North Africa ,1942, Erwin Rommel, the desert
fox, decides that retreat of the Afrika Corps, from the front at El Alamein, is his only course.
He informs Berlin of his decision, a reply is received from the Fuhrer
himself, which shocks Rommel to his core. Hitler orders them to stand
and fight to the last man, stating: ‘victory or death’, but
no retreat, it was at this moment, that the magic that had kept Rommel spellbound
by the Fuhrer, was irreparably broken. And so, pacing back and forth outside his tent,
Rommel decides to continue his westward retreat, announcing ‘My men’s lives come
first! The Fuhrer is crazy!’ The man known to history as Johannes Erwin Eugen
Rommel, was born on the 15th of November 1891, in the town of Heidenheim, in the state
of Wurttemberg in Southern Germany. Rommel’s mother, Helene von Lutz, was the
daughter of Karl Von Luz, a former head of the local government of Württemberg, and
Helene would give birth to five children, of whom Erwin Rommel was the second, his father,
Erwin Rommel Senior, was a schoolteacher, specialising in mathematics, and also a
one-time artillery lieutenant, as it was typical of a German middle-class family like the Rommel’s,
to have served in the military officer class. Before 1870, the army held a relatively
uninspiring place in the middle class society of South-Western Germany, being seen as an occupation
for the aristocrats or lower classes, but, by the time Rommel was a boy, the Prussian victories over
Austria and France in 1866 and 1870 respectively, had infused a strong sense of militarism, and
patriotism, into all levels of German society, the victories were viewed as German victories,
following the creation of a German Empire in 1871, and so a reverence for the German army emerged at
the time, and joining the officer corps, became a common aspiration, for many middle-class families.
Although details about Rommel’s childhood are sparse, and he rarely spoke of it himself, almost
certainly due, to its pleasant and unremarkable nature, nevertheless, Rommel did not come from
a family with a defined military heritage, and his becoming a career soldier, was by no means
inevitable, or forced upon him by his family. Something that emerged very clearly however, from
Rommel’s childhood, was his sharp and agile brain, as Erwin had a clear natural talent
for engineering, and mathematics, and in his mid-teens, Rommel strongly considered, becoming a teacher like his father,
or an engineer at the Zeppelin works. As he approached his 18th birthday, Rommel had
not made a firm decision about his future career, and so his father encouraged him to consider
joining the German army and so it was, that in July 1910, the future Field
Marshal, signed up with the 6th Wurttemberg infantry regiment, as an officer cadet.
After completing his cadet training in March 1911, Rommel was sent to the officers’ military school
in Danzig, where he graduated on November 15th, on his 20th birthday and at the time,
the school’s commanding officer noted, that Rommel was an intense and serious
young man, who neither smoke nor drank, and had the makings of a ‘useful soldier’.
During his time in Danzig, Rommel fell in love with a young language student, by the name
of Lucie Maria Mollin, or ‘Lu’, as Rommel would affectionately call her, throughout his
life, and the two would marry, in 1916, but not before Rommel, upon being posted
back to Wurttemberg, fathered a child, with a local woman, named Walburga
Stemmer, in 1913, whom they named Gertrude. Rommel was ashamed of his actions, especially
because Stemmer was from working-class origins, which were seen to be, beneath
an aspiring middle class officer, but also, an unwritten code of honour within
German society at the time, forbade Rommel from turning his back on his young child, and
Gertrude lived with her father, until his death. From 1913 until the outbreak of the Great War,
Rommel trained, recently drafted soldiers and officers, and he was by all accounts, an efficient
and respected, but rather dull, young officer, who showed every promise of having a long,
worthy yet unimaginative military career, but this was all to change, on the 28th of June
1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia, when Gavrilo Princip, shot and killed, the heir to the throne of
Austria-Hungary, the Archduke Franz-Ferdinand. The conflict that would ensue, embroiled
Europe in chaos for four years, and propelled Erwin Rommel to glory and
his first step along this path came, when Rommel’s 124th infantry division
was sent to the Ardennes forest, on the Western front, where the borders of
France, Belgium and Luxembourg converged. Rommel’s division was sent here, to act as the
pivot point for the grand wheeling manoeuvre of the German army, through Belgium, as dictated
by the Schlieffen plan, which envisaged a swift defeat of France, so that Germany could
focus its forces East and defeat Russia, and fitting with the atmosphere, of intense,
patriotic, fervour and jubilation, prominent at the time, Rommel described his trip to
the front, as ‘indescribably beautiful’. Rommel’s first action occurred on August
the 22nd 1914, when he led his platoon in pushing back French forces, from the Belgian
village of Bleid, sustaining heavy casualties, and although this action, was of little
consequence, in the context of the wider war, it demonstrated military characteristics,
which would come to define Rommel as a general, in particular his courage, decisiveness,
and use of tactical surprise. Erwin Rommel continued to demonstrate his
talents for soldiering, throughout the war, and his bravery was again evident, when, he was
wounded in the leg, in his second encounter with the enemy, on the 24th of September, earning
him his first combat decoration, the Iron Cross, Second Class and, indeed, he would go on to be
awarded the Iron Cross First Class, in January 1915, after showing skilful, leadership,
in a further assault on French positions. In October 1915 Rommel was transferred, to
one of the newly created mountain units of the German army, but it wasn’t until October
1916, that the Mountain Battalion was sent East, to battle the Romanian army, where Rommel
continued to distinguish himself as a leader of men, and, after a brief spell on the
Western front, from February to August 1917, he returned to Romania, for what would be
the climax of his World War 1 experience. Rommel was chosen to lead (‘leed’) a German
assault on the Romanian fortress of Mount Cosna, in August, and his attack captured, and
held the fortification in fierce fighting, with Rommel receiving a wound to his left arm.
