Rommel, Erwin Johannes Eugen

Early military career

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel was born on November 15, 1891 in the Württemberg town of Heidenheim an der Brenz near Ulm. Rommel's family had no military tradition, only Rommel Sr. served for a short time as an artillery lieutenant before retiring and becoming a teacher. During his schooling, Erwin showed a talent for mathematics and technical skills. He considered becoming an aeronautical engineer. But his father was against it and gave him a choice of two options: become a teacher or join the army. Erwin chose the second option.
After not being accepted for artillery or engineers, he entered service on July 19, 1910 with the Royal Württemberg 6th Infantry Regiment of King William I No. 124 in Weingarten. From March to November 1911 he completed officer courses at the War Academy in Gdańsk. He then returned to his regiment, on January 27, 1912 he was promoted to lieutenant and in the following period he participated as an instructor in the training of recruits.
On March 1, 1914 he was transferred to the 4th Battery of the Field Artillery Regiment in Ulm.

1. world war

After the outbreak of World War I, he fought with his old regiment on Maas, west of Verdun, in the Argonnes and Vosges, in Romania and in Italy. He was twice severely wounded, promoted to lieutenant and awarded the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class. He turned out to be born for the war. During the fighting, he showed coolness, an unconventional approach to dealing with difficult situations and a willingness to take risks and take responsibility. The traits that characterized him until the end of his life.
From October 1915, Rommel commanded a company of the newly formed Württemberg Mountain Battalion. His career during World War I culminated in late October 1917 on the Italian front in the Alps. The Austrians suffered a series of defeats here from the Italians, which culminated in August in breaking the front on the Isonzo River. The German command had to rush to the aid of its ally and moved 7 divisions of the 14th Army to the front at Isonzo after the command of General Otto von Below. During the German-Austrian offensive, it was necessary to overcome the Italian defensive positions on the mountain ridges stretching from Monte Kolowrat to 1642 meters high Monte Matajur. The fortifications at the top of Monte Matajur in particular were of great strategic importance. Von Below commissioned the German Alpine Corps to attack this position, including the Württemberg Mountain Battalion. Von Below promised the conqueror of Monte Matajur the highest military decoration, the order Pour le Mérite. The offensive began on October 24, 1917. At dawn, Rommel's unit, consisting of three mountain and one machine gun company, went into action. Rommel, who until then had only commanded the company, now led the attack to over 500 soldiers. During the two-day advance, Rommel's division rushed forward aggressively, causing confusion and panic among the enemy, capturing thousands of Italian soldiers, seizing 80 guns and many vehicles. On October 26, at 11:40 a.m., Rommel was able to fire three green and one white flare from the summit of Monte Matajur, an agreed sign that the massif was in German hands.
When the Italians withdrew from Monte Matajur, Rommel's detachment was close behind them. He advanced at the top of the Alpine Corps, and thus of the entire 14th Army.
However, Rommel did not see the desired (and deserved) order. Instead, he learned in early November that due to a mistake by the military bureaucracy, the emperor handed over Vilém II. personally Pour le Mérite for conquering the summit of Monte Matajur to the officer who conquered the side summit. Rommel turned to his regiment headquarters in protest against this injustice, but was rejected. He therefore lodged a written complaint. The whole matter threatened a scandal, so the Chief of Staff of the 14th Army worked to ensure that Rommel received the order.But he felt bitter that he had to win the rightfully deserved award officially.
From January 1918 until the end of the war, he worked in staff positions. On October 18, 1918, he was promoted to the rank of captain.

