This is the legendary Nazi general who turned on Hitler

Nicknamed the "Desert Fox," Gen. Erwin Rommel was a decorated officer who was awarded the Pour le Mérite for his outstanding service on the Italian Front. During World War II, the legendary military leader commanded the 7th Panzer Division as the Nazis invaded France, earning himself a reputation as a brilliant tank commander.

While his fame turned him into a propaganda tool, Rommel had another agenda — to kill Adolf Hitler.

On July 20th, 1944, a bomb was planted and exploded under Hitler's East Prussia Headquarters — but the Führer survived the blast.

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"A very small clique of ambitious, corrupt and at the same time irrational, criminally stupid officers have conspired to do away with me. It is a tiny group of criminal elements, which will now be mercilessly extinguished," Hitler stated as he vowed revenge.

As Hitler's Gestapo conducted intense interrogations of bomb plot suspects, one famous name managed to surface — Erwin Rommel.

Then, in Sept. 1944, British intelligence tapped into one of the conversations of captured German General Heinrich Eberbach which revealed: "Rommel said to me that the Führer has to be killed, there is nothing for it ... that man has to go."

Weeks later, two German generals arrived at Rommel's home and explained his narrow options. He could either be tried in the people's court which would lead to ultimate disgrace in the Third Reich or drink a small bottle of cyanide which they brought with them.

General Erwin Rommel died that same day, but the German people were told that their famous hero passed in a car wreck. At his funeral, the German people saluted him as his casket carried away.

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Check out the Smithsonian Channel's video for the failed attempted.