The height of Rommel’s Great War glory came however, during the Battle of Caporetto,
when between the 24th and the 26th of October, during 52 hours of near-continuous operations,
Rommel led his men a distance of 18 miles, capturing four summit positions and 9,000 Italian
troops, miraculously, losing just 36 casualties. For his leadership at Caporetto,
Rommel was awarded the Pour le Merite, one of the most prestigious awards in the
German army, presented by Kaiser Wilhelm II himself and this marked the end, of Rommel’s
combat experience during the First World War, as he was promoted to Captain in January 1918,
and became a staff officer in Germany until the signing of the armistice, which brought the Great
War to a close, on the 11th of November 1918, and it would be almost 22 years before
Rommel again, led troops into battle. The brief, but spectacular campaigns, that Rommel
experienced in the Great War, had a lasting effect on his conception of military strategy, as
he would utilise the deep penetration behind enemy lines, followed by attacks on the enemy
rear, that he used as an infantry commander, to devastating effect, during his
campaigns in the Second World War. During the First World War, Rommel
had truly come into his own as a leader, not just by his rank but by his very
nature, transforming into a charismatic and self-confident adult from the overly serious
adolescent that had entered the war in 1914, and the true character of Rommel, as a leader amongst
men, is what literally emerged from the Great War. The Germany that Rommel and his fellow soldiers
returned to, was an utterly different nation, to the one they had triumphantly departed from
in 1914, and taking the place of the Imperial government, was the newly declared ‘Weimar
Republic’, but it was a government doomed to failure, born amidst military defeat and
political humiliation, it was never to escape these failings, which only grew over time, as
the German economy collapsed during the 1920s. The Germany that Rommel returned to, was
also a nation on the brink of civil war, as the ultra-right-wing Freikorps, fought the
Communists on the streets of German cities, and towns, and political violence became
commonplace in the formerly stable and orderly Empire, and Rommel was to
experience these violent divisions first-hand, as following the armistice, he was forced
to put down riots, across the country. Erwin Rommel would spend the 1920’s, as an
officer, in what remained of the German army, after it had been heavily cut back, by the
disarmament terms of the Treaty of Versailles, to allow just 100,000 troops and,
Rommel was one of just 4,000 officers, permitted in the new German army, and the
fact that he was selected, is testament to, the reputation that he had garnered, during
the war, as a promising young officer. Though first and foremost a soldier, Rommel
also became a devoted husband to his wife Lucie, and he soon became a dedicated father, when on
the 24th of December 1928, the Rommel’s first and only son Manfred was born, and the boy would
be a source of joy for Rommel throughout his life. Though Rommel maintained a successful military
career, and a fulfilling private life, throughout the 1920s, his fortunes
did not match those of his country, which by the end of this decade was in the grip, of the worst economic depression in history,
with one in every three Germans unemployed, and hyperinflation causing severe hardship
and with the Weimar government, increasingly viewed as irrelevant and dysfunctional, the German
people turned to a charismatic political outsider, who declared, that he alone, possessed
the solutions to Germany’s problems, and was prepared to take bold measures in order
to solve them, this man’s name was Adolf Hitler. Hitler and his National Socialist party, were
not prominent in the life of Erwin Rommel, until the 30th of January 1933, when Hitler
became chancellor of the German Republic although, this was not due to any disdain
or disapproval of Hitler and his party, but was rather due to Rommel’s commitment to being
a non-political army officer, first and foremost. Though Rommel and Hitler would form a very
close and mutually beneficial relationship, Rommel never subscribed to
Hitler’s right-wing doctrine, rather he remained fairly uninterested in
politics and political ideology, holding moderately centre-left views throughout his life
and indeed, even as he became an increasingly important figure within the Third Reich, Rommel
would never become a member of the Nazi party. Rommel, could not ignore the National
Socialist party for long however, as on the 27th of February 1933, the
German Parliament burned to the ground, and Hitler, blaming communists for the disaster,
passed a series of laws suspending Habeas Corpus, which allowed Hitler to rule by decree, and
only eighteen months later, in August 1934, the German President Hindenburg was dead, and
Hitler used this opportunity to merge the office of the chancellorship, with the presidency,
to attain absolute power as the Fuhrer. Furthermore, 1934 also witnessed the ‘Night of
the Long Knives’, when on the 30th of June the leadership of the Sturm Abteilung or SA,
the Nazi’s paramilitary enforcement army, were assassinated on the orders of the Fuhrer,
and so, with the virtual elimination of the SA, which had long been viewed by army
officers, as a rival organisation with brutal and thuggish tendencies, the military
readily swore an oath of allegiance to Hitler. Rommel’s first interaction with Hitler,
occurred on the 30th of September 1934, when his Mountain battalion, provided a guard of
honour for the Fuhrer, but it was not until later, when he became commander of Hitler’s
permanent bodyguard, during the drive into the Sudetenland, that Rommel started to
get on reasonably close terms with the Fuhrer. With Rommel’s innate practicality, and narrowness
of interest and perspective, his views on Hitler’s regime were not defined by its moral or political
implications, of which Rommel knew little, but rather its effects on the German military,
and although Rommel had been disgruntled by the rise of the SA and the SS, the Nazi’s private
armies, which Rommel saw as undisciplined and unprofessional, he was heartened by the colossal
program of military expansion that began, on the 16th of March 1935, with Hitler re-introducing
conscription, stepping up weapons production, and remodelling the military into the ‘Wehrmacht’.
