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Erwin
Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (November 15, 1891 - October
14, 1944) was a German Field Marshal and commander of the
Africa Corps in World War II. He is also known by his
nickname The Desert Fox (W?stenfuchs).
Early Life
Rommel was born in Heidenheim, approximately 50km from
Ulm, in the state of W?rttemberg. The child of a
Protestant schoolteacher, Rommel planned to become an
engineer (perhaps working with Zeppelins), but instead
enlisted with the local 124th Infantry Regiment as an
officer cadet in 1910. Two years later, he was
commissioned as a Leutnant. During World War I, Rommel
served in France, as well as on the Romanian and Italian
fronts, during which time he was wounded three times and
awarded the Iron Cross - First and Second Class. He also
became the youngest recipient of Germany's highest medal,
the Pour le M?rite, which he received after fighting in
the mountains of north-east Italy, specifically at the
Battle of Longarone.
In 1911, as a cadet at Danzig, Rommel met his future
wife, Lucie, whom he married in 1916. In 1928, they had a
son, Manfred Rommel. Scholars Bierman and Smith argue
that Rommel also had an affair, with Walburga Stemmer, in
1912, and that relationship produced a daughter named
Gertrud.
Post World War I
After the war he held regimental commands, and was
instructor at the Dresden Infantry School (1929-1933) and
the Potsdam War Academy (1935-1938). His war diaries,
Infanterie greift an (Infantry Attacks!), became a major
textbook after being published in 1937. In 1938, Rommel
(now a Colonel) was appointed commandant of the War
Academy at Wiener Neustadt. He was removed after a short
time however, and placed in command of Hitler's personal
protection battalion. He was promoted again to Major
General just prior to the invasion of Poland.
World War II
In 1940 he was given command of the 7th Panzer Division,
later nicknamed the "Spook Division", for Fall
Gelb, the invasion of the west. He showed considerable
skill in this operation, and in reward he was appointed
commander of the German troops, the 5th Light and later
the 15th Panzer Division, which were sent to Libya in
early 1941 to aid the defeated Italian troops, forming
the Deutsches Afrika Korps. It was in Africa that Rommel
achieved his greatest fame as a commander.
He spent most of 1941 building his organization and
re-forming the shattered Italian units who had suffered a
string of defeats at the hands of the British led by
Major General Richard O'Connor. An offensive pushed the
British forces back out of Libya, but it stalled a
relatively short way into Egypt, and the important port
of Tobruk was still held by Allied forces behind the Axis
lines. The British Commander-in-Chief General Archibald
Wavell swapped commands with the Commander-in-Chief of
India, General Claude Auchinleck. Auchinleck launched a
major offensive to relieve Tobruk which eventually
succeeded. However, when this offensive ran out of steam,
Rommel struck.
In a classic blitzkrieg, British forces were
comprehensively outfought. Within weeks they had been
pushed back into Egypt. Rommel's offensive was eventually
stopped at the small railway halt of El Alamein, just 60
miles from Cairo. The First Battle of El Alamein was lost
by Rommel because he was suffering from the eternal curse
of the desert war; long supply lines. The British, with
their backs against the wall, were very close to their
supply points, and had fresh troops on hand. Rommel tried
again to break through the British lines during the
Battle of Alam Haifa. He was decisively stopped by the
newly arrived British commander, Lieutenant General
Bernard Montgomery.
With British forces from Malta interdicting his supplies
at sea, and the massive distances they had to cover in
the desert, Rommel could not hold the El Alamein position
forever. Still, it took a large set piece battle, the
Second Battle of El Alamein to force his troops back.
After the defeat at El Alamein, despite urgings from
Hitler and Mussonlini, Rommel's forces did not again
stand and fight until they had entered Tunisia. Even
then, their first battle was not against the British
Eighth Army, but against the US II Corps. Rommel
inflicted a sharp reversal on the American forces at the
Battle of the Kasserine Pass.
Turning once again to face the British forces in the old
French border defences of the Mareth Line, Rommel could
only delay the inevitable. He left Africa after falling
sick, and the men of his former command eventually became
prisoners of war.
Some say that Rommel's withdrawal of his army back to
Tunesia against Hitler's dreams was much greater a
success than his capture of Tobruk. Back in Germany,
Rommel was for some time virtually
"unemployed". However, when the tide of war
shifted against Germany, Hitler made Rommel the commander
of Army Group B, responsible for defending the French
coast against a possible Allied invasion. After his
battles in Africa, Rommel concluded that any offensive
movements would be impossible due to the overwhelming
Allied air superiority. He argued that the panzer forces
should be kept as close to the front as possible, so they
wouldn't have to move far when the invasion started. He
wanted the invasion stopped right on the beaches.
