The Incident
On July 17, 1944 German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was making a tour of the front in Normandy. After visiting a sector that had repulsed an enemy attack the night before he climbed into his staff car for the return drive to Army Group B headquarters. Early in the evening the car was on the road between Livarot and Vimoutiers when it was attacked and strafed by Allied aircraft. Rommel was badly injured but survived. The attack cost the Germans a brilliant general who was no longer able to effectively command the defense against the Allied attacks. The incident may have shortened the war.
The American
One of the first to claim credit for the attack on Rommel was American P-47 pilot Lt. Ralph Jenkins. According to Jenkins, he strafed a German staff car in the St. Lo area. The car was flying command flags and when Jenkins came around for another pass he saw the car in a ditch with bodies scattered around it.
The South African
Another claimant was Squadron Leader Chris le Roux, a South African Spitfire pilot with a Distinguished Flying Cross and bar to his credit. His 602 squadron had been involved in the Normandy invasion on 6 June and from July 15-17 he shot down two FW-190s and three Me-109s. Chris le Roux claimed that on the same day he attacked a German staff car near the village of Sainte Foy de Montgommery, causing it to overturn in a ditch. Le Roux was killed in an aircraft accident on September 19, 1944.
The Canadian
Flight Lieutenant Charles W. Fox of the Royal Canadian Air Force trained in Canada and flew Spitfires over Europe. He is credited with destroying or damaging 153 enemy vehicles and trains and nine aircraft. On D-Day he patrolled the coast of France with 412 Squadron flying three missions. July 17 found him on a mission looking for targets of opportunity in company with another aircraft. Just south east of Caen he spotted a staff car, attacked it and forced it off the road. He suspected that he had hit Rommel but did not pursue the matter. Fox would end the war with a Distinguished Flying Cross and bar. He lived to the age of 88, passing away in October 2008.
The Proof
The American claim was the easiest to discredit as the German report specifically stated that the staff car had been attacked by Spitfires not by a P-47. There were a number of Spitfire squadrons in the skies over Normandy on that day and a number of staff cars driving around on the roads below. Quebec researcher and author Michel Lavigne believes he found the answer when he made a thorough search of the logs of the Spitfire squadrons operational in Normandy on July 17, 1944. He could eliminate some of the squadrons by the simple fact that they had already landed by the time of the strike. The South African, was in the right area but the wrong time and Rommel’s car hit a stump it did not overturn. Canadian 412 Squadron’s logs were very precise, putting Charlie Fox in the right place at the right time. His wartime logbook stated "staff car damaged" with the postscript "Rommel – yes" written before it was known by the Allies that Rommel had even been wounded. So it appears the man who shot Rommel was Sqn. Ldr Charles W. Fox
Bibliography
Jack Spearman and Randy Boswell - Canwest News Service – October 2008
Sqn. Ldr. D.P. Tidy - Military History Journal – Vol. 1 No. 4 - South African Air Aces of World War II - 1969
Desmond Young – Rommel: The Desert Fox – Berkley Publishing, NY - 1963
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