The biography of Erwin Rommel is a story of constant career growth. He was a high-ranking officer during World War I and even received the Pour le Merite for his exploits on the Italian front. The books of Erwin Rommel are widely known, the most popular of which, "Infantry Attack", was written in 1937.
During World War II, he distinguished himself as commander of the 7th Panzer Division during the 1940 invasion of France. Rommel's work as commander of the German and Italian forces in the North African campaign confirmed his reputation as one of the most capable tank commanders and earned him the nickname der Wüstenfuchs, "Desert Fox" (the officer was very proud of him).
He also succeeded as an author, and therefore Erwin Rommel's quotes can be heard from the lips of people who are fond of military history. For example, the following is widely known:
Sweat saves blood, blood saves lives, and mind saves both.
Among his opponents, he earned a strong reputation as a noble knight, and the North African campaign was often called "a war withouthate." He later commanded the German forces against the Allies during their invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
Erwin Eugen Johannes Rommel supported the Nazis and Adolf Hitler, although his disapproving stance on anti-Semitism, loy alty to National Socialism and involvement in the Holocaust remains a contentious issue.
In 1944, Rommel was implicated in the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler. Due to his status as a national hero, Erwin Rommel had some immunity from the top of the Reich. Nevertheless, he was given the choice between committing suicide in exchange for assurances that his reputation would remain intact and his family would not be persecuted after his death, or a shameful execution as a national traitor. He chose the first option and committed suicide by ingesting a cyanide pill. Rommel was buried with full honors, and the shelling of an official car by the Allies in Normandy was named as the official cause of his death.
Rommel became a living legend during his lifetime. His figure resurfaced intermittently in both Allied and Nazi propaganda, and in post-war popular culture, when many authors viewed him as an apolitical, brilliant commander and victim of the Third Reich, although this assessment is disputed by other authors.
Rommel's reputation for "fair war" was used to promote reconciliation between former enemies: the United Kingdom andthe United States on the one hand and the new Federal Republic of Germany on the other. Some of Rommel's former subordinates, notably his chief of staff Hans Spiedel, played a key role in German rearmament and NATO integration in the post-war era. The largest military base of the German army, Field Marshal Rommel Barax, Augustdorf, is named after him.
Biography of Erwin Rommel
Rommel was born on November 15, 1891 in southern Germany, in Heidenheim, 45 kilometers from Ulm, in the kingdom of Württemberg as part of the German Empire. He was the third of five children of Erwin Rommel Sr. (1860-1913), teacher and school administrator, and his wife Helene von Lutz, whose father, Carl von Luz, headed the local government council. Like the young man, Rommel's father was a lieutenant in the artillery. Rommel had one older sister, an art teacher who was his favorite, and a brother named Manfred, who died in infancy. He also had two younger brothers, of whom one became a successful dentist and the other an opera singer.
At 18, Rommel joined the local 124th Württemberg Infantry Regiment as a fanrich (ensign), and in 1910 he entered the officer cadet school in Danzig. He graduated in November 1911 and was promoted to lieutenant in January 1912. He was posted to Ulm in March 1914 with the 46th Field Artillery Regiment of the XIII (Royal Württemberg) Corps as battery commander. He returned to the 124th again when the war began. In the cadetAt school, Rommel met his future wife, 17-year-old Lucia (Lucy) Maria Mollin (1894-1971), a charming girl of Polish-Italian origin.
The Great War
During World War I, Rommel fought in France and in the Romanian and Italian campaigns. He successfully used the tactics of penetrating enemy lines with heavy fire combined with quick maneuvers, as well as quickly moving forward to the enemy's flanks to get behind enemy lines.
He received his first combat experience on August 22, 1914 as a platoon commander near Verdun. Rommel and three of his soldiers opened fire on the unprotected French garrison without calling in the rest of their platoon. The armies continued to fight in open battles throughout September. The trench trench warfare characteristic of World War I was still ahead.
For his actions in September 1914 and January 1915, Rommel was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class. The future field marshal received the rank of oberleutnant (first lieutenant) and was transferred to the newly created Royal Württemberg Mountain Battalion in September 1915, taking up the position of company commander. In November 1916, Erwin and Lucia were married in Danzig.
Italian Offensive
In August 1917, his unit took part in the battle for Mount Kosna, a heavily fortified target on the Hungarian-Romanian border. They took her after two weeks of hard fighting. The mountain battalion was then sent to the Isonzo front, a mountainous area in Italy.
The offensive known as the Battle ofCaporetto, began October 24, 1917. Rommel's battalion, consisting of three infantry brigades and a machine-gun mount, made an attempt to take enemy positions on three mountains: Kolovrat, Matazhur and Stol. Two and a half days later, from 25 to 27 October, Rommel and his 150 men captured 81 guns and 9,000 men (including 150 officers), losing only six soldiers.
Rommel achieved this remarkable success by taking advantage of terrain features to outflank Italian forces, attack from unexpected directions and take the lead. The Italian forces, taken by surprise and believing their lines had collapsed, surrendered after a brief firefight. In this battle, Rommel used the then-revolutionary infiltration tactic, a new form of maneuver warfare just adopted first by the German and then foreign armies, and described by some as "Blitzkrieg without tanks."