However his commander, Gerd von Rundstedt, felt that
there was no way to stop the invasion near the beaches
due to the equally overwhelming firepower of the Royal
Navy. He felt the panzers should be formed into large
units well inland near Paris, where they could allow the
Allies to extend into France and then be cut off. When
asked to pick a plan, Hitler then vacillated and placed
them in the middle, far enough to be useless to Rommel,
not far enough to watch the fight for von Rundstedt.
Rommel's plan nearly came to fruition anyway. During
D-Day several panzer units, notably the 12th SS Panzer
(the elite Hitler Jugend) were near enough to the beaches
and created serious havoc. The overwhelming Allied
numbers made any success unlikely however, and soon the
beachhead was secure.
In July 1944 his staff car was strafed by British
aircraft, and Rommel had to be hospitalised with major
head injuries. In the meantime, after the failed July 20
Plot against Adolf Hitler, Rommel's connections with the
conspiracy were suspected. Bormann was sure of Rommel's
involvement, Goebbels was not. The true extent of
Rommel's knowledge of the plot is still unclear. Due to
Rommel's popularity with the German people, Hitler gave
him an option to commit suicide with cyanide or face
dishonour and retaliation against his family and staff.
Rommel ended his own life on October 14, 1944, and was
buried with full military honours.
After the war his diary was published as The Rommel
Papers.
Quotes About Erwin Rommel
The British Parliament considered a censure vote against
Winston Churchill, for his failure to defeat Rommel. The
vote failed, but in the course of the debate, Churchill
would say:
"We have a very daring and skillful opponent against
us, and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great
General."
Theodor Werner was an officer who, during World War I,
served under Rommel.
"Anybody who came under the spell of his personality
turned into a real soldier. He seemed to know what the
enemy were like and how they would react."
Quotes By Erwin Rommel
"Sweat saves blood."
Battles of Erwin Rommel
- Battle of Bir Hakeim (1942)
- First Battle of El Alamein
- Second Battle of El Alamein
- Battle of the Kasserine Pass
- D-Day
| WW2
HISTORY DATA |
| Pearl
Harbor Overview |
| Pearl
Harbor Japanese Forces |
| Pearl
Harbor Japanese Aircraft |
| Battle
of the Coral Sea, 7-8 May 1942 |
| Doolitle
Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 |
| Battle
of Midway, 4-7 June 1942 |
| Guadalcanal
Campaign, August 1942 - February 1943 |
| Guadalcanal-Tulagi
Invasion, 7-9 August 1942 |
| Battle
of the Philippine Sea |
| Battle
of Iwo Jima
Battle
of Okinawa |
| Japan
Capitulates
WW2
Japan Planes - List of Aircraft |
| Battleship
Bismarck,
Graf
Zeppelin |
| Battleships
Tirpitz, Scharnhorst
, Admiral
Graf Spee |
| WW2
Luftwaffe Planes - List of Aircraft |
| U-Boats
Types 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D |
| Kriegsmarine
Submarines Types U-Flak, 7A, 7B, 7C,
7C/41, 7C/42, 7D, 7F |
Kriegsmarine
Submarines: U-Boats
Type 9A, 9B, 9C, 9C/40, 9D, 14 |
| Kriegsmarine
Submarines: Type XXI , Type XXIII
|
| Grand
Admiral Karl Donitz, Erich Raeder |
HMS
Prince of Wales Battleship, HMS Repulse,
HMS
Ark Royal,
HMS Hood Battlecruisers |
| Battle
of the River Plate, Battle
of Dunkirk,
Battle
of the Atlantic
|
| Normandy
Invasion, June 1944 |
| Normandy
Invasion ,Crossing the English Channel on
D-Day, 6 June 1944 |
| Normandy
Invasion- The D-Day Landings, 6 June 1944 |
| USN
WW2 Admirals,
USN
WW2 Cruisers List |
| Imperial
Japan Navy Admirals |
| Japan
WW2 Fighters- Mitsubishi Zero |
| USN
Battleships - Indiana Class, Kearsarge
Class, Illinois Class, Maine Class,
Virginia Class, Connecticut Class,
Mississippi Class, South Carolina Class,
Delaware Class, Florida Class, Wyoming
Class, New York Class, Nevada Class,
Pennsylvania Class, New Mexico Class,
Tennessee Class, Colorado Class, South
Dakota Class, Lexington Class, North
Carolina Class, South Dakota Class, Iowa
Class, Montana Class |
| USN
WW2 CRUISERS |
| USN
WW2 Torpedo Bomber - Douglas TBD-1
Devastator |
| USN
WW2 Fighters: Brewster
F2A Buffalo, Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk
|
| Grumman
F3F, Grumman F4F Wildcat, General Motors
FM-2 Wildcat |
| LOCKHEED
P-38 LIGHTNING
F-82
TWIN MUSTANG |
| REPUBLIC
P-47 THUNDERBOLT |
| NORTH
AMERICAN P-51 MUSTANG |
| Boeing
B-17 Flying Fortress,
Boeing
B-29 Superfortress |
| Consolidated
B-24 D Liberator |
| North
American B-25 Mitchell,
Martin
B-26 Marauder |
| Junkers
Ju 87 Stuka
Dornier
Do 215 Ju-188 |
| Dornier
Do 17,
Dornier
Do 335 Pfeil
Junkers
Ju 88 |
| Messerschmitt
Bf 109,
Messerschmitt
Me 262 |
| RAF
List of aircraft, Avro
Lancaster |
| Focke-Wulf
Fw 200 Condor,
Heinkel
He 111 |
| Focke-Wulf
Fw 190,
Junkers
Ju 52 |
| De
Havilland Mosquito,
Vickers
Wellington |
| Fairey
Swordfish
Hawker
Tempest
Hawker
Hurricane
Supermarine
Spitfire
Gloster
Meteor
|
|
| MODERN USN
NAVY DATA |
| USN
Aircraft Carriers
USS
Kitty Hawk, Enterprise, John F. Kennedy,
Nimitz, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Carl
Vinson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham
Lincoln, George Washington, John C.
