Hitler's Paratrooper: The Life and Battles of Rudolf Witzig [97] On 26 September Rommel returned to Berlin to set up a new headquarters for his unit in the Reich Chancellery. "[609], Rick Atkinson criticises Rommel for gaining a looted stamp collection (a bribe from Sepp Dietrich) and a villa taken from Jews. [121][122][123] The halt order was lifted on 26 May. [38] He graduated in November 1911 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in January 1912 and was assigned to the 124th Infantry in Weingarten. Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German general and military theorist. "[11] More specifically, several German historians have revealed existence of plans to exterminate Jews in Egypt and Palestine, if Rommel had succeeded in his goal of invading the Middle East during 1942 by SS unit embedded to Afrika Korps. [558] Erwan Bergot reports that he was killed by the SS. Although he was nominally subordinate to the Italians, he enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy from them; since he was directing their troops in battle as well as his own, this was bound to cause hostility among Italian commanders. "[670] Despite this, they gradually saw that his grasp of political realities and his views could be very different from theirs. [96] Rommel attended Hitler's daily war briefings and accompanied him everywhere, making use of the opportunity to observe first-hand the use of tanks and other motorized units. When the British mounted a commando raid deep behind German lines in an effort to kill Rommel and his staff on the eve of their Crusader offensive, Rommel was indignant that the British expected to find his headquarters 250 miles behind his front. [765] Hansen counters that Rommel was hardly naive, always judged military and political situations with cold objectivity, and shared a lot of characteristics with Hitler,[766] an opinion shared by psychoanalyst and historian Geoffrey Cocks who writes that Rommel "embodies the modern synergy of technical expertise and self-promotion ... arriviste, ... professionally ambitious, adept at cultivating a mass media image ... like Hitler". In the latter case, the government would claim that he died a hero and bury him with full military honours, and his family would receive full pension payments. [787], Some historians take issue with Rommel's absence from Normandy on the day of the Allied invasion, 6 June 1944. [617], Michael FitzGerald comments that the treasure should be named more accurately as Rauff's gold, as Rommel had nothing to do with its acquisition or removal. [772], Rommel's military reputation has been controversial. "[471], According to Maurice Remy, orders issued by Hitler during Rommel's stay in a hospital resulted in massacres in the course of Operation Achse, disarming the Italian forces after the armistice with the Allies in 1943, but according to Remy Rommel treated his Italian opponents with his usual fairness, requiring that the prisoners should be accorded the same conditions as German civilians. The interpretation considered by some historians to be a myth is the depiction of the Field Marshal as an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of the Third Reich who participated in the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler. [798], Rommel was among the few Axis commanders (the others being Isoroku Yamamoto and Reinhard Heydrich) who were targeted for assassination by Allied planners. Debra S. Marmor and Herbert A. Danner. [748][N 32], Historian Bruce Allen Watson offers his interpretation of the myth, encompassing the foundation laid down by the Nazi propaganda machine. To give the impression that this was the main assault, spare aircraft engines mounted on trucks were used to create huge clouds of dust. [673] In 1944, Rommel himself told Ruge and his wife that Hitler had a kind of irresistible magnetic aura ("magnetismus") and was always seemingly in an intoxicated condition. Rommel noted in his own account that "any enemy troops were either wiped out or forced to withdraw"; at the same time he also provided the disparaging (but possibly somewhat contradictory in light of his first note) observation that "many of the prisoners taken were hopelessly drunk.". [240] Physically exhausted and suffering from a liver infection and low blood pressure, Rommel flew home to Germany to recover his health. Unfortunately, the higher-ups are not clean. In October 1933 he was promoted to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) and given his next command, the 3rd Jäger Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, stationed at Goslar. [100][101], Following the campaign in Poland, Rommel began lobbying for command of one of Germany's panzer divisions, of which there were then only ten. [361][362] Under torture, Hofacker named Rommel as one of the participants. [517], Historian Martin Kitchen states that the reputation of the Afrika Korps was preserved by circumstances: The sparsely populated