Hans Speidel Hans Speidel ( 28 October 1897 , Metzingen – 28 November 1984 ) was a World War II German general and the first German NATO Commander during the Cold War . 1914 – 1945 . Speidel joined the German Army in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I and was quickly promoted to second lieutenant . During the war he was a company commander at the Battle of the Somme and an adjutant . He stayed in the German Army during the interwar period and was promoted to lieutenant - colonel on the eve of World War II . Speidel served in the French campaign of 1940 and in August became Chief of Staff of the military commander in France . In 1942 Speidel was sent to the Eastern Front where he served as Chief of Staff of the 5th Army Corps , and as Chief of Staff of Army Group South in 1943 , by which time he had been promoted to major - general . In April 1944 , Speidel was appointed Chief of Staff to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , the Commander - in - Chief of Army Group B , responsible for the defense of the French Atlantic coast . When Rommel was wounded in an air attack on his staff car , Speidel continued as Chief of Staff for the new commander of Army Group B , Field Marshal Günther von Kluge . Speidel , a German nationalist and professional soldier , agreed with some aspects of the Nazi policies ( e . g . , fighting against France , reversing the Treaty of Versailles , etc . ) , but was appalled by Germany ' s racial policies . He was involved in the July 20 Plot to kill Adolf Hitler , but managed to evade Gestapo attempts to find all conspirators . He was suspected however and was eventually arrested on 7 September 1944 by the Gestapo and accused of being involved in the July Plot . Under interrogation he admitted nothing and betrayed noone . However , Rommel ' s son claimed his father told him Speidel had betrayed his former boss by claiming the General was involved in Operation Valkyrie . Speidel appeared before an Army Court of honour , but Gerd von Rundstedt , Heinz Guderian and Wilhelm Keitel decided not to expel him from the German Army , thus meaning he would not appear before Roland Freisler ' s People ' s Court . Rommel , in his final letter to Hitler of 1 October 1944 , appealed for Speidel ' s release , but received no answer . He was jailed for seven months by the Gestapo , then tried to escape and went into hiding , waiting for the Allies . He was freed by French troops on 29 April 1945 . Speidel was one of the inner circle of conspirators ( the only one not to be executed or commit suicide ) , and had been delegated by anti - Hitler forces to recruit Rommel for the conspiracy - which he had cautiously begun to do prior to Rommel ' s injury in a Canadian strafing attack on 17 July 1944 . Post - war career . After the war Speidel served for some time as professor of modern history at Tübingen and in 1950 published his book " Invasion 1944 : Rommel and the Normandy Campaign " before being involved in both the development and creation of the new German Army ( Bundeswehr ) which he joined , reaching the NATO rank of full general . He was subsequently appointed Commander - in - Chief of the Allied NATO ground forces in Central Europe in April 1957 , a command that he held until retirement in September 1963 . In 1960 , Speidel took legal action against an East German film studio which portrayed him as having been privy to the assassinations of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in 1934 , as well as having betrayed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to the Nazis after the 20 July Plot in 1944 . He successfully claimed damages for libel ; see " Plato Films Ltd v Speidel " [ 1961 ] AC 1090 . In addition to his native German , Speidel spoke fluent English and French . Hans Speidel died at Bad Honnef , North Rhine - Westphalia , in 1984 .