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The Rommel myth, or the Rommel legend, is a phrase used by a number of historians for the common depictions of German Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel as an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of Nazi Germany due to his presumed participation in the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler, which led to Rommel's forced suicide in 1944.
Erwin Rommel was a German army officer who rose to the rank of Field Marshal. He was renowned as an innovator of armored tactics, particularly as commander of the Afrika Korps in North Africa. There is a “myth” or legend which depicts Rommel as a chivalrous and noble military opponent who was not driven by political ideology.
Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel (pronounced [ˈɛʁviːn ˈʁɔməl] ⓘ; 15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal) during World War II.
Like the dreaded 88, Rommel became a legend and earned the grudging respect of his enemies. In early 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill told Parliament, “We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us, and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great general.”
- Rommel called in to Assist The Italians
- Germans Faced Formidable Gazala Line
- Assault Plan Seeks to Trick British
- Rommel Admired by His Men
- Beyond Tobruck, Rommel Eyes The Mid East Oil
- Commanding The Primary Strike Force
- Main Attack Followed by Diversion
- An Initially Successful German Offensive
- A New British Tank Inflicts Its Damage…
- A Way to Stop The Tanks
In this spring of 1942 the Germans and their Italian allies had been locked in a seesaw battle for North Africa, a struggle that had started in 1940 when the forces of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini attacked British-held Egypt from their bases in Libya. The Italian offensive was a fiasco, and the British soon gained the upper hand. The Italians ...
Indeed, the Panzerarmee Afrika was facing a formidable challenge. The British Eighth Army was deployed in a massive series of defenses known as the Gazala line, named for a town on the Mediterranean coast. Stretching some 40 miles from Gazala to Bir Hacheim to the south, the Gazala line featured an “archipelago” of strong points known as boxes, sel...
But that was not all the Germans had to face. General Neil Ritchie, the British Eighth Army commander, placed armored and motorized units just behind the Gazala line, in theory a fast-moving, mobile defense that could counter any German thrust. Rommel had two options: He could launch a frontal assault in north of the center of the Gazala line, or h...
Rommel was already famous in the spring of 1942, and well on his way to becoming a legend. His men idolized him, because although he was a hard taskmaster he had a genuine affection for his troops and cared for their well-being. Certainly, if he was tough on them he was equally tough on himself. He shared their hardships and never asked them to do ...
In the spring of 1942 Rommel was looking beyond Tobruck, and even beyond the possible seizure of the Suez Canal in Egypt. The German general was a fierce partisan of the so-called “Plan Orient,” a geopolitical strategy bold in concept and intercontinental in scope. In early 1942 Hitler’s armies were in the Soviet Union, about to conduct a drive int...
May 26 was designated x-day, the day Rommel’s offensive was scheduled to begin. As the final details were worked out, Rommel decided to have General Cruewell command the left wing that would stage the feint attack along the northern sector of the Gazala line—just where the British expected it. This northern feint, dubbed “Group Cruewell” after its ...
Rommel’s right wing was the Schwerpunkt, a “cutting scythe edge” of the German drive, a drive that was subdivided into three main components. The first component, largely the Italian Ariete Armored Division, was to take the Bir Hacheim box; the second component, the two Panzer Divisions of the DAK, was to execute “a rapid night march, advance aroun...
In the first hours of the German offensive Rommel was a happy man. The DAK steamrolled through the 3rd (Indian) Motor Brigade, and the 90th Light Division overran the headquarters of the British 7th Armored Division. British General Messervy was captured, although he escaped the next day. The British 22nd Armored Brigade also tried to stem the Germ...
At one stage of the advance German Panzer commanders trained their field glasses on some squat, unfamiliar shapes on the horizon, unwitting witnesses to the battlefield debut of a new British tank. They were the American-built Grant Mk III, and their presence had been undetected by German intelligence. The Grants were not only well armored, but the...
All was chaos, with German trucks careening through the desert in a desperate effort to reach safety while British shells rained down. Amid the confusion Colonel Alwin Wolz of the 135th Flak Regiment and General Nehring suddenly found themselves face to face with Rommel. Never one to mince words, Rommel gave Wolz a dressing down that must have made...
Rommel agrees with Stuelpnagel that Hitler has long since lost touch with reality and must be forced to concede or else be removed from power. But he declares himself morally opposed to assassination. He wants Hitler arrested and tried by a German court for his crimes.
Following Rommel’s forced suicide in 1944, it fell to the victorious Allies to keep alive the spark of the Rommel legend, that of the “good German” who, in the end, had defied the Führer.