This military expansion, led to rapid promotions for existing officers, and by early 1936 Rommel
was a lieutenant-colonel, and in 1937 Rommel began to attract the attention of Hitler and the
German high command, partly due to his excellent reputation, as an instructor, at the Potsdam
War Academy, but also because of the phenomenal success of his book on military tactics, called
Infantry Attacks, that was published that year. As a result of this reputation, Hitler assigned
Rommel to second in command of his personal escort battalion, in October 1938, and upon spending more
time with the Fuhrer, Rommel appears to have been somewhat charmed, by Hitler’s immense charisma,
and although he would always find the Nazi’s repugnant, he began to mentally separate Hitler
from his party, and trust the Fuhrer’s leadership. Meanwhile, Europe was once again
hurtling down the path to war, not least due to the rapid violations of the
Treaty of Versailles committed by Hitler, in his efforts to fulfil his promise, of uniting
the Germanic peoples of Europe, and in 1936, German troops marched into the demilitarised
Rhineland on the French border, and afterwards, in 1938 Hitler re-united Germany with Austria,
through aggressive diplomatic pressure, on the Austrian Chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg
but it was not until the Fuhrer turned his sights to Czechoslovakia, that the extent of Nazi
ambition was realised by Britain and France. And so, following a policy of appeasement, and
determined to avoid conflict, Britain and France allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland, a
prosperous region of western Czechoslovakia, and it was only when Hitler occupied the
remainder of the country, in March 1939, that the Allies grasped Hitler’s determination,
to pursue German expansion at any cost, and so presented their ultimatum, promising to declare
war, if Hitler sent his forces into Poland, and it was Rommel who had a front-row seat
to these events, as he was in command of the Fuhrer’s escort when he entered Prague.
Indeed, Rommel was also in command of Hitler’s guard, as a newly promoted major-general,
when he embarked on the 1st of September 1939, on the campaign that would begin the
Second World War: The invasion of Poland. From his position in command of the Führer’s
headquarters, Rommel gained an excellent insight into how the campaign was fought, and witnessed
in fascination, the devastating effects of the Wehrmacht’s Blitzkrieg, as divisions of Panzer
tanks cut across Poland, bringing the country to the point of submission in just five weeks, which
made Rommel realise what compatibility, there was, between his own command style and the
speed and surprise achieved by the Panzers, leading him to desire the command,
of one of these coveted divisions. His wish was granted, when in February 1940, Rommel was given command of the 7th Panzer
division, for the upcoming invasion of France, and although comparatively inexperienced,
for such a prestigious command, Hitler felt it was justified, as he had come to
greatly admire Rommel, particularly due to the experiences they had shared as soldiers, having
both endured the trenches of the Western Front, and therefore, for the first time in 22
years, Erwin Rommel was back in the fight. On the 10th of May, the invasion of France began,
with the German Panzer divisions breaking through the Ardennes forest, on the Franco-Belgium
border, and over-running Belgium and Holland, encircling the forward-placed Allied divisions,
forcing the British and French forces to retreat to the channel, and Rommel’s division was
one of the first to cross the Meuse river on the 13th of May, opening the floodgates for
the German army’s rapid advance to the coast. This was carried out with astonishing speed,
with Rommel himself often leading the division from the front, barking orders to the
infantry, and jumping on tank turrets, to replace wounded crewmen, and this type of
tenacious, hands on, leadership from the front, was extremely uncharacteristic of the typical
divisional commander, and marked Rommel out as an eccentric, and exceptional leader.
However, Rommel’s aggressive and impulsive style meant, that his column often raced
far ahead of the rest of his division, once covering a staggering fifty miles in a
twenty-four-hour period, and he would often stretch his line of advance, necessitating
hasty reorientation to reunite his unit, as well as this, the speed of Rommel’s advance
often prevented the German high command, from keeping track of his unit, and the 7th Panzer
was sarcastically dubbed, the ‘Ghost Division’. Some historians have even suggested that
this whirlwind advance, typified by Rommel, was only achieved with the aid of the German-made
meth-anthetamine, Pervatin, which had been widely distributed amongst the Wermacht vanguard, before
the invasion and one account from the time, states that during his advance through
France, the possibly intoxicated Rommel, literally ran over a column of French
infantry, crushing them in the process. Rommel faced one of his only close shaves,
in his encounters during the French campaign at Arras, on the 20th of May, with his
first encounter with the British army, when two British tank regiments
counter-attacked against the German advance, the British attack was very nearly successful,
and so this sent shockwaves through the German high command, who were also concerned with
the thinning and vulnerable lines of advance, and so they ordered a halt for the
Panzer divisions on the 24th of May. Though the advance began again on the 26th,
this delay was arguably extremely consequential, as it gave time for the British Expeditionary
Force to reach the channel ports, and ultimately evacuate from Dunkirk, between the
27th of May and the 4th of June. Following the German capture of Lille on the 31st
of May, Rommel attended a private conference with Hitler and the German high command, where
the plan for overrunning the remainder of France was outlined, and the so called, Fall
Rot, or Case Red, began on the 5th of June, with Rommel’s division advancing at rapid
pace once again, crossing the River Somme, and reaching the French coast, by the 10th of June.
