While in the hospital, Rommel was apparently
contacted by senior German officers who were plotting
to kill Hitler and end the war. Although he had been a
member of Nazi Party, Rommel now realized Germany’s
danger if Hitler remained in charge, and he spoke out on
the German regime’s failings. On 14 October 1944, two
German generals investigating a failed attempt on Hit-
ler’s life on 20 July (the “Bomb Plot”) visited Rommel.
Afterward, he told his wife, “I have come to say good-
bye. In a quarter of an hour I shall be dead.” Whereas
Hitler had arrested and executed others implicated in
the plot, he had offered Rommel a chance to take his
own life rather than suffer the humiliation of arrest,
trial, and certain execution. In a car near Ulm, Rommel
took a dose of poison and died, a month before his 53rd
birthday. The Nazis announced that Rommel had been
killed in battle, and Hitler ordered a state funeral for the
man he had effectively put to death.
In the introduction to Rommel’s edited papers,
British historian B. H. Liddell Hart writes: “Until I
delved into Rommel’s own papers I regarded him as a
brilliant tactician and great fighting leader, but I did not
realize how deep a sense of strategy he had—or, at any
rate, developed in reflection. It was a surprise to find
that such a thruster had been so thoughtful, and that his
audacity was so shrewdly calculated. In certain cases, his
moves may still be criticized as too hazardous, but not as
the reckless strokes of a blind and hot-headed gambler.
In analysis of the operations it can be seen that some of
the strokes which miscarried, with grave results for him,
came close to proving graver for his opponents. More-
over, even in failure his strokes made such an impression
on them as to assure his army a chance of escape.”
References: Young, Desmond, Rommel: The Desert Fox
(New York: Harper, 1950); Heckmann, Wolf, Rommel’s
War in Africa (New York: Doubleday, 1981); Liddell
Hart, B. H., ed., The Rommel Papers (London: Hamlyn
Paperbacks, 1983); Windrow, Martin, and Francis K.
Mason, “Rommel, Erwin,” in The Wordsworth Dictionary
of Military Biography (Hertfordshire, U.K.: Wordsworth
Editions Ltd., 1997), 250–251.
Rooke, Sir George (ca. 1650–1709) English
admiral
George Rooke was born in or about 1650—the exact
date is unknown—the son of Sir William Rooke, the
sheriff of Kent. Of his early life, few details can be as-
certained. Historian John B. Hattendorf writes that
“George Rooke was among the category of ‘gentlemen’
officers.... [He was] the second son of Dame Jane
Finche Rooke and Colonel Sir William Rooke (1624–
1691) of St. Lawrence, Canterbury; [the] sheriff of Kent
(1685–1688) and cousin, once removed, of Lawrence
Rooke (1622–1662), the astronomer and founder mem-
ber of the Royal Society.”
According to several sources, Rooke went to sea
at an early age and first saw naval action during the
Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–67). The historian
John Charnock writes: “Having discovered an early
propensity to the sea, contrary, it is said, to the wishes
of his relations, he entered as a volunteer in the navy,
and rendering himself very soon conspicuous as sec-
ond lieutenant of the London in 1672, and of the Prince
in the following year, was, on the 13th of November
1673, at the early age of twenty-three, appointed to the
command of the Holmes.” Rooke also saw action dur-
ing the War of the Grand Alliance (1688–97), and per-
haps his greatest achievement during this period was his
fighting at the Battle of Bantry Bay (11 May 1689), off
the coast of Ireland, between the English and French
navies.
Rooke was promoted to the rank of rear admiral
following Bantry Bay, and he took command of En-
glish forces fighting at La Hogue against the Dutch off
the northern coast of Normandy, France (19–23 May
1692). His victory there led to his being knighted as Sir
George Rooke, and he was given command of the En-
glish fleet, which destroyed the French warships aiding
in the return of James II to the English throne. Rooke’s
low point came in 1693. While his fleet was escorting
the so-called “Smyrna expedition” to the Levant in what
is now Turkey, a French fleet commanded by Anne-
Hilarion de Cotentin, comte de Tourville, intercepted
and attacked them in Lagos Bay, leaving the English
with extreme losses, although Rooke was not blamed for
the incident.
Rooke’s most important service came during the
War of the Spanish Succession (1701–13), but with
mixed results, as historians Anthony Bruce and William
Cogar explain: “Failure also marked the first two years
of his command during the War of the Spanish Succes-
sion. His inability to capture Cádiz in September 1702
was only partially redeemed by a successful attack on
Vigo [also known as Vigo Bay, 12 October 1702] on theRooke, SiR geoRge