced American tanks and planes were entering the fray.

  December 4: Little has changed. My health is not the best. My nerves are much overstrained. Thus my efficiency is lessened. Since the situation did not take a turn for the better I am suffering accordingly.

  December 5: The gasoline situation will determine whether or not we shall be able to maneuver. If not, fate will soon catch up with us. I could weep!

  December 7: Supplies are still completely inadequate.

  December 8: Supplies are very scarce. Great worries!

  Seventeen days early, allowing for mail delays, he congratulated his son on his coming fourteenth birthday. He advised the boy to learn as much as possible in school and to listen to his mother, who had his best interests at heart. He was not pleased that the Hitler Youth were taking up so much of his time, with his grades suffering as a result.

  December 10: 1 think Tommy wants to get to Tunisia before Christmas.

  By December I I he was so despondent that he penned his wife:

  I wonder if you would be kind enough to send me by courier a German-English dictionary. I have an idea that I shall be able to make good use of it.

  Two days later he found in his mail a check for 19,800 marks from his publishers for the thirteenth edition of The Infantry Attacks and estimated that he had a credit of about 50,000 marks. He wondered whether they would ever be able to make use of the money.

  As the Allies poured men and materiel into Africa in ever-increasing quantities, their navies reduced the Axis supply stream to a trickle. This unhappy situation was now reflected in one melancholy letter after another:

  ... supplies that don't arrive ... Supplies arrive in dribbles only.... Berndt will fly to Germany the day after tomorrow to "go shopping " for us.... Our supplies, especially gasoline, are very scarce.... The supply situation renders the general situation more difficult even, day.... miserable supply status... Oursupply system has broken down almost completely...

  The quartermaster's delivery of only minuscule amounts of gasoline and ammunition dictated his tactics. Battles, he was frequently to say later, are often decided by the opposing quartermasters.

  December 15: The enemy is attacking on a broad front. We are making an effort to halt him. Gasoline and ammunition, however, are very scarce. No reinforcements have reached us, either.

  The next day, camped in a flower-dappled field, he wondered where he would be by Christmas.

  December 18: We are once more engaged in heavy fighting. There is little hope for success, for we are short of everything. My personal fate matters little in comparison with the fate ofthe armies and the fatal consequences of our unsuccessful struggle. Bastico too was very downhearted yesterday. The situation in the West, and particularly at the ports, does not seem to improve. We hope to be able to k
eep fighting for another few days, but gasoline is scarce and one cannot get along without it.

  As a result of a situation report he and Marshal Bastico had jointly sent to the Commando Supremo (Italian High Command), he received a bombastic order from Mussolini to have the German-Italian Army resist to the uttermost at a position Rommel considered untenable. His own plans were to retreat until he found terrain that was tactically suitable for defense, and then fight.

  Early on the morning of Christmas Eve, while inspecting the country south of his headquarters, he ran into a herd of gazelles and shot one of the swift animals from his moving car. The rest of the day he spent with the troops, and in the late evening he invited several of his staff members to join him for a gazelle dinner.

  On Christmas Eve he wrote Lucie that he thanked God that his soldiers' spirits were high and found it difficult to conceal from them the hopelessness of their plight.

  With the Tommies pressing him relentlessly from the east, Rommel continued to fight delaying actions and apprehensively waited for the Yanks to begin their offensive from the West, concluding that "that will probably be the end. " To add to his problems, time and misfortunes had done little to improve Italo-Germanic relations. Wrote Rommel: "I often differ with Bastico. The best thing for me to do is to visit the front. That gives me other things to think about and there I see smart German soldiers."

  December 28: Westphal will take this letter. He is flying back tomorrow, the lucky fellow! Slowly but surely our fate is drawing to its close. It would be a miracle if we could hold out for any length of time. The future is in the hands of God. We shall go on fighting as long as possible. On my last visit I had an idea it would come to this.

  December 30: The battle has started. Its conclusion is quite obvious to me. The ratio of forces is too adverse and our supply system has broken down almost completely.

  The battle was not the large-scale offensive Rommel feared, and it soon ended. "The troops are in the best of spirits," he wrote on New Year's Eve. "It's a good thing that soldiers don't know everything!"

  Soon after the beginning of the year, Marshal Kesselring and Marshal Cavallero were due at Rommel's headquarters for a conference. "Let's hope it won't be all just promises," wrote Rommel. And the next day: "They didn't even make promises."

  New Year's Eve he spent with Bayerlein, now commander of the Afrika Korps. They sat cozily in his command car until midnight and reminisced of home.

  January 2, 1943: Major fighting has still not begun. When it starts I will be in grave trouble.

  The Fox was surprised that the enemy did not dare risk an attack, and wondered when the blow would strike. He reported himself in a somewhat better mood, that he had hopes of making a defense somewhere. He lamented that he had not been getting much mail, speculating that most of it was probably at the bottom of the sea, and asked if Manfred had received the birthday letter he sent.

  By mid-January he was on the move again, and soon the terrain became mountainous. He hoped to delay the enemy for a time. The Allies, however, had smelled the kill and, with a superiority that Rommel estimated at eight to one, hounded him closely. He reminded his wife of their last conversation: "It turned out as I predicted and all the promises remained promises."

  There was an interlude in the battle. He reported to his wife that the situation was less desperate than it had been. His liaison man, Berndt, would "go shopping" for him. Reduced to grasping at straws to bolster his flagging spirits, he wrote: "What do you think of Nanking China's [Chinese puppet government] declaration of waragainst Britain and the U.S.A.? Two hundred fifty million more people are therefore now on our side."

