“Whether I would survive a defeat lies in God’s hands. The lot of the vanquished is heavy. I’m happy in my own conscience that I’ve done all I can for victory and have not spared myself.”Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
November 1891 – A child is born in Germany. He will become the greatest military leader and strategist that the world has ever seen.
His name was Erwin Rommel. Since he was a small boy, he sought after a career in the military.
Rommel became a highly decorated officer in World War I and was awarded many accolades for his actions on the Italian Front. In 1937, he published his classic book on military tactics, Infantry Attacks, drawing on his experiences in that war.
He also served his country during World War II. He became the 7th Panzer heavy armored tank division commander in the Wehrmacht (Germany’s armed forces).
During the early parts of the war, he made headlines across the world outlining Rommel’s blitzkrieg (lightning war) tactics to roll through the Ardennes during the 1940 invasion of France and the Low Countries.
But, it was his leadership in North Africa that would firmly establish his reputation as the most ablest tank commander of the war, and earned him the nickname der Wüstenfuchs, “the Desert Fox”. Later in 1940, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini decided to declare war on the Allies. He did this despite not consulting his German and Japanese allies, having a poorly trained army with poor morale, the lack of modern tanks and aircraft, and the most shockingly incompetent top military commanders.
Italy invaded Egypt with a force of 40,000 soldiers opposing only 15,000 British troops. Not only did the Italians get pushed out of Egypt, the British invaded the Italian colony of Lybia. It was an incredibly shameful defeat for the Italians. This would only be the first humiliating Italian defeat during the war.
This could not have come at a worse time for Adolph Hitler. At about the same time, the Wehrmacht was preparing to execute Operation Barbarossa; the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Germans had amassed over 3,500,000 professional troops, thousands of Luftwaffe aircraft, and organized three very large Panzer Divisions to begin their preparations to roll toward Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad. Hitler had to provide resources to North Africa that took away from his forces on the Eastern Front. Worse, he had to send his greatest commander to lead this desert warfare. Hitler soon learned that even great commanders cannot overcome the problems with having an extremely weak ally.
Among Rommel’s British adversaries he had a reputation for chivalry, and his phrase “war without hate” has been uncritically used to describe the North African campaign. It was the most honorable fight as there was in World War II. He later commanded the German forces opposing the Allied cross-channel invasion of France in June 1944.
After the Nazis gained power in Germany, Rommel, as a soldier, became a supporter of Adolph Hitler because Hitler was the head of state. Rommel was not a member of the Nazi Party, had no hatred for the Jews, nor did he ever commit any war crimes.
When Rommel was given evidence of concentration camps and realized that Hitler was becoming very unstable and completely ignoring the advice of his generals, Rommel refused to support Hitler although he still honored his people by serving as a Field Marshal.
During the D-Day invasion of “Fortress Europe”, Rommel and the other generals were running out of soldiers, artillery, aircraft, tanks, and fuel. His military advice was completely ignored by Hitler. He also knew that the Soviet Red Army was within 200 miles of Berlin. It was obvious to anyone that this two front war finally made it clear that the Axis Powers (Germany, Japan, and Italy) would lose the war. It was just a matter of time.
In 1944, Rommel was implicated in the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler. Because of Rommel’s status as a national hero, Hitler wanted to eliminate him quietly instead of having him immediately executed, as many other plotters were. Two SS officers gave Rommel a visit to his home. Rommel was given a choice between suicide, in return for assurances that his reputation would remain intact and that his family would not be persecuted following his death, or facing a trial that would result in his disgrace and execution. He chose the former and bit down on a cyanide pill. Rommel was given a state funeral, and it was announced to the Reich that he had succumbed to his injuries from the strafing of his staff car in Normandy.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was apolitical, brilliant, honorable, tough, believed in the rule of law, and the best military commander the world has ever seen.