Interwar period

On December 21, 1918, Rommel was transferred to his original 124th Infantry Regiment in Weingarten, where his military career began in 1910. In the summer of 1919 he was entrusted with the command of the internal security service in Friedrichshafen. The way he managed to pacify the revolting sailors made such an impression on the Stuttgart police chief that he offered Rommel a job with the police. But Rommel expressed a desire to return to his unit. Later, he still performed internal security tasks in the Ruhr. From January 1, 1921, he worked in Stuttgart at 13. Infantry Regiment (124th Infantry Regiment was disbanded during the reduction of the army) first in the battalion staff, later as commander of a machine gun company.
On October 1, 1929, Rommel was transferred to an infantry school in Dresden, where he worked for 4 years as an instructor. He wrote a manual for the training of infantry officers "Gefechts - Aufgaben für Zug und Kompanie: Ein Handbuch für den Offizierunterricht" and described his experience of World War II in the book "Infanterie greift an" (Infantry attacks) deserved attention among German readers and was used as a teaching aid by the Swiss army. On October 10, 1933, he (already as a major) was entrusted with the command of the 3rd (mountain) battalion 17. infantry regiment in Goslar. From October 15, 1935 he taught at the War Academy in Potsdam, November 9, 1938 was already in the rank of colonel appointed commander of the War Academy in Wiener Neustadt.
While still in Potsdam, he was given a task that had a major impact on his future. From October 1 to 9, 1938, during the occupation of the Sudetenland, he was entrusted with the command of a battalion providing Hitler's personal security (Führerbegleitbataillon). In March 1939, for fourteen days during the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia and the takeover of Memel he commanded the Leader's main tent.
On August 1, 1939, he was promoted to major general.

Poland and France

On August 23, 1939, Rommel was again called to the Leader's headquarters. Together with 16 officers and 274 soldiers, he ensured Hitler's safety during his numerous visits to the troops during the Polish campaign. After the defeat of Poland, he organized security measures in Berlin during the victorious parade. Hitler liked Rommel for his courage, his abilities - and also because his modesty did not remind him of the arrogant aristocratic Prussian generals. After the end of the war with Poland, Rommela asked what his ideas were about his next military career. Rommel did not hesitate: "I would like to command a tank division."
On February 15, 1940, Rommel was entrusted with command 7. tank division. During the farewell at the Leader's main tent, Hitler gave him a copy of the book Mein Kampf with personal dedication: "To General Rommel with friendly memories".
Rommel took over the division three months before the attack on France. During intensive training, he had the opportunity to get acquainted with the theory of tank combat and apply what he learned during the "blitzkrieg" in Poland. During the conquest of France, Rommel proved to be a master of maneuver combat.At the head of his division, he forcibly crossed the Maas, broke the Maginot Line and attacked the La-Basée Canal, then attacked Lille without a break, turned around and crossed the Somme to break through the Weygand Line. The last target of the 7th Division during the French campaign was a naval base in Cherbourg.
Constant changes of direction, lightning attacks with hastily assembled battle groups, bypasses of the enemy, and the sudden appearance in its rear - all of which forced the enemy to call Rommel's division "Ghost Division." For successful command, Rommel was rewarded Knight's Cross and the rank of lieutenant general.

