Quote for the Day

“How stupid of me.”

German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (1891-1944), who had been put in charge of defending the French coast against Allied invasion, on being informed that the D Day landings had begun. Rommel, believing that an invasion was near but would not happen on 6 June, 1944 due to the weather conditions, had traveled to Germany to celebrate his wife’s birthday. By the time he got back, it was too late, the Allies having established beachheads and pushing inland. 

(Rommel was later implicated in the plot to kill Hitler, although it is more likely that he was not involved. Nonetheless he was offered a choice: face the People’s Court where he would most certainly be executed along with his family and staff, or suicide with military honours and a pension to his family. He chose the latter and died by cyanide capsule).