Rommel and the July 20th Plot

[Toddy]

A couple of questions to be tabled (pardon the pun) surrounding the July 20th assassination attempt on Hitlers life:

1. Do you think Rommel was implicated in the assassination attempt?

2. Do you think the subsequent forced suicide of Rommel depleted the German military machine or do you think Rommel was already passed his best, and not giving everything for the cause?

3. How well did Hitler and his staff cover up the murder of Rommel, and do you think the German troops knew what had transpired? Rommel was the most beloved of all and this surely would have severely dampened the moral of the troops who fought under Rommel had they known.

[Antimatty]

even if Rommel hadn't been murdered , as the war went on Hitler removed a lot of the autonomy that his generals had in their directing the war. it's not certain that Rommel would have been allowed to do that which he saw fit.

and as far as i remember the circumstances of his death were that he could retain his status as hero of the reich if he took the cyanide pill or he and his family could be publicly stripped of their status, wealth, etc and then he would be executed anyway.

[TheSteve]

A couple of questions to be tabled (pardon the pun) surrounding the July 20th assassination attempt on Hitlers life:

1. Do you think Rommel was implicated in the assassination attempt?

2. Do you think the subsequent forced suicide of Rommel depleted the German military machine or do you think Rommel was already passed his best, and not giving everything for the cause?

3. How well did Hitler and his staff cover up the murder of Rommel, and do you think the German troops knew what had transpired? Rommel was the most beloved of all and this surely would have severely dampened the moral of the troops who fought under Rommel had they known.
I haven't done much reading into the assassination and most of what I know about Rommel is from this great book called Panzer Battles (http://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Battles-Study-Employment-Second/dp/0345321588), written by F.W. Von Mellenthin. Mellenthin was on Rommels staff in north Africa.

For your first question, Mellenthin came to the conclusion that Rommel was not implicated. Rommel didn't want later generations believing that the war was lost due to backstabbing. I tend to believe this.

And for the second question. The German war machine was quite depleted by the time of the assassination attempt, and having Rommel or not wouldn't have made a big difference. I"m not saying they couldn't fight, but by mid-late 1944 the Eastern front had cost the Germans far far too much.

But I highly recommend you check that book out, its a great read if you are really interested in that sort of stuff.

[Chairborne Ranger]

If Rommel had remained free of any involvement in the July bomb plot, I think his effectiveness would have rested more on Hitler than Rommel's own skill as a commander.

After the assassination attempt, Hitler became increasingly paranoid and distrustful of his Army generals (Hitler's trust in the SS was fairly high, thanks to his belief in Himmler's absolute loyalty). When the Normandy invasion came, had Rommel still been in charge of the defense, I'm sure he could have caused the Allies considerable trouble. However, this would have depended on Hitler's willingness to relinquish total control to him. If Hitler still favored Rommel, as he had prior to the attempt on his life, then perhaps he would have put his paranoia aside.
Late in the war, Hitler often ignored the warnings of rational, competent generals like Weidlng, primarily due to his belief in their lack of loyalty and incompetence fostered in part by his growing paranoia and Himmler's back door dealings with the Allies. Had Rommel remained blameless in the bomb plot, perhaps his "star power" would have overcome Hitler's madness. However, by then it would have been too late. German forces fought the last battles with amazing effort, especially considering the odds. I don't think even a commander like Rommel could have gotten any more from them.

[muck]

There's is a good book that touches parts of this topic, it's The order of the death head, written in the 1960s and till then the only critical but unbiased book about the Waffen-SS.
The part about SS-Lt Gen Wilhelm Bittrich is very interesting. He was in command of II. SS-Armoured Corps during the aftermath of D-Day and is said to have met Rommel four days before the assassination attempt. According to him, Rommel wanted to sound whether Bittrich would be behind him in the case of a successful coup against Hitler. Bittrich who already believed that the war was lost agreed upon that and vowed to fully support Rommel with all his subordinate officers.