North Africa

Benito Mussolini played a daring game in 1940 to expand the Italian colonies in North Africa with new territories. On September 13, the 10th Army from the colony Libya crossed the Egyptian border. The incompetently led offensive was soon stopped by the British and on 9 December they counterattacked. In just eight weeks, they managed to push Italy out of Cyrenaica and inflict huge losses on them. On January 22, 1941, the Italians lost Tobruk. The rest of the Italian army was in disarray and quickly retreated west towards Tripoli.
In an effort to prevent the defeat of its ally, the German high command decided to send a small group of ground troops and air forces to Libya to help the Italians stop further British advance on Tripoli. Hitler accepted OKW's view that a single corps should be enough to accomplish this task. Lieutenant General Rommel was entrusted with his command. For the mission, the dedicated forces were first given the name "Sperrverband Afrika", (loosely translated as blocking alliance) On February 16, they were renamed German African Corps (Deutsches Afrika Korps, abbreviated DAK). Dak, whose line-up was at first only 5. light division, began landing in Africa from February 11, 15. the tank division arrived in may. When the DAK in August the 5th Light Division was reorganized to 21. tank division, a higher command level was created - Tank Group Africa - whose commander became Rommel.
Rommel arrived in Tripoli on February 12 and immediately began organizing a defensive line. On February 13, he sent a reconnaissance battalion to find out how far the British had advanced to Tripoli. The survey showed that British troops were not developed to fight. Rommel therefore decided to use this favorable situation to plan a preventive attack. He sent an incompletely landed 5th Light Division towards the British positions at El Agheila. On March 20, during a meeting in OKH Berlin, he was instructed only to hold positions and only after the arrival of the 15th Panzer Division did he launch a limited counterattack. On that occasion, Hitler handed him oak sprigest k Knight's Cross as an award for success in command of the 7th Panzer Division in France.
On March 24, contrary to orders, Rommel launched a limited attack by the 5th Light Division with the support of two Italian divisions and occupied the weakly defended desert fortress of Al Agheila. On March 31, he decided of his will to continue the attack on Cyrenaik. He upset General Gariboldi, the commander-in-chief of the Italian forces in Libya, to whom he was formally subordinate, and OKH, which ordered him to follow the original orders. The situation was saved only by Hitler's personal intervention, which freed his hands to continue the attack. Rommel's offensive surprised the British.DAK pushed them out of Cyrenaica within 10 days and reached Reach of Tobruk. In addition to thousands of soldiers, he captured 16 generals, among them Richard O'Connor, commander of the British forces in the Western Desert (Western Desert Force). After an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Tobruk, DAK continued to the borders of Egypt. There, however, he was hit by logistical difficulties in June - insufficient supply of reinforcements, fuel and supplies. Rommel decided to build a defensive line at the easternmost positions around Halfaya Pass as a springboard for further progress. In mid-June, he managed to repel a British counterattack and advance beyond the Egyptian borders. Other British counter-offensives followed, and during Operation Crusader (which began on November 18, 1941, the British managed to conquer the port of Benghazi and push the Africa Tank Group from Tobruk. In January 1942, the Germans launched a new counter-offensive handed over swords to the Knight's Cross and on January 30, he was promoted to colonel general. .
The conquest of Tobruk was the culmination of Rommel's career. Goebbelsova propaganda needed to divert attention from the stalemate on the Eastern Front and thus Rommel's success in North Africa properly took advantage.
At the same time, however, Tobruk marked the beginning of the end of German forces in Africa. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill caught the news of the fall of Tobruk during talks with the American president Rooseveltem. He immediately offered to help him and ten days later convoys with supplies of fighters, bombers, tanks set out from America Sherman and inventory. Subsequently, plans were approved for Operation Torch, an Allied landing in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
