CURIOSITIES AND FACTS - ROMMEL'S DECEASES

During his campaigns in Africa, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, "The Desert Fox," himself made repeated trips back to Berlin due to illness. As evinced by newsreels showing Rommel often with a handkerchief to his nose, Rommel suffered from nasal diphtheria. Reported Rommel's medical advisor in August 1942:

Field Marshal Rommel suffering from chronic stomach and intestinal catarrh, nasal diphtheria and considerable circulation trouble. He is not in a fit condition to command the forthcoming offensive.

This one individual's bout with infectious disease may have influenced the very outcome of the African campaign in World War II.

Refs:

• B. H. Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1953) fn 1, p1271.
• Jacquelyn G. Black, Microbiology: Principles and Applications, 2nd edition (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1993) p578. This author suggests that diphtheria toxin could have caused significant myocarditis, causing Rommel to suffer heart failure on his last return to Berlin in a Gestapo car. While anything is possible, Dr. Black's assertion that Rommel played a part in the assassination plot against Hitler is most certainly incorrect.

Thanks to Eric Croddy