Erwin Rommel earned his "Desert Fox" name in North Africa, where his Afrika Korps ran rings around larger British forces with fast, aggressive armored thrusts — a reputation so formidable that even his enemies studied him, until Montgomery finally broke him at El Alamein in 1942. By 1944, shown here, he commanded the defenses of the French coast and believed the coming invasion had to be stopped in its first hours, on the beaches themselves — what he called "the longest day." He was home in Germany when D-Day landed. Months later, implicated in the July 1944 plot against Hitler, Rommel was given a choice: a show trial, or suicide with a state funeral and his family spared. He took the poison.

The figure shows him in a general's greatcoat with red lapel facings and the peaked cap and goggles he made his own, a field marshal's baton in hand. As the command anchor of the Axis range he bridges directly to his desert adversary, Field Marshal Montgomery, and presides over the Normandy defense — the armor of the Panzer Lehr Schwimmwagen and the guns of the 88mm Flak.

W. Britain model 10083. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted base. Boxed.