Rommel, meanwhile, was relentless in the pressure on the British, shaken by the fall of Tobruk. In the spirit of his principle "when the enemy retreats, you must continue the attack" On June 23, he crossed the Egyptian border and wanted to be in Cairo within a week. However, he ignored the state of his Tank Army Africa - was exhausted from the fight, had available only 70 tanks, suffered from a lack of supplies and armaments. The offensive stopped on the British defensive line at El Alamein defended 8. army. During July, the Germans unsuccessfully tried several times to break through. On August 31, Rommel attempted to bypass the 8th Army at Alam Halfy, which the British repulsed on September 4. During September and October, there was relative calm at the front, with both sides preparing for a decisive encounter.
On September 23, Rommel flew to Germany for a planned convalescence. A year and a half in the difficult conditions of North Africa affected his state of health. The command of the Tank Army of Africa was taken over by General Georg Stumme. Rommel promised him that if fighting broke out, he would stop treatment and return to Africa immediately.
On October 1, Rommel reported to Hitler on the situation in North Africa. He justified the suspension of the offensive at El Alamein by insufficient supply, British air superiority and the cowardice of the Italians. Hitler promised him supplies and supplies. Rommel believed the leader's promises and was infected with his optimism.
On October 24, Rommel received word that the British had launched a massive offensive the day before. General Stumme succumbed to a heart attack after a British fighter attacked his car.After a speedy return to Africa, Rommel was horrified: Italian troops in disarray, German troops with a minimum of tanks, convoys with supplies destroyed at sea. However, German troops still held on to Alamein. Well-built minefields inflicted heavy losses on the invading British. The new commander of the 8th Army Montgomery, however, did not allow the Germans to rest. He regrouped his forces and launched a new attack on November 2. Rommel looked at his plans: to destroy the Axis by a wide bypass. The only solution to avert the catastrophe was to retreat. He informed the Leader's headquarters of his decision and ordered the gradual withdrawal of troops from the front. Hitler reacted as usual in such situations - he forbade retreat and ordered "victory or death." Rommel had to solve a difficult dilemma. Hitler demanded that he begin the destruction of his army and supervise it. He was responsible for the lives of the soldiers entrusted to him, but he was bound by Hitler's oath of allegiance. With a heavy heart, he stopped the retreat and ordered the position to be held. Within 24 hours of the issuance of the "maintenance order", Montgomery made a decisive breakthrough. Rommel again ordered the retreat to begin on November 4. He later admitted that his biggest mistake was that he had not circumvented the "victory or death" order 24 hours earlier. Immediately a dispatch to Hitler of his emissary. Hitler was able to impress him by "approving his decision" as the situation developed. However, he still considered Rommel's retreat a serious mistake.
The retreat from Alamejn to Tunisia is one of Rommel's greatest military achievements. However, the Field Marshal knew that the Allied landings in French North Africa and the material superiority of the Americans mean the end German-Italian Tank Army. He even began to doubt the "ultimate victory." He saw the only solution in the evacuation of all Axis units from Africa. On November 12, Hitler received his envoy again, proposing to "take up defensive positions in the Cyrenaica Mountains and transport as many troops as possible to Europe by sea at night." Hitler abruptly rejected the proposal. At the end of November, Rommel flew unannounced to the Leader's main state to personally acquaint Hitler with the situation and to defend his evacuation proposal. When Hitler launched his usual tirade, Rommel angrily advised him to fly to Africa himself and show how rifles could be defeated over tanks. The field marshal had exaggerated a bit. Furious, Hitler immediately expelled him from the situation meeting. Under Rommel's command was the German-Italian Tank Army, later renamed the Army Group Africa, the Allies gradually pushed out of the Italian colonies to Tunis. In Tunisia, it carried out several smaller successful offensives against inexperienced Americans, but was eventually pushed into the defensive perimeter, the size of which was shrinking every week. The final defeat was a matter of just a few months.
On March 4, 1943, Rommel was called to the Leader's headquarters. The field marshal presented a situation report and urged Hitler to allow the front to be shortened. Hitler instead orders an attack on March 6 against the 8th Army. As a result, the Army Group of Africa retreated to Mareth at great losses. On March 9, Hitler sent Rommel on sick leave and two days later lent him diamonds to the Knight's Cross.
On May 13, 1943, the remaining Axis units in North Africa capitulated and embarked on a journey into captivity.