desert areas did not lend themselves to ethnic cleansing; the German forces never reached the large Jewish populations in Egypt and Palestine; and in the urban areas of Tunisia and Tripolitania the Italian government constrained the German efforts to discriminate against or eliminate Jews who were Italian citizens. He was the third of five children to Erwin Rommel Senior (1860–1913) and his wife Helene von Lutz, whose father, Karl von Luz, headed the local government council. [676][N 23] (According to Speer, he would normally send extremely unclear reports which annoyed Hitler greatly. [502] Anti-Jewish and Anti-Arab violence erupted in North Africa when Rommel and Ettore Bastico regained territory there in February 1941 and then again in April [195] Between December 1941 and June 1942, Rommel had excellent information about the disposition and intentions of the Commonwealth forces. [601] Maurice Remy writes that prisoners in North Africa were the responsibility of the Italians (under whose administration the POW camps were operated) anyway. [651], In the wake of the successful British offensive in November 1942 and other military reverses, the Propaganda Ministry directed the media to emphasize Rommel's invincibility. [212] With Tobruk, Rommel achieved the capture of 32,000 defenders, the port, and huge quantities of supplies. [208] With his communications and the southern strongpoint of the British line thus secured, Rommel shifted his attack north again, relying on the British minefields of the Gazala lines to protect his left flank. [3][4][5] Some historians connect Rommel himself with war crimes, although this is not the opinion of the majority. Markante Sätze daraus werden bis zum heutigen Tag zitiert. [170] The defeat resulted in Churchill replacing Wavell with General Claude Auchinleck as theatre commander. [175] Two months later Hitler decided he must have German officers in better control of the Mediterranean theatre, and appointed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring as Commander in Chief, South. A war in the desert is a war of mobility and lethality. [415][416] Butler concurred, saying that leading from the front is a good concept but Rommel took it so far – he frequently directed the actions of a single company or battalion – that he made communication and coordination between units problematic, as well as risking his life to the extent that he could easily have been killed even by his own artillery. [115] That night, the French II Army Corps was shattered and on 17 May, Rommel's forces took 10,000 prisoners, losing 36 men in the process. On 23 February Armeegruppe Afrika was created with Rommel in command. He sent infantry across in rubber boats, appropriated the bridging tackle of the 5th Panzer Division, personally grabbed a light machine gun to fight off a French counterattack supported by tanks, and went into the water himself, encouraging the sappers and helping lash together the pontoons. [342][343] Various authors report that many German generals in Normandy, including some SS officers like Hausser, Bittrich, Dietrich (a hard-core Nazi and Hitler's long-time supporter) and Rommel's former opponent Geyr von Schweppenburg pledged support to him, even against Hitler's orders, while Kluge supported him with much hesitation. [563] Morrow, citing Scheck, says that the 7th Panzer Division carried out "cleansing operations". [118] The following day, the British launched a counterattack, meeting the SS Totenkopf with two infantry battalions supported by heavily armoured Matilda Mk I and Matilda II tanks in the Battle of Arras. [326] He was a Nazi general in some aspects, considering his support for the leader cult (Führerkult) and the Volksgemeinschaft, but he was not an antisemite, nor a war criminal, nor a radical ideological fighter. [419][420][421], For his leadership during the French campaign Rommel received both praise and criticism. The Grant tanks proved to be impossible to knock out except at close range. [511][512] By the time these labour camps were in operation, according to Ben H. Shepherd, Rommel had already been retreating and there is no proof of his contact with the Einsatzkommando. [148] They fell back to Mersa El Brega and started constructing defensive works. [505] Ben H. Shepherd comments that Rommel showed insight and restraint when dealing with the nomadic Arabs, the only civilians who occasionally intervened into the war and thus risked reprisals as a result. [141] His efforts in the Western Desert Campaign earned Rommel the nickname the "Desert Fox" from British journalists. [334] On the other hand, the resistance depended on the reputation of Rommel to win over the population. 