That same day, hundreds of miles away from Rommel’s Panzers, Fascist Italy declared war
on Britain and France, hoping to gain colonial territory in Africa, an event which would be
immensely significant in the life of Erwin Rommel, as it was in North Africa, where he would
be sent to save Italy’s Libyan colony, from the British invasion, and it would be where the
‘Desert Fox’, would be introduced to the world. On the 17th of June, Rommel’s division
advanced towards the port city of Cherbourg, however by this time, rumours of an
impending French armistice were circulating, and these rumours were soon confirmed, when,
after capturing Cherbourg on the 19th of June, Rommel learned, that Marshal Philippe Petain, the
French Prime Minister, had requested an armistice. This armistice was concluded on the 22nd of June,
confirming one of the most decisive victories in military history, indeed the German invasion
of France had been a triumphant Blitzkrieg, decisively crushing the French army and
French national morale within 6 weeks, during which time, Rommel had excelled
as commander of the 7th Panzer division, leading tenaciously, if somewhat rashly on
occasion, and from the front line, showing himself to be a supremely capable and confident commander,
and for now, his war in France was over. On the 6th of February 1941, Rommel was ordered
to Berlin for a meeting with the Führer, where he was given command of a small army, being
sent to North Africa, known as the Afrika Korps, to bolster Italy’s fortunes in Libya, and
on the morning of the 12th of February 1941, Rommel landed in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. It must be remembered, that the German high
command, though desperate to see Italy remain in the war, never viewed the North African
front as more than a sideshow and it was, Operation Barbarossa, the gigantic German
invasion of Soviet Russia, launched in June 1941, that consumed German military preparations, and
Rommel was therefore highly frustrated, throughout the campaign, as the German high command were
apparently oblivious to, his desert theatre of war, whilst his British opponents, were strongly
supported and closely watched over, by London. Rommel was merely supporting the remains of
an Italian Army, that had been battered by a British counter-offensive in early 1941, which
had pushed the Italian forces out of Egypt, and sent them fleeing westward, deep into
Libya, and although, the plan of the German General Staff for the Afrika Korps, was simply to
hold the Italian position in Western Libya, while they themselves, were consumed with Operation
Barbarossa, however, Rommel, had other plans. He believed that on the Desert front,
attack was the best form of defence, and rather than waiting in defensive
positions for the British to attack, Rommel decided to take the war to the enemy, and
to accomplish this, Rommel would have to engage in insubordination, deceiving the German high
command, as to the true nature, of his campaign. Furthermore, Rommel was technically inferior
to the Italian commander in the region, who from the 25th of March, was Marshal
Italo Gariboldi, and Rommel’s attitude to his Italian colleagues throughout the campaign,
would be one of severe tension and distrust, as he was determined to take
the lead (leed) in operations. And so, Rommel’s first offensive
operation began on the 24th of March, with the capture of the Libyan port of El
Agheila, east of the German-Italian position, where German troops met very little resistance
from the British, who retreated in good order, North-East to Mersa el Brega.
Rommel’s tendency as a commander, was always to exploit any enemy
weakness to its fullest extent, believing that once the enemy was on the
backfoot, the advantage must be pressed, and for Rommel, a successful war, should not
consist of a series of set-piece battles, but of continuous movement, as demonstrated
by the German success in France in 1940. With these tactics in the forefront of his
mind, he therefore gave the British no time to establish defensive positions, attacking Mersa
el Brega on the 31st of March, and then moving to assault Agedabia on the 2nd of April, pushing
the British forces, which had been depleted by the diversion of forces to Greece, to face
the upcoming German invasion, eastwards. Rommel now headed North, towards the major
port of Benghazi, which the British duly abandoned on the 3rd of April, facing a
further blow on the 7th of April, when Lieutenant Generals Neame and O’Connor, who were
in command of the British Western Desert Force, were captured by a German reconnaissance patrol. With the British chain of command temporarily
paralysed, Rommel continued his relentless advance across the desert, ordering the Afrika Korps,
along with two Italian motorized divisions, to advance upon the British fortress
of Tobruk on the 10th of April. The fortress was deep within Cyrenaica, modern day
Eastern Libya, and if taken, would have forced the British to retreat into Egypt, leaving the Suez
Canal, Rommel’s ultimate target for the campaign, vulnerable to the Axis forces, and in just over
two weeks, Rommel had turned the situation in North Africa, completely on its head, stunning
the British and German high command alike. Throughout this blistering offensive, Rommel
displayed many of the leadership tendencies that he had shown in the 1940 campaign in France,
where he led from the front, in armoured cars and small aircrafts to scout the enemy positions
and regularly put himself in mortal danger, closely evading death and capture on multiple
occasions, such as when his Italian allies, fired upon his plane near Agedabia, thinking
it to be an enemy aircraft, however despite these near misses, his style of leadership
brought him great admiration from the troops. Rommel’s rapid movements and relentless offensive
energy, often led to communication and supply problems as his lines were so stretched, and
in the vast terrain of the Desert theatre, this was a particular problem, in regards to fuel,
as Rommel’s thirsty Panzers, were driven hard, and often got way ahead of the fuel reserves,
nevertheless, the sheer pace and force of Rommel’s opening offensive, ensured these
problems, could not be exploited by the British, who were too busy retreating, to exploit the
weaknesses, in the enemy lines of supply. By the 11th of April, the Tobruk fortress,
was surrounded by Rommel’s forces, however, as the only major port,
other than Benghazi, between Tripoli and the Egyptian city of Alexandria, the
Allied forces would not abandon Tobruk, and so he was met with stern defensive
forces, and would spend seven months, trying to capture the fortress.