Italy and France

After returning from North Africa, Rommel spent 7 weeks in a hospital in Zemmering and was then called as a consultant to Hitler's headquarters. At the time, there were fears of a collapse of the fascist regime in Italy.Following the removal of Mussolini from power, Hitler planned to land the Allies in Italy or Greece. For this case, he ordered the preparation of the armed occupation of Italy. Due to his experience with the Italian allies, Rommel was directly destined for this task. On May 17, Hitler ordered the compilation of " Rommel's Staff", which began in Vienna's New Town to plan an invasion of Italy under the code name "Alarich" (according to the Gothic king, who plundered Rome in 410).
On July 10, the Allies landed in Sicily. On July 25, the Fascist Grand Council expressed no confidence in Mussolini, and the king removed him from power in accordance with the constitution. "Duce" was arrested and ended up in custody. His successor Marshal Badoglio declared that Italy would continue the war alongside Germany, but secretly he began negotiating with the Allies for a separate peace. Hitler ordered to put four divisions in northern Italy into the state of increased alert, the division was separated from the eastern front Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and three other divisions were prepared in France. They were subordinated to Skupina armád B under Rommel's command. According to OKW instructions, Army Group B was to advance to Italy from the north, while the units Kesselringova Hlavního velitelství Jih will delay the enemy's advance in the south of the country and make a retreat by fighting. When Kesselring's troops withdraw to northern Italy, Rommel will take command of all the troops there. On July 29, after eavesdropping on a ceasefire talks between Churchill and Roosevelt with Italy, Operation "Alarich" broke out. Army Group B was proceeding so effectively that it soon controlled the entire north of Italy. Rommel feared landing on one of the many convenient stretches of the Italian coast and suggested that German troops defending the south of Rome quickly evacuate the south of the country and focus on defending its northern part. Hitler disagreed and on November 6, 1943 appointed Kesselring Commander-in-Chief in Italy.
Army Group B, led by Rommel, was transferred to France and was to prepare to repel the expected Allied invasion. Rommel was also commissioned to inspect the fortifications Atlantic Wall. He was formally subordinate to Field Marshal von Rundstedt, Commander Hlavního velitelství Západ. There was a sharp conflict between the two men over their views on resolving the situation during the Allied invasion. After his experience of landing the Allies in North Africa and Italy, Rommel proposed crushing the attackers at the time of the landing and preventing them from landing on the coast. Von Rundstedt, on the other hand, was of the opinion that the enemy should be let ashore and then destroyed by a classical ground operation.
When the Allies actually landed on June 6, 1944, Rommel was on vacation in Germany. He immediately returned to Normandy and tried to destroy the individual bridgeheads. However, the overwhelming predominance of the Allied Air Force thwarted the movement of German troops to landing sites. At a meeting on June 17, Hitler harshly criticized both von Rundstedt and Rommel for their current conduct of operations, rejected their demand for withdrawal from Normandy, and repeated the usual phrases about fighting to the last man. The two field marshals met again with Hitler on June 29, when the situation in Normandy was already critical. Hitler again rejected the demands for retreat. 2.July recalled von Rundstedt and replaced him von Klugem. Before leaving for Normandy, Hitler convinced von Kluge that von Rundstedt's and Rommel's incompetent command had caused the critical situation there. Right at the first meeting of the new commander-in-chief of the German forces in the west with Rommel, there was a sharp exchange of views between the two field marshals. Shortly afterwards, von Kluge embarked on a brief inspection tour of the Normandy battlefield, and when he returned, he had to revise his view of the situation and take back all the accusations made by Hitler.
On July 17, Rommel's car was attacked by Allied fighter bombers and the field marshal was severely wounded.

