Field Marshal Rommel

 

 

When you look at it, World War II was a war that needed to be fought. Benito Mussolini’s Fascism and Adolf Hitler’s Nazism threatened democracy worldwide, with their one-party state and totalitarianism. Said governments forbid and suppress criticism and opposition to the government, disseminate brain-washing propaganda through state-controlled media and control nearly every aspect of public and private life. The most expensive and deadliest war of all time, the Second World War is estimated to have claimed approximately 70 million lives. All the major superpowers were at war on a global scale, the Allies versus the Axis, and all mobilized their entire economic, manufacturing, and scientific resources to the war effort in search of victory. Luckily for us, the Allies won and democracy lived on… albeit, with some communism as a festering wound on its side.

Each superpower put their best cards on the table, and even though the war was terrible, it brought forth many new things and the best and worst in men. The world advanced in pretty much every field- Heinz Guderian’s works on the use of armored warfare revolutionized military tactics, the British invented the radar to defeat the German Luftwaffe, the Americans (with the help of European physicists) developed the atomic bombs, and countless other inventions and advancements across the disciplines occurred throughout this war, shaping the world as it is today.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. The opportunistic man capitalized on the broken pride and resentment of the German people. This, as you know, brought by the end-result of World War I with the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles. With fanciful speeches, massive propaganda, and a litany of promises of a new and glorious Germany, he hypnotized, at the time, arguably the world’s most powerful nation to carry out his malevolent vision of a world ruled by the Third Reich, with himself as the totalitarian dictator. His rebuilt Wehrmacht was a sight to behold and on September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland and the declaration of war by Britain and France, all hell broke loose. To this day, I still wonder if Hitler understood the forces he unleashed that day and if he ever pondered the consequences of his actions.

The German war machine had military superiority at the onset of the war, it did not help the Allies (only Britain and France at the time) that Germany also had better generals. My favorite general of all time served on the German side, Erwin Rommel. Why Rommel? Well, Rommel was the quintessential example of a chivalrous man. A modern day knight, if you will, whose courage, courtesy, and honor distinguishes him from others. In fact, the last general who was similar to him was the American Civil War general, Robert E. Lee. Rommel was a man of war all his life, he fought in World War I (where he was awarded, among other awards, the Pour le Mérite), he taught at German military academies during the inter-war period, and in 1937, published his book Infantry Attacks (which became a military classic on the use of infantry tactics). This book impressed Hitler so much that Rommel was invited to oversee Hitler’s Youth, a division of the War Ministry. He would conduct military exercises and teach young cadets in soldiering. A commander in 1938, Rommel was then tasked to lead Hitler’s personal protection battalion. Months before the invasion of France in 1940, Rommel, taking advantage of his proximity to Hitler, asked him for command of a panzer (tank) division- and Hitler complied, giving him command of the 7^th Panzer Division which Rommel would lead into France.

Rommel would eventually become Germany’s most successful general in the war, reaching the rank of Field Marshal, the highest military rank attainable, higher than that of a general. Yet, the bulk of what I have learned about Rommel is not due to Wikipedia, but by reading The Rommel Papers, a massive book (524 pages) detailing his war campaigns- written by himself (with some notes by Captain Liddell-Hart and Rommel’s son, Manfred) on the field. His book opens up with him in command of the 7^th Panzer Division. Rommel’s speed of penetration into France set a record at the time (200 miles in one day by tank) and other German divisions often lost track of where he was (usually ahead), for this, his unit was called the Ghost Division. France was swiftly defeated and the British Expeditionary Force and their French allies were forced north and evacuated from Dunkirk across the channel to England but not before leaving precious war equipment on the French shore. For his success, Rommel was given the 5^th Light Division and the 15^th Panzer Division making up the Deutsches Afrikakorps, and was sent to Libya to aid the Italian allies from constant defeat at the hands of British Commonwealth Forces. It was in Africa that he became known as the Desert Fox (for his cunning in desert warfare) and assured his place in history.

If you read The Rommel Papers, you are in for a ride, as you are there next to Rommel during the war, seeing everything the Field Marshal thinks, does and experiences. He explains every situation, plans of attack, results of battle, etc. Something that is recurrent is the clear love for his wife and son, he would write to his wife, Lucia Maria Mollin (“Lu”), on an almost daily basis. He would write while traveling, before an attack or after an attack, heck even during an attack. Is this the heart of a monster? Not a chance. The man was very human, at times even joking despite the grim situation he was often in.

