Background
Friedrich Dollmann was born on February 2, 1882 in Wurzburg, Germany.
Friedrich Dollmann was born on February 2, 1882 in Wurzburg, Germany.
Dollmann joined the army in 1899. He studied in the War Academy for General Staff starting in 1909.
The elderly general assumed command of the 7th Army in Sep 1939 and on 15 June 1940, as French resistance collapsed, he penetrated the Maginot Line around Colmar. The 7th Army then had the cushy mission of occupying Normandy and Brittany. Rommel’s arrival in early 1944 brought disagreement over defensive strategy: Dollmann believing his army should be strengthened in Normandy, where terrain was ideal for defense, but Rommel insisted that Hans von Salmuth’s 15th Army, farther north in the Pas de Calais area, should have the major allocation of troops including all the panzers.
The beginning of the end came for Dollmann on 25 July 1944, when 7th Army defenses were penetrated at St Lo by J. Lawton Collin’s 7th US Corps (Opn Cobra). Operating far to the rear from a sumptuous chateau at Le Mans, Dollmann and his CofS. Generalleutnant Max Pcmsel, began to crack when the situation around Caen got desperate. Dollmann could not decide how to commit Paul Hausser's 2d SS Pz Corps as it raced up. “Twice on 26 Junel Dollmann picked up the phone and ordered Hausser to . . . help Dietrich defend Caen, and twice he changed his mind” (Irving. Fox, 39495). Two days later Dollmann gave Hausser panic-stricken orders to counterattack with his entire corps, not allowing time to plan the operation properly. At 10 AM on 29 June Dollmann took poison, but Pemsel delayed for two hours before reporting the general’s death of “heart failure." (Ibid.) Hausser assumed command of the army.