Erwin Rommel

Erwin Rommel (born November 15, 1891, Heidenheim, Germany—died October 14, 1944, Herrlingen, near Ulm) was a German field marshal who became the most popular general at home and gained the open respect of his enemies with his spectacular victories as commander of the Afrika Korps in World War II.

Early life and career

Rommel’s father was a teacher, as his grandfather had been, and his mother was the daughter of a senior official. A career as an army officer began to be fashionable, even among middle-class southern Germans, after the establishment of the German Empire in 1871; thus, notwithstanding the absence of a military tradition in his family, Rommel in 1910 joined the 124th Württemberg Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet.

In World War I, Rommel fought as a lieutenant in France, Romania, and Italy. His deep understanding of his men, his unusual courage, and his natural gift of leadership quite early showed promise of a great career. In the Prussian-German army, a career on the general staff was the normal avenue for advancement, yet Rommel declined to take that road. Both in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic and in Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht, he remained in the infantry as a frontline officer. Like many great generals, he possessed a pronounced talent for teaching and was accordingly appointed to posts at various military academies. The fruit of his battle experiences in World War I, combined with his ideas on training young soldiers in military thinking, formed the main components of his military textbook, Infanterie greift an (1937; “Infantry Attacks”), which received high initial esteem.

In 1938, after Austria’s annexation by Germany, Colonel Rommel was appointed commandant of the officers’ school in Wiener Neustadt, near Vienna. At the beginning of World War II, he was appointed commander of the troops guarding the Führer’s headquarters and became personally known to Hitler. Rommel’s chance to prove himself as a commander came in February 1940 when he assumed command of the 7th Panzer Division. He had never commanded armoured units before, yet he quickly grasped the tremendous possibilities of mechanized and armoured troops in an offensive role. His raid on France’s Channel coast in May 1940 provided the first proof of his boldness and initiative.

Commander of Afrika Korps

Less than a year later, in February 1941, Rommel was appointed commander of the German troops dispatched to aid the all-but-defeated Italian army in Libya. The deserts of North Africa became the scene of his greatest successes—and of his defeat at the hands of a vastly superior enemy. In the North African theatre of war, the “Desert Fox,” as he came to be called by both friend and foe because of his audacious surprise attacks, acquired a formidable reputation, and soon Hitler, impressed by such successes, promoted him to field marshal.

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Rommel had difficulty following up these successes, however. North Africa was, in Hitler’s view, only a sideshow. Nonetheless, despite the increasing difficulties of supply and Rommel’s request to withdraw his exhausted troops, in the summer of 1942 Hitler ordered an attack on Cairo and the Suez Canal. Rommel and his German-Italian army were stopped by the British at El-Alamein (Al-ʿAlamayn, Egypt), 60 miles (100 km) from Alexandria. At that time Rommel won astounding popularity in the Arab world, where he was regarded as a “liberator” from British rule. At home the propaganda ministry portrayed him as the invincible “people’s marshal” (Volksmarschall). But the offensive against Egypt had overtaxed his resources. At the end of October 1942, he was defeated in the Second Battle of El-Alamein and had to withdraw to the German bridgehead in Tunis. In March 1943 Hitler ordered him home.