  January 19: Fighting continues with undiminished fury. We have now reached a somewhat mountainous terrain and hope to be able to holdup the enemy here forsome time. Berndt has returned. Kesselring pulled rank on him when they went to see the Fuhrer. But Berndts trip was a very good and necessary thing, although it is doubtful if our hopes can be fulfilled. The events have raced too far ahead. The hardest part still lies before us. Berndt relayed the Fuhrer's best regards and assured me that I still have his complete confidence. The times are now-as I pointed out to you in November-very serious indeed. Every single German will have to contribute to the war effort without regard to residence, social position, property, or age. Be sure to look for a suitable job in time. Manfred Ifourteen years old] too, will soon have to stand at a work bench or behind an AA gun. The stake is life or death for the German nation. lam writing you this because I want to tell you quite frankly what will happen. It is better to prepare for such things in time, so that the conversion will not be so abrupt. Our enemies, especially the Russians, have no picnic either. For a long time already they have with the utmost brutalityforced all the elements of their nation to work and demanded their utmost effort. This alone explains their recent successes.

  January 20: The enemy is endeavoring to shift the battle as fast as possible to the West. I can fully understand this maneuver from his standpoint.

  He took some consolation from the troubles of Field Marshal Paulus, commanding the surrounded forces at Stalingrad. That man, he felt, had an inhumane enemy, implying that he was more fortunate to have the British as opponents. He wrote that he hoped that God would not desert the Germans altogether.

  January 22: Grave reproaches from Rome because we do not hold out longer against enemy pressure. We do all we can. The development of the situation yesterday fully vindicated my actions. Shall we be able to fight much longer with this state of supply? We want to and will fight as long as possible. You can imagine what troubles / have with our dear allies. It could be foreseen that they would be the first to waver. / don't think they will be with us much longer. People and nations don't change.

  The Fox continued to yield to Montgomery's unceasing pressure and, despite a direct order from Hitler, abandoned Tripoli. He then placed his hopes in effecting a junction with the Axis forces to the west, but in view of the terrain, road conditions, and his perennial supply difficulties, considered his chances of success problematical. The Allied air force continued to whittle away at his retreating troops. The disparity in strength enabled the British to inflict losses on the Germans without incurring any themselves. In tough ground battles, the British called for their fighter-bombers to tip the scales. Air reconnaissance, vital in the preparation of planning, was available to Montgomery but not to Rommel.

  January 24: 1 had to make a report on the state q f my health. After two rears in Africa I regret to say that 1 am not strong enough to continue much longer in this responsible position.

  By then the Fox had shaken the sands of Libya from his boots. His retreat had taken him across the border into Tunisia, areas of it reminiscent of Swabia. Camel's thorn, the low spiny shrub indigenous to Tripolitania and Cyrenaica that was often the bane of his foot soldiers and frequently slowed his vehicles and raised their gas consumption, did not exist there. Instead, Tunisia was fertile country with gentle rolling hills and wheat and corn fields. Orchards abounded and wells were plentiful. The Americans who had trained in southern California were to find the terrain similar in many respects.

  January 25: 1 cannot describe to you how hard such a withdrawal, with all the things connected with it, is for rne. Day and night 1 am haunted by the fear of complete failure in Africa. I am so depressed that I can hardly work at all. Perhaps somebody else considers the situation less critical and can still make something of it. Kesselring, for example, is full of optimism and may even think that I am the reason the army does not hold out any longer. He has no idea of ' the low combat efficiency of our forces, especially the Italians, and the ratio of strength, which is made even more unfavorable to us by the enemy's excellent motorization, his tanks and armored cars, and his well functioning supply system. But Kesselring is my superior.

  Field Marshal Kesselring and Rommel conferring as the African campaign nears its climax. In the background is the van that the Italians had presented to the German commander i
n the honeymoon days of the Axis alliance. Photo from Mrs. Rommel.

  Adding to his stress were attempts by elements in the highest echelons of the German and Italian commands to have him replaced for insubordination. He had, in an effort to save his troops, given up a position he considered untenable, thereby contravening joint orders of the Duce and the Fiihrer.

  By the end of January, with Armageddon looming on the horizon and after almost two years in Africa, interrupted only by an aborted rest cure and conferences in Rome and Berlin, the marshal's health had reached its lowest point. The collapsing body was overpowering the intransigent mind. This is mirrored in letter after letter at this time: "I must exercise all my willpower to keep going.... My health has improved very little ... My health, unfortunately, does not improve.... I will fight till I drop...."

  Eventually Rommel is notified that an Italian, General Messe, will relieve him.

  In a few days I will turn over the command of my Army to an Italian, since the state of my health no longer permits me to exercise this command. I have exerted the greatest efforts to hold my own despite all the difficulties. I pity my soldiers from the bottom of my heart. I clung to them with the greatest affection.

  Two days later,

  January 30: My Italian successor is to arrive today. This change of command to an Italian has very depressing effects on the morale of our German soldiers. That was not necessary, after all. I do think a German general could have succeeded me.

  Messe arrived and, surely aware that Rommel would be a hard act to follow, assured the German he was in no rush to take over the post. The Swabian wrote home: "I want to introduce him thoroughly to the job before leaving for my cure."

  February 5: Yesterday I had another talk with General Messe, who will soon take over my post. My state of health is affected by my grief over having to turn over my army.