Fox on the Rhine

Plot summary

The story starts on July 20, 1944, with Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg’s bomb at the Wolfsschanze succeeding during a military conference, followed by his execution of Operation Valkyrie in Berlin. His choice to alert fellow conspirators about Adolf Hitler’s death via a coded signal gives SS chief Heinrich Himmler enough time to launch his own takeover, Operation Reichssturm. Meanwhile, the Allies push out of Normandy with Operation Cobra, and Field Marshal Erwin Rommel recovers from wounds he actually received in a strafing run three days before the coup. After Field Marshal Günther von Kluge dies in an air attack, Himmler puts Rommel in charge of all German forces in Western Europe, keeping him under SS surveillance. Himmler dismisses Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel’s suggestion that Rommel might be a conspirator.

Taking over the government in Berlin, Himmler sends Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Wehrmacht Colonel Gunther von Reinhardt to strike a peace deal with the Soviet Union. This plan, Operation Carousel, involves pulling German troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front, handing over Eastern Europe and Scandinavia to the Soviets, and sharing missile technology with Moscow. The Allies, angered by the treaty, move naval forces from the Pacific to the European theater. Rommel launches a counterattack at Abbeville against the American 19th Armored Division using units pulled from Normandy, and he orders the 19th Army to leave southern France before Operation Dragoon and regroup at the Westwall.

Himmler tracks down all surviving July 20 conspirators and has the SS kill them, sometimes by pretending to be British Commandos. Luftwaffe General Adolf Galland is tasked with leading development of the Me 262 fighter. Rommel clashes with Himmler over holding Metz as a strongpoint, so Himmler sends SS troopers disguised as US soldiers to ambush a combat unit Rommel pulls out of the city.