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Hero or Villain?

JOHN DEEWIN ROMMEL
ER

Rommel observes enemy positions from
his command post vehicle near Tobruk

Rommel was given a grand
state funeral as his death was
officially ruled as an accident

“Rommel was known in both world

Rommel and Hitler had a close personal
relationship built on mutual respect wars to always be on the frontline”

elite like many other German generals, something Rommel’s military record, his defining legacy, his tanks or food for his men. To highlight the
Hitler, with his own background, could empathise is filled with highs and lows. His exploits as an dire supply situation, the Afrika Korps’ reliance on
with. This also led to friction between Rommel infantry commander in World War I served as a captured Allied equipment saw the vast majority
and other high-ranking officers, but the Desert Fox springboard to launch his career. Winning the of their motorised force being made up of captured
distrusted the officers directly under his command. Pour le Mérite was a very prestigious honour, with vehicles. American-made Jeeps were a premium
The German officer corps in World only just under 700 awarded throughout and were snatched up by the Germans whenever
War II prized individual initiative the entire conflict. they were spotted.
and Rommel’s micromanaging His command of the Ghost In the end the field marshal didn’t die on the
of each of his subordinates Division in the invasion of battlefield. Instead, he was implicated in the failed
created resentment in Defining France in 1940 showed a 20 July Plot to kill Hitler. The extent to which
the ranks. There are moment firm grasp of tactics and Rommel was actually involved is disputed. On the
extreme examples of The Blue Max a sense of initiative, but day the bomb was detonated inside the Wolf’s Lair
him directing individual Rommel’s exploits in the First World War it has been criticised (Hitler’s Eastern Front headquarters) Rommel was
machinegun fire, are often forgotten in the wake of actions in by military historians otherwise engaged. He was injured in a car crash
the second. Leading his battalion against the
undermining the Italians in the Alps, Rommel and his small group who point out that and was recovering in a French hospital.
authority of the non- of 150 soldiers made strategic use of the terrain having an entire division However, several plotters named him as a
commissioned officers to surprise and captured 10,000 Italians. This vanish from your battle conspirator during interrogation and he was
move, along with the fact that he only lost
under his command. six of his men in the process, earned him plans is never useful specifically mentioned in several of the group’s
This hands-on approach one of Prussia’s highest awards, the when devising an entire documents. While this was damning enough for
did win him the support Pour le Mérite, or ‘Blue Max’. campaign. This streak the Nazis, it’s not actually hard proof. His close
and admiration of the rank- October 1917 of insubordination would friendship with the Führer would suggest that
and-file, however. become part and parcel of he would have had no part in it, while his wife
Not one to avoid the action, Rommel’s tactics. maintained even after the war that he opposed
Rommel was known in both world wars When facing down the superior Allied killing Hitler, believing it would spark civil war. But
to always be on the frontline. A saying that started forces at Tobruk, he disobeyed orders to hold by 1944 the Desert Fox’s faith that the war could
during World War I and carried over to World War the line and went on the offensive. His stunning be won was shaken. He was also shrewd enough to
II and beyond went ‘Where Rommel is, there is the victory eased the ruffled feathers, but while know, had the plot succeeded, his popularity would
front’. He also respected his opponents, singing the the move was a bold one it was destined to fail. have made him indispensable to stabilisation of the
praises of both Patton and Monty. Outrunning his supply lines meant no fuel for country after Hitler’s death.

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