"On Oct. 24, 1942, German Gen. Georg Stumme, commanding officer of the Third Reich's Panzer Army Africa — which included the famed Afrika Korps — was riding in a car along a track with his signals officer, Col. Andreas Buechting, near the front line for an inspection. It was day two of the Second Battle of El Alamein, the enormous British-led offensive in Egypt which would turn the tide in North Africa in the Allies' favor.
How the monocle-wearing Prussian officer ended up in the car, in command of all Axis forces in the theater, is an odd story. Three months earlier, this Knight's Cross recipient and veteran of the campaigns for France, Yugoslavia and Greece was sitting in a jail cell facing five years in prison, Hitler having relieved him of command and ordering his court martial after an incident on the Eastern Front.
A court martial ordered by the Fuhrer, of course, always ended in a guilty verdict. Stumme was found guilty.
But here was Stumme, free, and having replaced Erwin Rommel — the Desert Fox — who had returned to Germany due to sickness and exhaustion. And that is when Stumme, his driver and Buecthing appeared within sight of Allied troops. Suddenly, a bullet struck Buechting in the head, killing him — which was one of the last things Stumme witnessed in his life…"
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Amicalement
Armand
opens the box on one of the re-released European Buildings series.