“Dearest Lu, 29 August 1941

A ferocious heat! We’re going off some time to bathe. Otherwise nothing new. There’s a lot of blather about an imminent attack by the British, but it’s probably pure gossip. They are scraping together troops for Iran. Their communications with Russia through Siberia are very shaky, because of Japan’s attitude, so there only remains the route across the Persian Gulf. This also looks a very doubtful proposition. Probably they’ll come too late. A night without bugs! Maybe I have killed the last of the Mohicans. I’ve even mastered the flies in my rooms.”

In the quote above, Rommel tells his wife that bugs are bothering him. In fact, the book contains several letters of his campaign against the bugs! The scorching African heat and insects of all types were uncomfortable things to get used to in the desert. Tanks got as hot as 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I can only imagine how much he and his troops sweat-ed in the African desert, such a sacrifice.

“Dearest Lu, 16 June 1941

There was heavy fighting in our eastern sector all day yesterday, as you will have seen long ago from the Wehrmacht communiques. Today-it’s 2.30 a.m.- will see the decision. It’s going to be a hard fight, so you’ll understand that I can’t sleep. These lines in haste will show you that I’m thinking of you both. More soon- when it’s all over.”

Do you know of a man that can keep his composure when thousands are dying around him, himself in the thick of battle among his men, bombshells going off as far as the eye can see, bullets flying near him, and still have his heart and mind on what truly matters? I know few. Rommel treated all captured enemy soldiers with respect and fed them well. He even invited captured lieutenant officers to dine with him and drink wine. He always respected his British foes, and remarked that it would have been an honor to lead such men in battle (yes! The British!). On another occasion, he went behind enemy lines where the British were treating their wounded and told them if they needed supplies, he would send them. Who does that these days? Perhaps, his honor shows most due to the fact that he constantly disobeyed Hitler’s orders of executing Jewish POWs. For all these traits, Rommel’s Afrika Korps was the only German army not charged with war crimes. Rommel himself called his war, “war without hate.”

Upon Rommel’s arrival to Africa, he found that the Italian Army “fell a long way short of the standard required by modern warfare… its worst feature was the fact that a great part of the Italian Army consisted of non-motorized infantry.” Therefore, the British 8th Army, despite having fewer men, were able to soundly defeat the Italians with better quality tanks, modern equipment, long range artillery, and modern airforce. Rommel changed all that. He organized the Italians to work side-by-side with the Afrika Korps and, with his leadership, inflicted constant defeat on the British, pursuing them into Egypt, to Alexandria. Rommel won much prestige for winning at Tobruk, Gazala, Benghazi, Sollum, Mersa Matruh and several other places in Libya’s Cyrenaica. As the years passed, Germany’s initiative was gone. It’s armies and supplies were spread thin fighting the Soviets, the British, and the newly entered Americans. They could no longer keep up their manufacturing at the same rate as the rest of the world. He was put in check at El Alamein, and never reached Alexandria but rather was repelled back. It was shortage of supplies and meddling from upper command that ultimately defeated Rommel, not his battle strategy. Even so, Rommel held out till the end in Africa. He somehow managed to win with less men, less tanks, less artillery, and less supplies… what he did was, in a way, miraculous.

Good always triumphs over evil, and it so happened that Rommel’s efforts were for naught as he served the evil madman named Hitler. Rommel returned to Europe when the African situation was lost. Following his departure, his troops eventually walked into Allied POW camps. Montgomery and Patton could never have defeated Rommel if Rommel would have had the same number of supplies and fresh men as his counterparts did. I get annoyed when people say that Patton was better than Rommel… utterly ridiculous, Patton himself read (and learned) Infantry Attacks. The German Field Marshal was unemployed for a time, then in 1943-1944 he was responsible for organizing the defense of the Normandy coast against an imminent Allied invasion. This defense was ineffective as Hitler moved tank battalions into the French mainland, too far away to be of use to Rommel (nobody knew where the invasion was going to happen). Unfortunately, Rommel’s name appeared in a list of conspirators that planned an assassination plot against Hitler. Near the end of the war, he often criticized Nazi incompetence, and was disgusted by their crimes. He once rebuked his son, Manfred, harshly when the latter stated his interest of joining Heinrich Himmler’s S.S., telling his son that he did not want him to be under the command of someone who was “carrying out mass killings.” Many German generals fighting abroad had no idea of the atrocities committed by Hitler and his Gestapo at home. To this date, no evidence exists of his direct involvement but he was forced to commit suicide, nonetheless. He died on October 14, 1944 and was buried with full military honors. :’(

Tags: History, War