Being in the forefront of the capture of Longarone on November 9, Rommel again decided to attack with much smaller forces than the enemy had. After making sure that they were surrounded by a whole German division, the 1st Italian Infantry Division, and this is 10,000 people, surrendered to Rommel. For this, as well as for his actions in Matajour, he received the Order of Pour-le-Merite.
In January 1918, the future field marshal was appointed to the post of Hauptmann (captain) and assigned to the XLIV army corps, in which he served for the remainder of the war. But, as you know, she was still lost.
Thunder Came Out: Erwin Rommel, World War II and Military Glory
Quiet peaceful lifeThe Rommel family, which lasted a little over 20 years, was broken by the threat of a new war. On August 23, 1939, he was appointed major general and commander of a security battalion tasked with guarding Hitler and his headquarters during the invasion of Poland, which began on September 1. Hitler took a personal interest in the campaign, often traveling close to the front on the HQ train.
Erwin Rommel attended Hitler's daily briefings and accompanied him everywhere, using every opportunity to observe the use of tanks and other motorized units. On September 26, Rommel returned to Berlin to set up his unit's new headquarters. On 5 October he left for Warsaw to organize a German victory parade. He described devastated Warsaw in a letter to his wife, concluding: “For two days there was no water, no power, no gas, no food. They set up numerous barricades that blocked civilian traffic and bombarded people from which people could not escape. The mayor estimated that the number of dead and injured was 40,000. The residents must have breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived and rescued them.”
After the campaign in Poland, Rommel began to advise the command of one of the German tank divisions, of which there were then only ten. Rommel's successes in World War I were based on surprise and maneuver, two elements for which the new armored and mechanical units are ideally suited.
Becoming a General
Rommel received a promotion to the rank of general personally from Hitler. He receivedthe command he aspired to, despite the fact that his request had previously been rejected by the Wehrmacht command, which offered him command of a mountain unit. According to Caddick-Adams, he was supported by Hitler, the influential commander of the 14th Army, Wilhelm List, and probably Guderian. For this reason, Rommel gained a reputation as one of Hitler's privileged commanders. However, his later outstanding successes in France made his former enemies forgive him for his obsessive self-promotion and political intrigues.
The 7th Panzer Division was converted into a tank unit, consisting of 218 tanks in three battalions with two rifle regiments, a motorcycle battalion, an engineer battalion and an anti-tank battalion. Assuming command on February 10, 1940, Rommel quickly introduced his unit to the rapid maneuvers they would need in the upcoming North African campaign of 1941-1943.
French Campaign
The invasion of France and the Benelux began on May 10, 1940 with the bombing of Rotterdam. By the third day, Rommel and the forward detachments of his division, together with a detachment of the 5th Panzer Division under the command of Colonel Hermann Werner, reached the Meuse River, where they found that the bridges had already been destroyed (Guderian and Reinhardt reached the river on the same day). Rommel was active in the forward areas, directing efforts to overcome the crossing. They were initially unsuccessful due to overwhelming fire from the French on the other side of the river. Rommel assembled armored and infantry detachments to ensurecounterattack, and set fire to nearby houses to create a smokescreen.
By May 16, Rommel reached Avesnes and violated all orders of the command, launching an attack on Kato. That night, the corps of the French II Army was defeated, and on May 17, Rommel's forces captured 10,000 prisoners, losing no more than 36 people in the process. He was surprised to learn that only the vanguard had followed him in this advance. The High Command and Hitler were extremely nervous about his disappearance, although they awarded him the Knight's Cross.
The successes of Rommel and Guderian, the new possibilities offered by tank weapons, were enthusiastically received by several generals, while most of the general staff were somewhat disoriented by all this. Erwin Rommel's quotes of the time are said to amuse the British a lot, but piss off the French as hell.
Germans on the "dark continent"
The theater of operations soon moved from Europe to Africa. On February 6, 1941, Rommel was appointed commander of the newly created German Afrika Korps, consisting of the 5th Infantry (later renamed the 21st Panzer) and the 15th Panzer Division. On February 12, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and arrived in Tripoli (then a colony of Italy).
The corps was sent to Libya for Operation Sonnenblum to support Italian troops, which were badly battered by the forces of the British Commonwe alth during Operation Compass. It was during this campaign that the British nicknamed Erwin Rommel the "Desert Fox". Allied forces in Africa commanded by GeneralArchibald Wavell.
During the first offensive of the Axis forces, Rommel and his troops were technically subordinate to the Italian commander in chief, Italo Gariboldi. Disagreeing with orders from the Wehrmacht high command to take up a defensive position along the front line in Sirte, Rommel resorted to subterfuge and defiance to give battle to the British. The General Staff tried to stop him, but Hitler encouraged Rommel to move deeper into the British lines. This case is considered an example of the conflict that existed between Hitler and the leadership of the army after the invasion of Poland. He decided to launch a limited offensive on 24 March with the 5th Light Division supported by two Italian divisions. The British did not expect this blow, because their data indicated that Rommel had received orders to remain in a defensive position until at least May. The Afrika Korps was waiting and preparing.