Rommel’s initial fast-paced, spurious attacks were thrown back by the Tobruk defenders,
for example at El Adem, on the 14th of April, where Australian forces inflicted heavy losses
on German Panzers, and machine gun battalions. In the midst of his military frustrations,
Rommel was also irritated by the antics of Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels,
who in an issue of the government newspaper, in early April, published a biography of
the increasingly popular Rommel, incorrectly claiming that he joined the Nazi party, in the
1920’s and on hearing this, Rommel was incensed, and demanded that a correction be published.
This incident serves as a reminder, that although Rommel was intensely dedicated to
the German army, he did not feel the same way, towards the National Socialist regime.
Meanwhile, German army chief of staff Franz Halder, highly sceptical
of Rommel, sent his deputy, General Paulus, to the Afrika Korps’ headquarters.
to inspect the situation on the 25th of April. On the 4th of May, after repeated failed assaults
on the Allied positions, Paulus instructed Rommel, to cease further attempts to take Tobruk by direct
assault, and to lay siege to the town instead, and as this order, had the authority of the German
high command, Rommel had no choice but to obey. The British intercepted the reports Paulus sent
to Berlin, which informed them that, the Germans were in a weak position and planning to dig in
around Tobruk, thus with Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s encouragement, British commander
of the Western Desert Force, Archibald Wavell, began to plan operation Battleaxe, to
relieve Tobruk and rout the Afrika Korps. And so Operation Battleaxe was launched on the
15th of June in the Halfaya Pass, East of Tobruk, however, Rommel’s defensive positions were well
prepared, and German 88mm anti-tank guns, were used to devastating effect on the British, and
after two days, Rommel shifted to the offensive, concentrating his Panzers on the British
wing and rear, and forcing them to retreat. By the afternoon of the 17th of June, Wavell
reported the failure of operation Battleaxe to London, and due to this defeat, Wavell was
replaced by Claude Auchinleck, on the 21st of June and meanwhile, a jubilant Rommel, wrote to his
wife, celebrating quote: ‘a complete victory’. From June to November 1941, the Desert
War witnessed a period of consolidation and reorganisation on both sides, with
Rommel preparing for an offensive in late November to capture Tobruk, whilst
Auchinleck was also planning an attack, hoping to push the Germans away from the fortress,
and succeed where Operation Battleaxe had failed. After the failure of Wavell’s Operation
Battleaxe, Churchill began to concentrate British focus and resources towards the North
African front, and before the year’s end, additional divisions from across Britain’s Empire,
would arrive in North Africa, however, Rommel would receive no such attention from Germany, as
the launch of Operation Barbarossa, on the 22nd of June virtually guaranteed, an absence of attention
or supplies for the Afrika Korps for many months. And so, Rommel and Auchinleck, were
from the beginning of Autumn 1941, engaged in a race, each rapidly preparing
to launch their own assault first, and whereas Rommel had planned to
attack Tobruk on the 24th of November, on the 18th of that month, the British
struck first, launching Operation Crusader. British forces advanced on the Axis positions,
moving South of Rommel’s defences along the Halfaya Pass in three columns, and engaging the
enemy south of Tobruk and Rommel reluctantly realised that his planned assault on Tobruk,
would now have to be indefinitely postponed, and he moved the units preparing to assault
the fortress, into battle against the British. After four days, the British had suffered losses
of 530 tanks, whilst the Germans and Italians had lost only 100, and so, wanting to exploit the
weakened British position, Rommel counterattacked, near the Egyptian border on the 24th of November,
moving for the rear of the British forces and causing intense panic amongst the British
officers, a move that became known as the ‘dash to the wire’, the ‘wire’ being the Egyptian border.
Despite the initial chaos caused by his attack, Rommel’s Panzer assaults failed, and he
soon realised that the British forces were more numerous and organised, than he had
suspected, and he was forced to withdraw. From the 29th of November to the 6th of
December, the fighting died down, with only minor engagements and skirmishes, as both armies
attempted to improve their tactical positions, but by the 7th of December, Rommel’s Afrika
Korps was lacking in supplies and had fewer than 100 tanks, whilst the British continued
to bring up reinforcements and so Rommel was therefore forced, to call a withdrawal
from Tobruk, and retreat west to Gazala. The Allies now pressed forwards across the desert,
and Rommel was forced to abandon Gazala on the 13th of December, and he headed for El Agheila,
the position from where he had begun his offensive in March, which was, in Rommel’s view, the only
defensible position, West of the Gazala ridge. Rommel’s retreat was by no means a rout, as he ensured that his forces were never
flanked and maintained a powerful rear-guard, that inflicted significant damage on the
British pursuers, but it was still carried out, with supreme reluctance and anguish and
was completed by the 10th of January 1942. It was nine months on, from the beginning of
his Africa campaign, and Erwin Rommel was still standing on the same ground, from which, the
campaign had been launched, however, Rommel was not disheartened, as he had come to understand,
that in desert warfare, the key to success was not the gaining of empty ground, but rather the
primary objective should be the army of the enemy, to destroy their tanks, troops and supply lines.
