One of Rommel's spies during the North African campaign in World War II, Operation Salaam led by László Almásy spirited Eppler and Hans-Gerd Sandstede into Cairo although they were both arrested soon after arrival in July 1942.
Their plans ultimately fell through and Eppler and future Egyptian president Anwar Sadat were imprisoned together.
According to Sadat, Eppler was visited in his cell by Winston Churchill in 1942 and offered leniency in exchange for a full confession.
[4] Eppler portrayed Rommel in the French film Le Mur de l'Atlantique (1970).
Eppler's history is the same as that of the character Alexander (Achmed) Wolff, the Cairo spy in Ken Follett's "The Key to Rebecca" (1980).