Bittrich was probably the only positive head within the upper echelons of the Waffen-SS. Due to his sarcasm, criticism of the Nazi party (despite being a Nazi himself), amazing traces of humanity and cases of extreme insubordination (humanity may sound too unproper here, but it is amazing to hear that a SS general punished war criminals, offered truces to his enemies and refused orders he regarded as too lossy and risky), he was provably on the black list of Heinrich Himmler who repeatedly tried to remove him from his command and is said to even have marked him for death.

[Toddy]

Thanks for the info guys. It is interesting to read that the British made two attempts (that we know of) to assassinate Rommel, one by Geoffery Keyes in North Africa and another by a group of SAS in 1944 (I feel that this attempt would have succeeded although Rommel was wounded by straffing from an RAF fighter two days earlier, the Keyes attempt with Commandos was a terrible failure.)

Does anyone know of any other assassination attempts on any of Hitler's generals? Obviously the British saw him as the lynch pin to the German war machine, even as late as 1944.

[ren0312]

There's is a good book that touches parts of this topic, it's The order of the death head, written in the 1960s and till then the only critical but unbiased book about the Waffen-SS.
The part about SS-Lt Gen Wilhelm Bittrich is very interesting. He was in command of II. SS-Armoured Corps during the aftermath of D-Day and is said to have met Rommel four days before the assassination attempt. According to him, Rommel wanted to sound whether Bittrich would be behind him in the case of a successful coup against Hitler. Bittrich who already believed that the war was lost agreed upon that and vowed to fully support Rommel with all his subordinate officers.


Bittrich was probably the only positive head within the upper echelons of the Waffen-SS. Due to his sarcasm, criticism of the Nazi party (despite being a Nazi himself), amazing traces of humanity and cases of extreme insubordination (humanity may sound too unproper here, but it is amazing to hear that a SS general punished war criminals, offered truces to his enemies and refused orders he regarded as too lossy and risky), he was provably on the black list of Heinrich Himmler who repeatedly tried to remove him from his command and is said to even have marked him for death.

I would disagree on that, as far as I know, the Waffen SS Wiking and Nordland divisions were not proven to have committed war crimes in the Ost Front either.

[Stealthy Sloth]

1. Rommel was not part of the assassination attempt He was loyal to his country and even though he wasn't particularly fond of Hitler he still showed him respect because he was in charge.

2. Rommel was ordered to commit suicide by cyanide pill from two SS Generals, Wilhelm Burgdorf and Ernst Maisel, If he accepted this he would be given a hero's burial, If he offered any resistance however, Gestapo units would storm his house killing him and his family.
There are a few theories behind why Hitler ordered his death, one was that Rommel was to popular and Hitler wanted all of the glory for himself, another was that Hitler new that Rommel did not adore him and because he had grown extremely paranoid after the attempted assassination ordered his death.

3. He was reported to have died of wounds (probably propagandized to be received from previous battles as all knew that Rommel enjoyed being near the front lines so he could have a better idea of what was going on).

If you want great information about Erwin Rommel read The Rommel Papers which is essentially Rommel's personal diary, and was edited by B. H. Liddell Hart. It is not the most exciting read, but it is extremely informative.

[Ligth Infantry]

The attempt with Keyes would have never been succesfully because they attaked the logistics headquarter, otherwise the HQ wouldnt have been guarded with only one soldier in his guard house in front of the HQ.
Its a myth Winston Churchill made popular as he wrote it down in his memories, telling the attempt wasnt succesfull because Rommel was on a marriage celebration of a arabian local tribe leader.

I think Rommel didnt realise till the end for what a regime he fought ( in 1943 he made Hitler the suggestion to make a JEW to a Gauleiter to have a better reputation in the world!!!), so he was against Hitler and his way to lead the war but not fully against the regime at all.

Its true that he wanted to end the war (against the allies but not against the soviets) but as far as I know and read about it, he wanted to open the front for the allies and so he asked Bittrich and Dietrich about their loyalty for Hitler.