7th Panzer was given six days' leave, during which Rommel was summoned to Berlin to meet with Hitler. ", Rommel's victories in France were featured in the German press and in the February 1941 film Victory in the West, in which Rommel personally helped direct a segment reenacting the crossing of the Somme River. Also according to Wehler, scholars in England and the US still show a lot of admiration towards Rommel the military commander. [94] According to Remy, Rommel's private letters at this time show that he did not understand Hitler's true nature and intentions, as he quickly went from predicting a swift peaceful settlement of tensions to approving Hitler's reaction ("bombs will be retaliated with bombs") to the Gleiwitz incident (a false flag operation staged by Hitler and used as a pretext for the invasion). [514] B. Lippincott Company, 1944, Les Tirailleurs sénégalais; Les soldats noirs entre légendes et réalités 1939–1945 by Julien Fargetta, Tallandier 2012, Rouen sous l'occupation: 1940–1944, Patrick Coiffier, page 6, Bertout, 2004, Paroles de résistance – Page 75 [267], Having reached Tunisia, Rommel launched an attack against the U.S. II Corps which was threatening to cut his lines of supply north to Tunis. He is a National Socialist; he is a troop leader with a gift for improvisation, personally courageous and extraordinarily inventive. [251] This was followed by penetration at the salient by two armoured and two infantry divisions. Himmler, who played a decisive role in Rommel's death, tried to blame Keitel and Jodl for the deed. [792] According to Steven Zaloga, tactical flexibility was a great advantage of the German system, but in the final years of the war, Hitler and his cronies like Himmler and Goering had usurped more and more authority at the strategic level, leaving professionals like Rommel increasing constraints on their actions. [83] During his visit to Switzerland in 1938 he reported that Swiss soldiers he met showed "remarkable understanding of our Jewish problem". Despite this, other pieces of evidence show that he considered the Nazi racial ideologies to be rubbish. [278], Upon arriving in Northern France Rommel was dismayed by the lack of completed works. [573] According to other historians, Rommel's Italian responsibility ended on 19 October 1943, when Northern Italy was left under Kesselring's authority, and Rommel received his new mission as Inspector General of Defence in the West on 5 November. [260][261], As Rommel attempted to withdraw his forces before the British could cut off his retreat, he fought a series of delaying actions. [575] By 21 November 1943, Rommel and his Army Group B headquarters were in France. Benghazi fell that night as the British pulled out of the city. "[17] Butler remarks that Rommel was center in his politics, leaning a little to the left in his attitude. [701][702] The Nazi elites were not comfortable with the idea of a national icon who did not wholeheartedly support the regime. [90] Uri Avnery notes that he protected the Jews in his district even as a low-ranking officer. To counteract the rumors of a serious injury and even death, Rommel was required to appear at 1 August press conference. "[775][776] Ariel Sharon deemed the German military model used by Rommel to be superior to the British model used by Montgomery. By Samuel W. Mitcham, page 175, Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel by David Fraser Harper Collins,page 132, 1993, sfn error: no target: CITEREFShowalter2013 (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFSearle2013 (, sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFScheck2010 (, sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHart2014 (, Bernhard, P. (2012). [277], The notion of holding the armour inland to use as a mobile reserve force from which they could mount a powerful counterattack applied the classic use of armoured formations as seen in France 1940. No lift was present, and the men had to climb to ski down the hillside. Depending on the case, Hitler manipulated or exacerbated the situation in order to benefit himself,[402][716][N 28] although he originally had no intent of pushing Rommel to the point of destruction. [172][173], In August, Rommel was appointed commander of the newly created Panzer Army Africa, with Fritz Bayerlein as his chief of staff. According to Satloff Afrika Korps soldiers plundered Jewish property all along the Libyan coast. Schreiber writes that this exceptionally harsh and, according to him, "hate fuelled" order brutalised the war and was clearly aimed at Italian soldiers, not just partisans. Pen and Sword 2013, "The Battle of Alamein: Turning Point, World War II, page 57 John Bierman, Colin Smith – 2002, ref>Desert Fox: The Storied Military Career of Erwin Rommel, By Samuel W. Mitcham, page 175. "[549][550][551][552], There are reports that during the fighting in France, Rommel's 7th Panzer Division committed atrocities against surrendering French troops and captured prisoners of war. More than 2,500 Tunisian Jews died in six months of German rule, and the regular army was also involved in executions. Bernard Montgomery was made the new commander of Eighth Army that same day. By Frances Houghton page 163, Cambridge University Press 2019. Scheck says that the German units fighting there came from the 46th and 2nd Infantry Division, and possibly from the 6th and 27th Infantry Division as well. [N 25] In 1918, Rommel refused an invitation to a prestigious officer training course, and with it, the chance to be promoted to general. [352][353][354][355][356][357][358] Writer Ernst Jünger commented: "The blow that felled Rommel ... robbed the plan of the shoulders that were to be entrusted the double weight of war and civil war - the only man who had enough naivety to counter the simple terror that those he was about to go against possessed. Zimmermanns legendärer vierfacher Tooor!