Furthermore, Rommel sensed weakness among the British forces, as they were operating at
the end of a precarious 500 mile supply line, and, in early December, the Japanese army launched
attacks on British colonies in South-East Asia, forcing the British to withdraw troops from the
North African front, however in the meantime, Rommel had been reinforced with 55 new Panzers.
In addition, air reconnaissance informed Rommel, that the British forces appeared vulnerable to
a counter-attack, and in characteristic fashion, The Desert Fox wasted no time, launching
his assault on the 21st of January 1942. The British were stunned by the strength of the
assault, occurring less than two weeks after Rommel’s retreat was completed, and they fell
back in disarray, consequently, the Axis retook Benghazi on the 29th of January, as the British
forces were so dispersed, and Rommel’s attack so swift, that the British high command could not
impose order onto the field and so, the Allies therefore withdrew, to the Gazala ridge, west
of Tobruk, and established a defensive line. Having recaptured most of Cyrenaica,
Rommel’s forces now came to a halt opposite the British Gazala line, with both
sides planning major offensives for late May, but on this occasion, unlike in Operation
Crusader, it was Rommel who struck first. On the 26th of May, Rommel launched his assault,
sending some of his forces towards the centre of the Allied line in a feint manoeuvre, hoping
to distract the British from his main attack, which consisted of a large flanking
manoeuvre to the South of the Gazala line, which had initial success, but was soon ground
down, by British armoured reinforcements. Amongst intense fighting, Rommel formed
his Afrika Korps into a defensive posture known as ‘the cauldron’, then on the 30th of May,
he again resumed the offensive, and as usual, Rommel himself was at the centre of the action,
leading his forces from the front, and narrowly averting enemy fire, on multiple occasions.
Eventually, the British forces began to crack under the immense Axis pressure,
and from the 10th to the 12th of June, the British forces were finally overrun,
and forced to withdraw from the Gazala line. As Rommel, once again, approached Tobruk, he
was determined to avoid a drawn-out siege, like the year before, and so, his assault on
the fortress, commenced on the 20th of June, and Rommel’s attack was intense and devastating,
concentrating artillery fire and waves of bombers to stun the British, who were preparing
for a set-piece battle like that of 1941. On the 21st of June, the Afrika Korps, at last
captured Tobruk, taking 32,000 prisoners, the second largest capitulation of British soldiers
in the entire war, after the fall of Singapore, and whilst the British government, faced a failed
vote of ‘no confidence’ due to this setback, Germany was jubilant, and Hitler promoted
Rommel to the rank of field marshal, making him the youngest field marshal,
at 49, in the entire German army. Yet, not even this moment of great
glory could make Rommel complacent, as he had the British on the run, and
was determined to press his advantage, therefore on the 24th of June, the Axis
tanks rolled across the Egyptian frontier, and by the 26th they had surrounded the coastal
town of Mersa Matruh, 100 miles inside Egypt, forcing the British to abandon it,
and continue their eastward retreat. The British decided to make their last stand
at El Alamein, 60 miles west of Alexandria, as if the vital city of Alexandria were to
fall to the Afrika Korps, Cairo and the Suez Canal would be taken, and the British strategy
in the Mediterranean, would come crashing down. The British position at El Alamein, could not
be flanked, due to the impassable desert South of it and the Mediterranean to the
North, therefore Rommel attempted to pierce the centre of the British defences,
commencing his attack on the 1st of July. However, as the two sides attacked, and
counter-attacked, Rommel’s army was wearing thin and his immense drive through the desert,
left him with fewer than 100 operational tanks, a precarious supply situation, and men who were
exhausted and increasingly ill with dysentery, causing havoc amongst the ranks, as well
as this, RAF dominance of the skies, also made it difficult, for the Afrika
Korps to break the British lines. By the end of July, the battle had developed
into a stalemate, with superior Allied numbers, and superior Axis tactics, preventing
a breakthrough on either side, however, the British commander, Auchinleck, was disliked
by Churchill, and much of British high command, and they used the excuse of his failure to drive
back Rommel, to replace him on the 8th of August, with a new commander, Lieutenant
General Bernard Montgomery. Rommel knew, with his comparative lack
of supplies, that he would lose a static war with the allies, and so felt compelled to
attack the British, and try to unbalance them, and so, he attempted this on the 30th of August,
at the Alam El Halfa ridge, repeating his tactic of pinning down the enemy with a frontal assault,
whilst his main forces, attacked from the South. However, in this last roll of the
dice, Rommel’s forces were repulsed, and he was forced to call off the attack
on the 2nd of September, when static warfare was resumed, for the next six weeks.
