Eleven days after the D-Day landing on June 6, 1944, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was driven to Adolf Hitler’s headquarters. <\/p>\n
Alternative
\nBy Field Marshal Erwin Rommel<\/p>\n
Hitler either didn\u2019t believe what was happening, or he didn\u2019t understand the implications. I was determined to explain matters face to face. So was Field Marshal Rundstedt. We repeatedly urged Hitler to meet us. Eventually, he agreed. I was not informed until three a.m. on June seventeenth. At nine o\u2019clock that morning I arrived at headquarters northwest of Paris, near Soissons, where a cold man waited for us. After shaking hands Hitler sat on a stool. Pallid and bent, he looked like a cadaver.<\/p>\n
\u201cMein Fuehrer,\u201d I said. \u201cThe enemy has poured several hundred thousand men into his beachhead the last ten days.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s outrageous,\u201d he said. \u201cYou generals have undermined me again. You\u2019ve ruined everything. The Atlantic Wall should have been impenetrable. I need better commanders.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to acknowledge the situation,\u201d I said, standing over the stool. Rundstedt was nearby. \u201cThe enemy has overwhelming superiority in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll soon wipe his planes from the skies with my new jets, the only operational jets in the history of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if this is possible, it won\u2019t diminish the enemy\u2019s vast superiority in manpower and ships and supplies. Our capabilities, by comparison, are very modest and completely inadequate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy V-1\u2019s are ready. Attacks have already started. London\u2019s going to be annihilated by flying bombs. Then Britain will beg for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf these flying bombs really are revolutionary, then they must be turned against the invasion beaches,\u201d I said. \u201cIf it\u2019s technically impossible to send them such a short distance, then they must be fired at the invasion ports in England.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect that kind of small-mindedness from the military. Obviously, a miracle weapon can only be used for political purposes. That means attacking London.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this moment, as usual, it was we who were being attacked, so we descended deep into Hitler\u2019s bombproof bunker. He spent far too much time inside, too well protected from the outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cMein Fuehrer,\u201d I said, \u201cField Marshal Rundstedt supports me fully.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rundstedt sternly nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have the professional responsibility to tell you that our defenses in the West are certain to collapse,\u201d I said. \u201cFurthermore, the Russians are continuing to advance in the East. Our defenses in Italy are also in trouble. And our cities and factories are every day hammered from the air. We\u2019re being destroyed, Mein Fuehrer. You must make peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t concern yourself with the future of the war. Take care of your own invasion front.\u201d<\/p>\n
After this Rundstedt and I were invited to dine with the Fuehrer. While he gobbled a horde of medications deployed around his plate, two SS officers tasted his food. When he saw they weren\u2019t going to die, the Fuehrer began to eat.<\/p>\n