Conspirator

Rommel, like many other professional officers, watched the rising Nazism with distrust. In Hitler, however, after seizing power, he saw a guarantee of order in the country and appreciated his efforts to strengthen the army. He saw the attack on Poland and the war against France as a remedy for the wrongs committed in Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. He never served on the Eastern Front, so he was not confronted with the worst Nazi crimes.
He found the first sign that Hitler's Germany was not waging war in a civilized way during the African campaign. When foreign legionaries of German and Austrian origin and members of the "Free French" units were captured, a secret order came from the headquarters to immediately execute such prisoners. Rommel was upset and had the order burned because he contradicted the Geneva Conventions.
For the first time, Rommel came to the conclusion that Hitler was not in contact with reality during the Battle of El Alamein. He decided to ignore the "win or die" order, refused to sacrifice his troops unnecessarily, and retreated against the leader's will. After the Americans joined the war against Germany, he began to doubt the "final victory."
He definitely lost confidence in Hitler during the Battle of Normandy. He saw the armistice with the Western Allies as the only way to save Germany from total destruction. With or without Hitler.
He was informed of the preparations for the assassination of Hitler, but refused to be directly involved in the conspiracy.
After the failure of the assassination on July 20, 1944, the Nazis launched an extensive investigation. General von Stülpnagel, one of the conspirators, fired a bullet in the head but did not die. At the hospital, he spoke in a dream of fever and spoke Rommel's name several times. Subsequently, one of the arrested conspirators confirmed in writing that Marshal Rommel had been involved in the conspiracy.
Rommel, meanwhile, was recovering from his injury at his home in Herrlingen. In September, he was visited by his friend and former chief of staff, General Speidel. Rommel asked him to speak with Colonel-General Guderian, who was appointed new chief after the purges General Staff. Guderian, regardless of Hitler's will, was to make a truce in the West. Rommel came to the conclusion that Hitler should not be killed, but brought to justice.
But Hitler was faster. He ordered an immediate investigation into Rommel's involvement in the conspiracy and convened an "honorary court of the Wehrmacht," whose members were only generals. It was chaired by Field Marshal von Rundstedt.
On October 7, Rommel was called to headquarters. Considering that he would not return from there alive, he refused the trip for health reasons.
On October 14, 1944, Rommel was visited at home by Hitler's emissaries, generals Maisel and Burgdorf. They explained that the court of honor had expelled him from the Wehrmacht. The leader gives him a choice of two options: a people's court or suicide. The generals brought the poison with them and promised that if he chose the second option, his family would be taken care of. They gave him a quarter of an hour to think. Rommel then told his wife what the generals had told him."I'll be dead in a quarter of an hour." The poison is said to work for three seconds, "he whispered. Then he said goodbye to his family and got into the car with the generals. After a while, he stopped. His guides disembarked, leaving the field marshal alone. Three seconds later, Rommel was dead.
A falsified medical report identified Rommel's heart attack as the result of extensive injuries. The state marshal was sent a state funeral. Hitler sent a telegram of condolence to the widow, and the keynote speaker at the mourning ceremony at Ulm City Hall was Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, who had previously presided over the court of honor and agreed to Rommel's expulsion from the Wehrmacht.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rommel
Günter Fraschka: With swords and diamonds
Maurice Philip Remy: The Myth of Rommel
James Lucas: Hitler's mercenaries
Desmond Young: Rommel
Ken Ford: El Alamein 1942

Photograph with a marshal stick



Source: http://snyderstreasures.com/gallery/hl

Hard to recognize Erwin Rommel in a helmet during a ceremonial parade, Paris, June 1940. It is nice to see the decoration Pour le Merite , fastened under the neck.


source: www.bundesarchiv.de

The funeral of Erwin Rommel, a condolence speech delivered by Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt. Ulm, Germany, 10/18/1944.

www.bundesarchiv.de

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Another interesting work about Rommel. David Irving - Rommel, Desert Fox. This time it is not just a somewhat monochromatic depiction as presented by Desmond Young, but a denser analysis of Rommel's actions. The author's search for things connected with the marshal's life is especially interesting.


( edited by RoBoT)

But the best is, in my opinion, the recently published book by Maurice Philip Remy - The Myth of Rommel - if we omit dozens of photographs, it tries to take an impartial position and contains not very unknown information, such as that E.R. he had an illegitimate daughter Gertrude (* December 8, 1913) or that in the battle of Tobruk he wasted a large number of tanks in direct attack and that he was not so popular with staff soldiers, but on the other hand he was a legend for normal frontline soldiers (the author tries to analyze the myth of Rommel).
I can only recommend - of the named books (which I have all read) is 100% the best


yes, and if anyone is interested in David Irving's book - The Trail of the Fox, it can be downloaded directly from the author at http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Rommel/index.html in pdf format with (i without) photos - Unfortunately only in English