Meanwhile, the British Western Desert Group was weakened by the transfer of three divisions in mid-February to help the Allies defend Greece. They retreated to Mers el Bregu and began to build defensive works. Rommel continued to attack these positions, preventing the British from building up their fortifications. After a day of fierce fighting, on March 31, the Germans captured Mers el Brega. Dividing his forces into three groups, Rommel resumed his offensive on 3 April. Benghazi fell that night when the British withdrew from the city. Gariboldi, who ordered Rommel to stay at Mersa el Brega, was furious. Rommel was equally firm in his response, sayingto the hot-tempered Italian: "You must not miss a unique opportunity to slip through some trifles." At that moment, a message arrived from General Franz Halder, reminding Rommel that he should stop at Mersa el Brega. Knowing that Gariboldi did not speak German, Rommel told him that the General Staff had in fact given him free rein. The Italian retreated because he could not resist the will of the German General Staff.
On April 4, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel informed his supply officers that he was running low on tank fuel, which could result in a delay of up to four days. The problem was ultimately Rommel's fault, as he did not inform the supply officers of his intentions, and no fuel reserves were built.
Rommel ordered the 5th Light Division to unload all of their trucks and return to El Aheila to collect fuel and ammunition. The supply of fuel was problematic throughout the campaign as gasoline was not available locally. It was brought from Europe on a tanker, and then sent overland to where it was needed. Food and fresh water were also in short supply, and it was difficult to move tanks and other equipment off the road across the sand. Despite these problems, Cyrenaica was captured by 8 April, with the exception of the port city of Tobruk, which was surrounded by ground forces on the 11th.
American intervention
After reaching Tunisia, Rommel launched an attack against the US II Corps. He inflicted a sudden defeat on the American forces at the Kasserine Pass in February,and this battle was his last victory in this war and his first appearance against the United States Army.
Rommel immediately led Army Group B against the British forces, occupying the Maret Line (the old French defense on the Libyan border). While Rommel was in Kasserine at the end of January 1943, Italian General Giovanni Messe was placed in command of the African Panzerarmee, renamed the Italo-German Panzerarmee in recognition of the fact that it consisted of one German and three Italian corps. Although Messe replaced Erwin Rommel's "Desert Fox", he was very diplomatic with him and tried to work as a team.
Rommel's last offensive in North Africa was on March 6, 1943, when he attacked the Eighth Army at the Battle of Meden. After that, he was sent to the Western Front in order to defend his native Germany from the Anglo-American invasion. In Germany, Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps was widely celebrated, whose tokens are still found in great abundance in Libya.
Mysterious Doom
The official story of Rommel's death is a heart attack and/or a cerebral embolism due to a skull fracture that he allegedly sustained as a result of the shelling of his jeep. To further strengthen the people's faith in this story, Hitler appointed an official day of mourning in Rommel's memory. As promised earlier, Rommel's funeral was held with state honors. The fact that his state funeral was held in Ulm and not in Berlin, according to his son, was stipulated by thefield marshal during his lifetime. Rommel requested that no political paraphernalia be adorned with his dead body, but the Nazis ensured that his coffin was adorned with a swastika. Hitler sent Field Marshal von Rundstedt (on his behalf) to the funeral, who did not know that Rommel had been put to death on Hitler's orders. His body was cremated. While the Germans mourned Erwin Rommen, World War II ended in complete defeat for them.
The truth about Rommel's death became known to the Allies when intelligence officer Charles Marshall interviewed Rommel's widow, Lucia, and from a letter from his son Manfred in April 1945. Erwin Rommel's real cause of death is suicide.
Rommel's grave is in Herrlingen, near Ulm. For decades after the war, on the anniversary of his death, veterans of the African campaign, including former adversaries, gathered there to pay tribute to the commander.
Recognition and memory
Erwin Rommel is highly regarded by many authors as a great leader and commander. Historian and journalist Basil Liddell Hart concludes that he was a strong leader, idolized by his troops and respected by opponents, and deserves to be called one of history's "great captains."
Owen Connelly agreed, writing that "there is no better example of military leadership to be found than Erwin Rommel", citing Mellenthin's account of the inexplicable rapport that existed between Rommel and his troops. Hitler, however, once noted that "unfortunately,the field marshal is a very great leader, enthusiastic in times of success, but an absolute pessimist when faced with the slightest problems.”
Rommel received both recognition and criticism for his activities during the French campaign. Many, such as General Georg Stamme, who had previously commanded the 7th Panzer Division, were impressed by the speed and success of Rommel's actions. Others were reserved or critical: Command Officer Kluge argued that Rommel's decisions were impulsive and that he demanded too much trust from the General Staff while falsifying data or not acknowledging the contributions of other units, especially the Luftwaffe. Some noted that Rommel's division suffered the highest casu alties of the campaign.
Erwin Rommel's family continues to honor the great ancestor from generation to generation.
