Best Military Leaders of History

#2: Erwin Rommel (1891-1944)Famous Wars: World War I, World War II Erwin Rommel was born in Heidenheim, Germany in 1891 to a middle class family. In 1910 he joined the German army and by World War I he had been promoted to Lieutenant. Despite there being wide spread support for him to be promoted further, possibly even to the rank of general, Rommel refused to leave the regular infantry and remained a lieutenant. By 1940, however, World War II began and Rommel was granted command over the 7th Panzer Division. Following great success with the 7th Panzer, Rommel was quickly promoted up the ranks. In 1941 he was given complete control over the German expeditionary corps to Italy in North Africa, the Afrika Korps. In Africa, Rommel earned the nickname the 'Desert Fox' due to his tenacity in the deserts. Although Rommel experienced great successes with the Afrika Korps, namely retaking Tobruk and advancing into British Egypt towards the Suez, he was eventually recalled from Africa to fight in the European theatre. There the Germans suffered enormous defeats due to lack of supplies, low moral, and an ineffective Nazi government. In 1944 Rommel was supposedly caught conspiring against Adolf Hitler and the Furher forced Rommel to commit suicide as a result. Rommel to this day remains as one of the most talented and respected military leader in history [1][2]. When considering who the best German military leader was, much less the best in the world, people generally denounce Rommel because eventually his victories meant nothing as he was thoroughly defeated in the European theatre by Allied forces. However, this is not true in the slightest. As generally is the case, the Germans, and Rommel, lost in Europe not due to tactical reasons, yet for political ones. The primary reason why the Italians under Rommel in Southern Italy gave in so quickly was due to the lack of supplies from the Italian government and the extremely low moral. This is both the fault of Mussolini's fascist government. For one, Mussolini was foolish to invade Greece while still fighting the British in North Africa because Italy simply did not have the industrial capacity to create the supplies needed for such a campaign. Therefore when the Allies invaded Sicily the supply lines were to thin and spread out for the home command to hold back the well supplied Allies. As for D-Day and the Liberation of France, Hitler gave orders to the German troops in France that directly contradicted Rommel's propositions. That is Hitler was insistent that the Wermacht not lose any ground whatsoever to the Allies and that they stay and fight in Caen. Rommel had wanted to retreat further into France and regroup his shattered army. However, Hitler's foolish order overruled Rommel's and as a result the Allies were able to defeat Rommel. Therefore it is clear that Rommel is not to blame for these losses and therefore it cannot be held against him [3][4]. Therefore the only way to truly see how great of a commander Rommel was is to see how her performed when there was no political influence. This can best be seen in his adventures with the Afrika Korps. By the time Rommel arrived, the Italians had been pushed back to Algeria and had lost nearly all of their previous colonial possessions in Libya. This was a huge issue for the Italians because they had lost two essential ports in Benghazi and in Tobruk. Without these they were forced to operate on even mores so limited supplies. Therefore Rommel's successes are even more incredible. After the arrival of the 15th Panzer Division, he ordered a limited offensive on Cyrenaica, the region in which the port of Benghazi lay. After a few victories Rommel proposed a bold invasion of all of Cyrenaica, despite the lack of supplies and numerical disadvantages. In April Rommel had managed to regain Benghazi and from then on the German and Italians were able to roll back through the Libyan desert. The port of Tobruk remained in British hands until 1941, however that fell when Rommel returned to Africa in 1942. Although the Allies occupied Benghazi again in 1942, Rommel managed another surprising counter-offensive against much stronger Allied armies to retake the essential port. After this success Rommel was ready to launch an invasion of Egypt. Again, despite numerical disadvantages Rommel was able to drive nearly towards the Egyptian port in Alexandria. Unfortunately for the Axis, the Allies finally began to take Rommel seriously and the British sent their Marshal Montgomery and the US deployed General Patton to crush the puny, yet surprisingly effective Afrika Korps [5]. Rommel's impact on warfare was enormous. He was a master at maneuverability and getting the maximum efficiency out of any force, no matter how small. His book Attacks was published in 1937 and it greatly advanced the quality of the German Wermacht, along with the Allied armies. In fact, had it not been for Rommel's very own book, US General Patton would have most likely been unable to win in North Africa. Patton reportedly read and reread Attacks until "...he knew it by heart" [6]. Therefore in a very indirect way, we could say that we should be thankful for Rommel's brilliance as it helped the Allies modernize and eventually win the war. Today, Rommel's brilliant advances in military maneuverability are still taught and utilized today in what is called the Rommel Model. Back over to you, imabench Sources[1] http://www.biography.com...[2] http://en.wikipedia.org...[3] http://us.macmillan.com... [BOOK] [4] http://www.dailymail.co.uk...[5] http://www.topedge.com...[6] http://www.killology.com...