On the 23rd of September, Rommel was recalled to Germany on sick leave, suffering from a liver
infection and low blood pressure, whilst there, he implored the German high command for greater
supplies, but, he received only empty promises, whilst in North Africa, Montgomery was building
up his forces for the great British attack, to push the Afrika Korps out of
Egypt and Libya, once and for all. The Second battle of El Alamein began on the
23rd of October 1942, with a gigantic British artillery barrage, and although the Allied
attacks stalled on the first day, with a six-to-one advantage of tanks and men, as well as
supremacy in the skies, Montgomery was prepared to overcome the enemy, by sheer force of numbers.
When Rommel returned to the front on the 25th of October, he faced a dire situation, as the Axis
forces lacked the supplies, men and weaponry to fend off the British onslaught, and although
the British attack was overall poorly executed, and involved heavy losses, it was enough to grind
down the battered and exhausted Afrika Korps, and Rommel felt compelled to order
a retreat on the 2nd of November. However, after informing Berlin of his decision,
Rommel received a reply from the Fuhrer himself, which shocked Rommel to his core, as Hitler had
ordered the Afrika Korps to stand and fight to the last man, stating: ‘victory or death’,
but no retreat, and it was at this moment, that the magic that had kept Rommel spellbound by
the Fuhrer, was irreparably broken, as Hitler was ordering him to sacrifice his beloved troops,
for no apparent reason, for nothing could now be gained by the Germans, in North Africa.
Rommel was deeply torn, for as a soldier, he could not disobey a direct order, yet as a commander,
he would not blindly sacrifice his men and so, pacing back and forth outside his tent, Rommel
announced ‘My men’s lives come first! The Fuhrer is crazy!’, and he continued his westward retreat.
On the 8th of November, American forces began Operation Torch, making amphibious landings in
Morocco and Algeria, and Rommel knew full well, that this spelt the end for the Afrika Korps,
and, fighting a series of delaying actions against Montgomery, Rommel retreated,
to Tunisia, west of Tripoli, despite the protestations of Hitler, where he planned
to hold off the Allies, and evacuate the army. By the 18th of December, Rommel’s army was
in Tripolitania, and on the 22nd of January they reached the Mareth Line in Tunisia, where
Rommel intended to make a stand, and it was here, that he attacked the American forces advancing
from Algeria in the west, at the Kasserine pass on the 19th of February, and inflicted a
sharp defeat on the Allies, temporarily lifting Rommel’s spirits, however, Kasserine
was to be the Desert Fox’s, final victory. The victory at Kasserine, was, however, a
pyrrhic victory, as the weight of American forces compelled Rommel to withdraw from Kasserine, and
he turned to face the British advancing from the East, at the Mareth line and it was here that
Rommel attacked the British at Medenine, on the 6th of March, but 500 British antitank guns tore
through the German units, and the assault failed. Only three days later, on the 9th of March, Rommel
formerly handed over command of the Afrika Korps, to General von Arnim, and left Tunisia to meet
with Hitler, who decorated Rommel for his service and ordered him on sick leave, and after this,
the Desert Fox would never return to North Africa. Rommel’s calls for the army’s evacuation had
gone unheeded by the German high command, and on the 13th of May the Axis force in Tunisia,
some 200,000 men, surrendered to the Allies. When on the 25th of July 1943, Benito Mussolini
was overthrown, Rommel was returned to command, as he was posted on the Northern Italian
border, in preparation for a possible occupation of the country, should its new
government become hostile to the Nazis, and the Italian armistice with the
Allies, on the 8th of September, confirmed German fears, and though Rommel now
wanted supreme command of the Italian theatre, Hitler gave this position instead to Albert
Kesselring, field marshal of the Luftwaffe. Instead, Rommel was given a totally different
task, as on the 5th of November he was made General Inspector of the Western Defences,
and Rommel’s mission was to prepare the German defences on the Atlantic coast, for
the Allied invasion that was certain to occur, the invasion that would, in many ways,
decide the fate of the war in western Europe. Rommel’s inspection of the Atlantic defences,
revealed stark inadequacies, as barely half of the original fortifications, ordered by Hitler, were
complete, and many that were, were already falling into disrepair, and so, he once again, felt
betrayed by the Fuhrer, who had insisted, that the defences were formidable, and he determined to
create an impenetrable Atlantic Wall of defence. Rommel believed that the Allies must be
stopped, on the coastal beaches themselves, as he was certain, that should the Allied armies
establish a bridgehead, on French territory, their forces would be overwhelming, and
would crush any German counter-attack. To this end, he ordered a huge swathe of
fortifications, to be built, all along the coast, as well as antitank barriers, to impede landings
on the beaches, with a particular focus on mines, and through the use of mines, Rommel believed,
he could inflict heavy losses on the Allies, before they could even set foot on the French
coast, and by the time the Allies landed, the Germans had laid 6 million mines, however
Rommel’s original plan, had called for 20 million. The strongest defences were centred on
the Pas-de-Calais, the port where Rommel and the German high command believed,
that the invasion would take place, as it was the closest port to the English
coast, and one suited to a large-scale invasion, this belief was reinforced by
the Allied Operation Fortitude, which through the creation of a fake army group,
and the deliberate leaking of information, convinced the Germans, that Pas-de-Calais
was the target, of the Allied landings. Moreover, as June 1944 opened, German intelligence
suggested that the weather was too unpredictable, for the Allies to attempt a landing, in the early
part of that month, and so, Rommel therefore decided, to return to Germany for Lucie’s fiftieth
birthday, which was on the 6th of July, and when he left, on the 4th, he was certain that the
weather, would prevent the Allies from striking. However, Rommel was wrong, and on
the morning of the 6th of June, he received a call, informing him, that Allied
forces had landed on the beaches of Normandy, and Rommel put down the phone, muttering, “Normandy!
