You may remember Field Marshal Erwin Rommel as the German leader who believed that D-Day could only be stopped by knowing which beach the Allies would land at and stopping them on the beaches. However, there was far more to Rommel’s large role during World War II than this brief mentioning of him during the documentary.
Rommel was born in 1891 to Erwin Rommel Senior, a teacher and a lieutenant in the artillery. He joined the infantry at the age of 18 and studied to become an officer, commissioned as a lieutenant in 1912.
Rommel returned from World War I a decorated soldier, winning the Iron Cross Second Class for bravery after being injured and running out of ammunition, yet still attacking three French soldiers. After capturing 150 officers and 9000 soldiers of the Italian army, Rommel was awarded the decoration pour le merite.
After World War I, Rommel became an instructor at the Dresden Infantry School in 1929, where he wrote a manual about infantry trainer. Rommel became an instructor for the War Academy at Potsdam in 1935, where he published Infantry Attacks in 1937, which became very popular, even owned by Hitler himself. Hitler promoted Rommel to colonel in 1937 and became commandant of the Theresian Military Academy in 1938. Later in 1938, Hitler made Rommel commander of his own escort battalion. Despite getting closer and closer to the Nazi leader, Rommel still privately expressed his reservations for the Nazi government that was being set up.
During World War II, Rommel was known for his mobility with his troops at the front. This was seen early on in the war, when his army traveled 150 miles in a single day. He enjoyed much success, capturing 100,000 French prisoners and 450 tanks. Having won the popularity of both Hitler and the German public, he was promoted to lieutenant general and relocated to North Africa. Due to Rommel’s sharp thinking and boldness to take the initiative, he often outmaneuvered the much slower British army, earning him the nickname “Desert Fox.” At Tobruk, Rommel destroyed 260 British tanks and took 30,000 British prisoners, which allows him to attain the rank of Field Marshal.
However, in spite of Rommel’s brilliant maneuvers, Germany was ultimately on decline in the North Africa area. Hitler refused Rommel’s repeated requests to evacuate his troops from North America so that the European stronghold could be strengthened, which led to Rommel questioning Hitler’s sanity. Rommel made the most of what he was given, retreating an entire 1400 miles from North Africa. Despite holding off both the British and the Americans, the increasing numbers on the Allied side was bad news, yet Hitler still did not allow the Afrika Korps to retreat.
Germany’s African troops were ultimately defeated as expected, and Rommel was relocated back to France. Here, disagreement bred among the German leaders regarding what they should do about an Allied invasion in Northern France. One commander Rundstedt believed that the Allies simply could not be stopped at the beaches because of the sheer amount of firepower they possessed, instead arguing that Germany should keep their arms at Paris to prepare to counterattack. Rommel’s opinion differed from Rundstedt, instead believing that Allied air power would overwhelm German forces. This is where Rommel derived his opinion that we saw in the documentary: he believed that the Germans must stop the Allies at the beaches before the Allies could establish position.
Hitler was ambivalent on which of the two views he supported, so he ended up placing troops between where Rommel and Rundstedt wanted, ending up not very useful to either. As the German defense was faltering, Hitler still ignored Rommel’s warnings. At this point, both he and Rundstedt tried to convince Hitler that France would be lost unless the army withdrew, yet Hitler refused to accept the reality of the situation.
As this was all happening, a conspiracy was emerging to instigate a coup against Hitler, and the conspirators desired a general to support the coup. Rommel seemed to be the perfect candidate, as he was a popular hero of the war, and he also had his own reservations about Hitler. Rommel claimed to be opposed to assassination for political means, instead wanting Hitler to be arrested instead. He decided to compromise by saying that he would message Hitler about the status of the war without embellishment, and if Hitler once again ignored him, then he would be in favor of a coup. However, his message was delayed by two weeks due to a British air attack. Rommel was imprisoned for suspicion on his cooperation with the coup. Due to being a national hero, Rommel was given a choice between committing suicide and retaining his honor, or being executed and having his name and family disgraced. Despite choosing the cyanide capsule and being buried as a hero, Rommel’s corpse had a look of chilling contempt. Through this entire incident, the instability among the Nazis’ command was made evident.
Throughout the war, Rommel was strongly respected from both sides; the British even considered him chivalrous in his campaign in North Africa. He was noted to treat his prisoners well, and he was firm yet caring with his troops. Yet some historians argue that these perceptions were an instance of the “Rommel myth,” the myth being that Rommel was an apolitical victim of the Nazis. Indeed, after World War II’s conclusion, the British considered Rommel a “good German,” one who should not be grouped in with the Nazis, especially considering his affiliation with the 20 July plot. However, some of Rommel’s positive qualities were later contested. For example, an often overlooked controversy surrounding Rommel was his rather hasty execution of a French officer, which would normally be considered a war crime. In addition, Rommel fought in areas where black French prisoners of war faced massacres by the Germans, and members of his division murdered 50 surrendering French soldiers. With all of these conflicting opinions and pieces of information, Rommel remains a morally ambiguous and controversial figure. The amount of evidence for both sides confirms that indeed, many sources of bias surround historical accounts, and a truly objective evaluation of a historical figure is a near impossible task.
Rommel was one of the most interesting people of ww2. A German general who neither was a Nazi nor kissed up to Hitler. His reservations of the Fuhrer ultimately proved true though Rommel alone did his fair share of holding off the allies. Both Patton and Montgomery viewed Rommel as an equal adversary, a formidable rival, and a major pain in their side. He will always be remembered as the greatest tank general in history, and it is a well deserved title.
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