Countdown to D-Day by Peter Margaritis

Author:Peter Margaritis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / world War II
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2019-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Friday, April 14

Today, Rommel starts out with a simple breakfast in his quarters at La Baule in Brittany. Then he is off eastward, past the port of St. Nazaire again to look at the positions in Nantes on the Loire River. Work there has progressed well, and after a few stops, he moves on further inland to the town of Angers. There he looks in on the Engineering School. After that, he has a brief talk with 10th Air Corps commander Generalleutnant Alexander Holle. The man reports proudly that his men are ready to fight.

A couple more inspections and Rommel begins his return. He stops once more at Le Mans to confer there with General Dollmann. Then it is back to La Roche-Guyon.

***

Generalleutnant Dr. Hans Speidel is at his home at Freudenstadt, Germany. After leaving Berchtesgaden early in April, he had gone home for a well-deserved leave. Tomorrow, he will report as chief of staff to his new command—Headquarters, Army Group B.

Speidel is a solid member of one of the conspiracy groups bent on overthrowing the Nazi regime. Most members simply want to kill Hitler. Others want him tried and convicted. A few desperately hope he just steps down.

By now, the conspirators are not just a few circles of dissatisfied Germans; they have grown into a full-scale underground movement. Because many of these collaborators are highly placed within the civilian or military organizations, their collective influence is somewhat powerful but unfortunately, also uncoordinated. Speidel had found out early on that, within the scope of secrecy and reason, they could manipulate or influence certain appointments to promote their own interests. So it was no coincidence that his name had been one of the two chosen by the General Staff to replace Alfred Gause. And for Rommel, who was a fellow Swabian and had known him as an infantry student a couple decades ago, he was a natural choice. Thus, he had been ordered to report to OKW immediately.

Speidel, a one-time assistant to dissident General Beck, 1 wants the Führer dead— period. Oh, to be sure, he had at one time tolerated Hitler and his schemes. But after Stalingrad, Speidel, working for General Hubert Lanz, became convinced that their leader had to go. And the more Speidel involved himself in the conspiracy, the more he had realized that Hitler had no other recourse but to die. So today, he receives a visit from a co-conspirator, none other than Karl Strölin, the Oberbürgermeister of Stuttgart. The mayor, who still calls on Frau Rommel from time to time, has also been in contact with members of the Goerdeler-Beck group, 2 and the the distant Kreisau Circle. All of them were part of what was being called by some in the SS investigating them as the Schwartz Kapelle.3

Strölin, on behalf of the rest of his group, has a specific task for Speidel: he is to win over Rommel to their cause. The field marshal must be ready to commit to whatever action the conspirators undertake, and be willing to represent Germany to the Western Allied commanders as needed.

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