Stennis, Harry S. Truman, Ronald Reagan,
George H.W. Bush
|
| USS
Abraham Lincoln CVN72 USS
Enterprise CVN65 |
| USN
Cruisers 1 - USS
Ticonderoga, Vincennes, Valley Forge,
Thomas S. Gates, Bunker Hill, Mobile Bay,
Antietam, Leyte Gulf, San Jacinto, Lake
Champlain, Philippine Sea, Princeton,
Normandy, Monterey |
| USN
Cruisers 2 - USS Chancellorsville,
Cowpens, Gettysburg, Chosin, Hue City,
Shiloh, Anzio, Vicksburg, Lake Erie, Cape
St. George, Vella Gulf, Port Royal |
| USN
Destroyers
United
States Navy |
| Amphibious
Assault Ships - LHA/LHD/LHA(R)
USS
Wasp, USS Essex, USS Kearsarge, USS
Boxer, USS Bataan, USS Bonhomme Richard,
USS Iwo Jima, USS Makin Island, USS
Tarawa, USS Saipan, USS Belleau Wood, USS
Nassau, USS Peleliu |
| SSN
Attack Sumbarines 1
USS
Seawolf, Connecticut, Jimmy Carter,
Virginia, Texax, Hawaii, North Carolina,
Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Memphis,
Bremerton, Jacksonville, Dallas, La
Jolla, City of Corpus Christi,
Albuquerque, Portsmouth, Minneapolis-St.
Paul, Hyman G. Rickover, Augusta, San
Francisco, Houston, Norfolk, Buffalo,
Salt Lake City, Olympia, Honolulu,
Providence
|
| SSN
Attack Sumbarines 2
USS
Pittsburgh, Chicago, Key West, Oklahoma
City, Louisville, Helena, Newport News,
San Juan, Pasadena, Albany, Topeka,
Miami, Scranton, Alexandria, Asheville,
Jefferson City, Annapolis, Springfield,
Columbus, Santa Fe, Boise, Montpelier,
Charlotte, Hampton, Hartford, Toledo,
Tucson, Columbia, Greeneville, Cheyenne |
| SSBN
Fleet Balistic Missile Sumbarines
USS
Georgia, USS Henry M. Jackson, USS
Alabama, USS Alaska,USS Nevada, USS
Pennsylvania, USS Kentucky, USS
Tennessee, USS West Virginia, USS
Maryland, USS Nebraska, USS Rhode Island,
USS Maine, USS Wyoming, USS Louisiana,
USS Ohio |
| USN
Frigates,
USN
Patrol Ships,
USAF
Plane List |
| Anti-submarine
aircraft -
P-3C
Orion
S-3B
Viking |
| USN
FIGHTERS |
| A-10
/ A10 Thunderbolt II |
| F-14
Tomcat
|
| F-15
Eagle F15,
|
| F-16
Fighting Falcon,
|
| F-18
Hornet
F-22
Raptor
F-35
Joint Strike Fighter
|
| CH-46
Sea Knight,
CH-53
Sea Stallion |
| H-3
Sea King
MH-53
Sea Dragon |
| SH-60
Seahawk
HH/UH-1N
Iroquois |
| F-4
Phantom II |
| F-86
Sabre |
| B-52
Stratofortress
F-111,
AC130
Gunship |
| B-1
Lancer |
| B-2
Spirit |
| F-117
Nighthawk
|
| U-2
Dragon Lady
|
| SR-71
Blackbird |
| RQ-1
Predator |
| Panavia
Tornado |
| Tornado
F3
|
| AV-8
Harrier |
|
Text
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