-Schrei wird heutzutage mehr als je zuvor in vielen deutschen Fußballstadien nach einem Treffer der Heimmannschaft als Einleitung der Torjingle eingespielt. [603] On the other hand, Watson comments that, regarding the Afrika Korps, any Nazi indoctrination was minimised, allowing Rommel the freedom to reinvent his army in his own style. Libyan Jews noted that in daily matters, the Germans largely acted out of pragmatic economic interest rather than adopting the political and ideological practices known elsewhere." [287] He was recalled and returned to his headquarters at 10 pm. [313] Watson opines that historians often portray Rommel as someone they want him to be, "coward ... hero, fool, villain or hypocrite," and that he seemed to be all of these things, except coward, with perhaps a naive loyalty. [79] In October 1938 Hitler specially requested that Rommel be seconded to command the Führerbegleitbatallion (his escort battalion). [47] Rommel's marriage was a happy one, and he wrote his wife at least one letter every day while he was in the field. [166] He was present for a second failed attack on the city on 30 April. [95] Hitler took a personal interest in the campaign, often moving close to the front in the Führersonderzug (headquarters train). In November 1942, Rudolf Rahn, the Plenopotentỉary Minister of the Reich notified Admiral Esteva that the Jewish question would be under his jurisdiction. He has even thought and brought out practical suggestions for each program and subject. This was in contrast to the fact that in the protocol of the Wannsee conference French northern Africa was included in the figures of Jews to be targeted. "[647] The Field Marshal was pleased by the media attention, although he knew the downsides of having a reputation. Meanwhile, Rommel concentrated his attack on the Allied salient at Kidney Ridge, inflicting heavy losses. [602] His position on the matter of POWs did not show effect on the way they were treated in camps though. He is almost a mythical figure.". [524]) Another quarter-Jew, Fritz Bayerlein, became a famous general and Rommel's chief-of-staff, despite also being a bisexual, which made his situation even more precarious. [219] Auchinleck relieved Ritchie of command of the Eighth Army on 25 June, and temporarily took command himself. [669][N 24] On one hand, he wanted personal promotion and the realization of his ideals. All POWs had to endure extremely hard living conditions. On 28 October, Montgomery shifted his focus to the coast, ordering his 1st and 10th Armoured Divisions to attempt to swing around and cut off Rommel's line of retreat. With this task completed, Rommel struck for Tobruk while the enemy was still confused and disorganised. Auchinleck had 770 tanks and double the number of Axis aircraft. Cornelia Hecht notes that despite the change of times, Rommel has become the symbol of different regimes and concepts, which is paradoxical, whoever the man he really was. Rommel's reputation for conducting a clean war was used in the interest of the West German rearmament and reconciliation between the former enemies – the United Kingdom and the United States on one side and the new Federal Republic of Germany on the other. On 19 October, Hitler decided that Kesselring would be the overall commander of the forces in Italy, sidelining Rommel. He would not consider sending Rommel the reinforcements and supplies he needed to take and hold Egypt, as this would have required diverting men and supplies from his primary focus: the Eastern Front. The BBC remarks that this might be conventional honour as generals usually bestow on the opponents, if only to make their victory more impressive. By the third day Rommel and the advance elements of his division, together with a detachment of the 5th Panzer Division under Colonel Hermann Werner, had reached the Meuse, where they found the bridges had already been destroyed (Guderian and Reinhardt reached the river on the same day). According to the prominent German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler, the modern consensus agrees with post-war sources that Rommel treated the Allied captives decently, and he personally thinks that the movie Rommel does not overstate his conscience. [276], There was broad disagreement in the German High Command as to how best to meet the expected allied invasion of Northern France.