[General Savage]

Squadron Leader Le Roux of 602 Squadron was flying his Spitfire Mk 9 on a sweep through the French countryside that morning on the 17th July 1944.
Seeing a German staff car on a lonely road in Normandy he immediately attacked.
Later it was found to be Rommel's staff car and the attack and subsequent roll over left Rommel with multiple skull fractures.

Details:
Name LE ROUX, Jacobus Johannes 'Chris'
Number 42240
Nationality South African
Born South Africa, 1920
Arrived England 9 December 1940

Decorations DFC (1941), 1st Bar to DFC (1942), 2nd Bar to DFC (1943)
Notes KIA 29 August 1944, whilst CO of 602 Sqdn.; remembered on Panel 200 of the Runnymede Memorial

Chris le Roux took command of No.602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron in France in the summer of 1944, with Spitfire 9s, having received a second Bar to his DFC for his North African successes. He led this squadron through the fierce fighting of the invasion of Normandy, and moved it to French soil on 25th June. He shot down a FW 190 and a Me 109 on 15th July, 1944, and another FW 190 on 16th. On 17th he destroyed two Me 109s and damaged two more.

Chris Le Roux nearly succeeded in killing the German Commanding General, Erwin Rommel. Diving on his car, he caused it to overturn near the village of Sainte Foy de Montgomerie, and Rommel was flung into a ditch and sustained a fractured skull. He survived, only to kill himself on 14th October, rather than stand trial for complicity in the plot against Hitler of 20th July.
By 25th August, 1944, Paris had been liberated, and on 3rd September, five years after the outbreak of war, the Welsh Guards entered Brussels.

Chris le Roux did not live to enjoy the fruits of the victory. Like so many gallant and brilliant fighter pilots, he was killed, not by enemy gunfire, but by an aircraft accident, on 19th September, 1944