Nazi commander killed in France
Col. Gen. Dollmann believed victim of aerial attack
London, England (AP) –
Col. Gen. Friedrich Dollmann, commander of the German 7th Army and defender of the middle section of the “Atlantic Wall,” has been killed in action in France, the Berlin radio announced today.
He was the highest-ranking general of eight thus far killed or captured in the fighting in Normandy. Dollmann, 62, may have been killed by an RAF rocket and bomb attack on a German corps headquarters Tuesday.
Dollmann was reputed to be one of Germany’s greatest artillery specialists.
He was known as a high-powered crafty leader who gained fame early in this war in the first Battle of France.
He was a Bavarian who won distinction in the last war as an artilleryman, and was a member of the staff of the German 6th Army in Flanders at the time of the 1918 armistice.
He attained his present rank, equivalent to that of a full general, in the French campaign during 1940. He had been in France ever since, except for a brief assignment in Italy.
A German announcement said Dollmann died Tuesday. On that evening, RAF dive bombers and rocket-firing Typhoons were directed on secret information and attacked a small crossroads hamlet near Saint-Sauveur-Lendelin in the southern end of the Cherbourg Peninsula.
The bombers moved in first on a small farmhouse which had been pointed out as corps headquarters. Every bomb scored in the target area. Typhoons then dived into the smoke firing their rockets. Pilots reported the house destroyed.