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Rommel was linked to an attempt to kill Hitler

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True, Rommel was linked to the attempted assassination of Hitler on July 20, 1944. But that wasn't the whole story.

The norm in the German army for high treason was execution. And, if you were a soldier (especially a high-ranking one, like Rommel), your family lost your military benefits and pensions, too.

But Rommel was considered a hero at home in Germany for his exploits in the North Africa campaign. Hitler feared that killing him would make the public turn against him. So he offered Rommel a choice - enter the high courts, go to trial for treason, and ultimately be executed, rendering his military pension nonexistent.

Or, he could take a cyanide capsule and die quietly.

The official report on Rommel's death was that his vehicle was strafed with machine gun fire by an enemy plane. His family got to keep his pension, and Hitler didn't look like a monster to the German public (not yet, anyway).

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Q: Why was Rommel forced to commit suicide in World War 2 following Operation Valkyrie?
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What army did the German General Rommel lead in the battles of North Africa in World War 2?

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In late 1942, Rommel's Africa Korps was advancing eatward in north Africain an effort to seize the Suez canal when his forces were defeated by General Bernard Montgomery, commander of the British Eighth Army. Following that battle, Rommel retreated westward, with the Allied forces in pursuit. The final major battle in north Africa occurred in March, 1943 at Medidine in Tunisia, where Montgomery's Eighth Army routed the Afrika Korps, following which General Rommel returned to Germany shortly before the Axis forces in north Africa surrendered to the Allies. Following Rommel's return to Germany he began to express his conviction that Germany was fighting a lost cause and became associated with individuals who were plotting to oust Hitler and make peace with the Allies. Following an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler in July, 1944, several of the participants implicated General Rommel in the plot and some members of his staff were executed. Not wanting it known that a hero of Rommel's status was involved in the plot against him, Hitler approved a plan to give Rommel the choice between suicide or arrest for treason. Rommel chose the former and took a fatal dose of poison supplied by the messengers who delivered the ultimatum to him on October 14, 1944.


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