How stupid of me”, and rushed back to France. The Normandy campaign was Rommel’s last, and
arguably his least satisfactory, but unlike his previous operations, he was nowhere near the
front, and his lack of independence in command, meant that he spent much of his time,
quarrelling with the German military hierarchy, rather than engaging with the enemy, this
included trying to persuade Hitler of the desperate situation of the Axis forces, and
the need to make peace, yet the Fuhrer still refused to countenance, any form of retreat.
One of the key Allied advantages in the Normandy campaign, as Rommel had foreseen, was their
dominance of the skies, and Rommel was to receive a personal demonstration of this dominance, on
the 17th of July, when his staff car was attacked by a British aircraft, and the resulting
crash, left Rommel with grievous injuries, including a skull fracture in three places.
Rommel was not the only senior Nazi ,to barely escape an attempt on his life however, as
on the 20th of July 1944, Hitler himself was nearly killed, by an explosion at his
headquarters, due to an assassination attempt, organised by a wide circle of army officers,
and so, Hitler’s paranoia-fuelled vengeance, would see five thousand suspects killed,
with Erwin Rommel being one of them. A conspiracy to remove Hitler, had long existed,
within the hierarchy of the German army, and there is considerable debate, as to the extent
of Rommel’s involvement, and from when it began, however, there is abundant evidence, from letters
and photographs as well as the confessions of plotters, that Rommel was involved with, and
connected to, a group of officers, who intended to remove Hitler, for the sake of their country,
which they saw as being led to ruin, by his erroneous military leadership, and the fact that
the Allies, would make no peace with the Fuhrer. Certainly, the Normandy campaign convinced
Rommel, that the war could not be won, and Hitler’s refusal to recognise this, and his
insistence on continuing the war despite this, fighting to the last man, demonstrated to Rommel,
that the Fuhrer was unstable, and unfit to rule. Although, it was very likely, that Rommel
knew of the scheme to depose Hitler, and may have been passively involved, the key
conspirators certainly envisaged a much more important part for Rommel in their scheme, than
he himself knew, as although he had very little interest, or knowledge of politics, Rommel’s
value lay in the fact that Goebbels’ propaganda, had made him into the most popular, and
widely-known General, in the Reich, and many of the conspirators wanted to make Rommel, Hitler’s
temporary successor, as the German leader. Though Rommel was almost certainly not involved,
in the bomb plot of the 20th of July, his links to those who were, became evident, during the
investigation and interrogation, that followed. As Rommel recovered from his injuries, from
August to October of 1944, he began to realise, that his house was being watched, and on the 14th
of October, two generals arrived at his home, and in a meeting with Rommel, they announced
that he was suspected of taking part in the plot, and that he could either go before the
Court, like many of the other accused, or take his own life with poison, the latter would
allow Rommel to receive a state funeral, and would also ensure the safe treatment of his family.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, climbed into a staff-car, on the 14th of October 1944, and
committed suicide minutes later, his state funeral in Ulm, was celebrated with pomp and
prestige, and it was officially declared, that he had died of his wounds, the last words of Rommel’s
funeral oration stated that, ‘his heart belonged to the Fuhrer’, and only those in the crowd,
who knew Erwin Rommel, knew that this was a lie. Erwin Rommel is a highly controversial, and in
many ways, confusing figure, as he is and will forever be, attached to one of the most evil,
and reprehensible regimes in world history, yet he stands out as possibly the single
most celebrated and admired man, who served in the Third Reich, as well as perhaps the most
compelling personality, of the Second World War. One aspect of Rommel’s character that can never be
denied is his military genius, with his tenacity, speed and surprise confounding the Allies, time
and again throughout the North African campaign, Rommel was nicknamed the ‘Desert Fox’, and
became a figure of fear and admiration, for the Allied military and public as a whole,
entrenching his place in military history, and public legend, as a brave, wily
and utterly unique military commander. With the gift of hindsight, it is easy to
paint Rommel, with the brush of Nazism, as, knowing what would become, of the Hitler
regime, those who supported it at its outset, appear to be participants, in the carnage it
would unleash, however, Rommel was at heart a soldier and a German, and followed the orders of
his Fuhrer, when he truly believed, that to do so, was to serve his country, as did millions
of Germans, similarly deceived by Hitler. Rommel did however, turn against Hitler,
understanding that once the Fuhrer’s interests, came before those of his country, he would always
stand with his country, and not its dictator, and it was this stance, that cost Rommel
his life, and demonstrates that he was, a man of principle and honour, and he died having
served his country, rather than its Fuhrer, and more than that, he died protecting his beloved
family, who would live happily, to old age. It is therefore quite justified,
that the figure of Erwin Rommel, though his character was rightly tainted by
his allegiances, can nevertheless be detached, from the evils of the Third Reich, and admired
for his military skill, by many, both today and during his lifetime, for his unwavering
dedication to his country and his family. What do you think of Erwin Rommel? Was he
allied to evil or was he a man of military skill and tactics, but more importantly of
honour, who protected his family to the end? Please let us know in the comment section and in
the meantime, thank you very much for watching.
