Dollmann, Friedrich

Dollmann, Friedrich (1882–1944) German army commander A career army officer, Dollmann enlisted in the German army in 1899 and, during World War I, commanded an artillery battalion. He was part of the select group of officers who remained in the army during the interwar period, and he managed to continue his rise, primarily in the artillery branch. By 1932, he was a brigadier general and three years later a corps commander. By 1936, he held the rank of lieutenant general. As commander of the Seventh German Army, Dollmann was among the leaders of the invasion of France during the Battle of France in May and June 1940. Instrumental in executing the western Blitzkrieg, he earned the admiration of no less a figure than Adolf Hitler and was promoted to general in July 1940. During the next four years, Dollmann operated out of a headquarters in Le Mans, commanding the Seventh German Army in northern France. Its task was to defend Normandy and Brittany against any cross-channel Allied invasion. However, by the time of the Normandy landings (D-day) beginning on June 6, 1944, Dollmann's Seventh German Army consisted of just six infantry divisions manned mostly by second- rate, poorly equipped troops. The reason for this is that the best divisions stationed in France had been deployed to the area adjacent to Pas de Calais, the cross-channel passage by which German high command (and Hitler) anticipated the Allied invasion. Predictably, Dollmann's men were unable to arrest the Allied advance—at Normandy, not Calais—and after American forces overran the Cotentin peninsula and took Cherbourg (June 26), Hitler, who had once sponsored Dollmann, now threatened him (and others) with courts martial. Those around Dollmann saw that their commander was deeply shaken by Hitler's threats. He died under mysterious circumstances at his headquarters on June 28, 1944. Officially, the cause was fixed as a heart attack or a stroke, but many believe he committed suicide by poisoning.