Rommel death rumors grow in Normandy
Marshal reported hit by strafing planes
By James McGlincy, United Press staff writer
With U.S. forces in Normandy, France –
New and still-unconfirmed reports circulating in Normandy today said that Marshal Erwin Rommel, field commander of German forces in Normandy, died in a hospital at Bernay near the west coast of Normandy from injuries suffered when his auto was strafed by Allied planes.
The German Transocean News Agency said today that a German High Command official, asked by telephone about the health of Rommel, replied: “He is shaving.” Transocean added that, “This reply speaks for itself.”
Reports of the death of the “Desert Fox,” whose forces are falling back before the Americans thrust down the western shore of the Normandy Peninsula, were relayed hazily by French civilians and German prisoners. They contributed more detail to those rumors which first began to circulate yesterday.
Reported hit in lungs
These details said the bullets of strafing Allied planes wounded Rommel several times in the lungs, and that he struck his head as he was thrown from the car.
London said that BBC correspondent Howard Marshall reported from Normandy that a German senior staff officer told his captors Rommel “may be dead by now” as a result of his wounds.
Stockholm said an unusually cautious attitude by authoritative German sources toward rumors might be correct. A Berlin dispatch to the Stockholm Aftonbladet said rumors of Rommel’s injuries during a motorcar “accident” were “not confirmed” in Berlin.
It appears that a story given out here Saturday quoting a German prisoner of war that Rommel held a staff meeting at Percy as recently as last Wednesday, was untrue.
Nurse story fictitious
There have been rumors that a woman at Canisy nursed Rommel up to the time he died, but the woman appeared today to be an entirely fictitious character.
Although there is some information at Canisy to support the rumor that Rommel may be dead, Monsieur Lejeune, mayor of the town, said he had no knowledge of Rommel having been treated in the German military hospital there before Canisy was captured.
Eugene Morel, a gendarme, said the only information he had was the story started by German soldiers in Canisy about 10 days ago, but Yves Lauzach, an employee in the Saint-Lô post office who had taken refuge in Canisy, reported that a German lieutenant had told him July 26 that Rommel died at Livarot (Calvados) as the result of wounds sustained six days previous when his vehicle was strafed.