Erwin Rommel


Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (November 15, 1891 - October 14, 1944) was
a German Field Marshal and commander of the Afrika Korps in World War II.
He is also known by his nickname The Desert Fox (WŸstenfuchs).

Early Life

Rommel was born in Heidenheim an der Brentz, approximately 50km from Ulm, in
the state of WŸrttemberg. The child of a Protestant schoolteacher, Rommel
planned to become an engineer (perhaps working with Zeppelins), but instead
enlisted with the local 124th Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet in 1910.
Two years later, he was commissioned as a Leutnant. During World War I,
Rommel served in France, as well as on the Romanian and Italian fronts,
during which time he was wounded three times and awarded the Iron Cross -
First and Second Class. He also became the youngest recipient of Germany's

highest medal, the Pour le MŽrite, which he received after fighting in the
mountains of north-east Italy, specifically at the Battle of Longarone.

In 1911, as a cadet at Danzig, Rommel met his future wife, Lucie, whom he
married in 1916. In 1928, they had a son, Manfred Rommel. Bierman and Smith
argue that Rommel also had an affair, with Walburga Stemmer, in 1912, and
that relationship produced a daughter named Gertrud (1 p. 56).

Post World War I

After the war he held regimental commands, and was instructor at the Dresden
Infantry School (1929-1933) and the Potsdam War Academy (1935-1938). His war
diaries, Infanterie greift an (Infantry Attacks!), became a major textbook
after being published in 1937. In 1938, Rommel (now a Colonel) was appointed
commandant of the War Academy at Wiener Neustadt. He was removed after a
short time however, and placed in command of Hitler's personal protection
battalion. He was promoted again to Major General just prior to the invasion
of Poland.

World War II

In 1940 he was given command of the 7th Panzer Division for Fall Gelb, the
invasion of the west. He showed considerable skill in this operation, and in
reward he was appointed commander of the German troops, the 5th Light and
later the 15th Panzer Division, which were sent to Libya in early 1941 to
aid the defeated Italian troops, forming the Deutsches Afrika Korps. It was
in Africa that Rommel achieved his greatest fame as a commander.

He spent most of 1941 building his organization and re-forming the shattered
Italian units who had suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the
British led by Claude Auchinleck. In 1942 he started a classic blitzkrieg,
and within weeks the British forces had been pushed back to the Egyptian
border where he was stopped at the First Battle of El Alamein, although
Australian forces held out in the important port city of Tobruk.

Tobruk eventually fell, but British air and naval operations from Malta in
the Mediterranean Sea starved his forces of supplies. Infighting soon
started at higher levels of the German command, and a planned invasion of
Malta was called off. By the end of the year Tobruk had become useless as a
port, and supplies had to instead be shipped to ports in western Libya where
they were out of range of British aircraft, creating a logistics nightmare.
From that point on the British forces continued to grow in strength while
his own were faltering. After the Second Battle of El Alamein he was unable
to stop the allied forces, eventually being ordered home by Hitler in 1943,
just prior to the surrender of the DAK.

When Rommel was back in Germany, Hitler made him the commander of Army Group
B, responsible for defending the French coast against a possible Allied
invasion. After his battles in Africa, Rommel concluded that any offensive
movements would be impossible due to the overwhelming Allied air
superiority. He argued that the panzer forces should be kept as close to the
front as possible, so they wouldn't have to move far when the invasion
started. He wanted the invasion stopped right on the beaches.

However his commander, Gerd von Rundstedt, felt that there was no way to
stop the invasion near the beaches due to the equally overwhelming firepower
of the Royal Navy. He felt the panzers should be formed into large units
well inland near Paris, where they could allow the Allies to extend into
France and then be cut off. When asked to pick a plan, Hitler then
vacillated and placed them in the middle, far enough to be useless to
Rommel, not far enough to watch the fight for von Rundstedt.

Rommel's plan nearly came to fruition anyway. During D-Day several panzer
units, notably the 12th SS Panzer (the elite Hitler Jugend) were near enough
to the beaches and created serious havoc. The overwhelming Allied numbers
made any success unlikely however, and soon the beachhead was secure.

In July 1944 his staff car was strafed by British aircraft, and Rommel had
to be hospitalised with major head injuries. In the meantime, after the
failed July 20 Plot against Adolf Hitler, Rommel's connections with the
conspiracy came to light. Due to Rommel's popularity with the German people,
Hitler gave him the option to commit suicide with cyanide or face dishonour
and retaliation against his family and staff. Rommel ended his own life on
October 14, 1944, and was buried with full military honours.

After the war his diary was published as The Rommel Papers.

Quotes About Erwin Rommel

   * The British Parliament considered a censure vote against Winston
     Churchill, for his failure to defeat Rommel. The vote failed, but in
     the course of the debate, Churchill would say:
        o "We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us, and, may
          I say across the havoc of war, a great General."
   * Theodor Werner was an officer who, during World War I, served under
     Rommel.
        o "Anybody who came under the spell of his personality turned into a
          real soldier. He seemed to know what the enemy were like and how
          they would react."

Quotes By Erwin Rommel

   * "Sweat saves blood."

Battles of Erwin Rommel

   * Battle of Bir Hakeim (1942)
   * First Battle of El Alamein
   * Second Battle of El Alamein
   * Battle of the Kasserine Pass
   * D-Day