World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF FRANCE: Rommel Out?

U.S. staff officers in Normandy last week heard reports they would have liked to believe: that Marshal Erwin Rommel was out of action. One report was that he had been seriously wounded, another that he was dead. Except for the end result, German prisoners’ statements jibed with reports of French civilians: that Rommel’s car had been strafed two weeks ago by an Allied pilot, that “The Fox” had been hit and further injured when his car overturned. The U.S. Army took the stories with a grain of salt, waited to hear more.