Gunther E . Rothenberg Gunther E . Rothenberg ( 11 July 1923 – 26 April 2004 ) was an internationally known military historian . Although widely known for his books and journal articles on the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars , Rothenberg also had a fifteen - year military career , serving in the British Army , the Haganah , and the United States Air Force during World War II , the 1948 War , and the Korean War . He emigrated to the United States in 1948 with $ 12 in his pocket . After military service in the United States Air Force , he graduated from the University of Illinois with an undergraduate degree . Two years later , he had a masters degree from the University of Chicago . In 1959 he finished his doctoral degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign . He retired from Purdue University , was appointed Professor Emeritus , and lived in Canberra , Australia , where he continued to write about the Napoleonic Wars . He wrote several ground - breaking books on the organization of the Habsburg military and the military reforms of Archduke Charles in the first decade of the Napoleonic Wars . His last book , " The Emperor ' s Last Victory , " about the Battle of Wagram in 1809 , was published posthumously . Escape from Nazi Germany and military service . Gunther Erich Rothenberg was born in Berlin . His family was a culturally assimilated German Jewish family . In 1937 , Rothenberg moved to the Netherlands with his mother ; his father later joined them . The family moved next to Britain , where Rothenberg had some schooling . In 1939 , he moved to Palestine , then under British rule . There he joined the Zionist movement and Hashomer Hatzair ( The Youth Guard ) , a Socialist - Zionist youth movement . He retained his passion for a Jewish homeland throughout his life . On 13 July 1941 , his parents emigrated to the United States on the " Villa de Madrid " , an overcrowded ocean - liner that left Barcelona on 20 June . His father , Erich Joseph Rothenberg , was an importer , and both his parents spoke English , Hebrew , French , and German . Their visas , issued in Lisbon , Portugal , claimed Cuban citizenship . At the age of 57 , his father registered for the fourth draft in 1942 , listing his residence as New York City , and his next of kin as his wife , Lotte . In 1941 , Gunther Rothenberg volunteered for the British army , serving in an all - Jewish unit . He was wounded in North Africa . He transferred from the Royal Army Service Corps to the Intelligence Corps and fought with the Eighth Army . He served in the Italian campaign , in the Yugoslav war of liberation and in Austria . When World War II ended , Rothenberg returned to Palestine ; there he joined the Haganah for Israel ' s War of Independence . He rose to the rank of captain in the Israel Defense Forces . By 1948 , Rothenberg ' s father had died and his mother , Lotte ( 1894 – 1990 ) , had become a naturalized United States citizen . To be with her in New York City , Rothenberg journeyed to Canada , arriving in Halifax , Nova Scotia ; traveling from there to Toronto , he lived for a while at Wycliffe College , where he worked briefly as a construction laborer . On 19 November 1948 , he crossed the international border into the United States at Buffalo , with $ 12 . 00 in his pocket . In 1951 , he volunteered for the United States Army , transferred to the Air Force , and served in the Korean War until 1955 . He remained guided by a deep sense of duty and a strong sense of American patriotism throughout his life . Education and career . Although he had never finished high school , with the help of the GI Bill , Rothenberg completed a bachelor ' s degree from the University of Illinois in 1954 . He attended graduate school at the University of Chicago , where he was recognized as an argumentative , sometimes abrasive , graduate student with a keen mind . As a graduate student , Rothenberg reviewed W . E . D . Allen s " Caucasian Battlefields : A History of the Wars on the Turco - Caucasian Border , 1828 – 1921 " ( Cambridge University Press , 1953 ) for " Journal of Modern History " , He wrote his 1956 masters ' thesis entitled " General Crook and the Apaches , 1871 – 1874 : the campaign in the Tonto Basin " . Rothenberg received his doctorate from the University of Illinois : his 1959 dissertation , " Antemurales Christianitatis : the Austrian military border in Croatia , 1522 – 1749 " , was published in 1960 by the University of Chicago Press , as " The Military Border in Croatia , 1522 – 1749 " ; he followed this with a second study , " The Military Border in Croatia , 1750 – 1888 : a study of an imperial institution " in 1966 , also published by University of Chicago Press . Both volumes were translated into German in 1970 . In part - time temporary teaching positions in Illinois and four years at the Southern Illinois University , Rothenberg taught European and world history , and published an instructor ' s manual on history of the world , with Henry C . Boren . In 1962 , Rothenberg joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico ; over the following ten years , he rose to the position of full professor . In 1972 , he accepted a position at Purdue University . There , he taught courses in military and European history . As a teacher , his popular course on World War II attracted more than 250 undergraduates annually . In the 1970s , Rothenberg also established himself as an international Napoleonic scholar with " The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon " , published in 1977 . He also mentored hundreds of graduate and doctoral students . He regularly published in such peer - reviewed publications as " Journal of Military History " and served on the editorial board of " War in History " . In 1985 , Rothenberg was a visiting Fulbright fellow in the Department of History in the Faculty of Military Studies at the Australian Royal Military College , Duntroon . He retired from Purdue in 1999 and was named " Professor Emeritus " . From 1995 – 2001 , Rothenberg was a visiting fellow at the School of Historical Studies , Monash University . After his retirement , he moved to Melbourne , Australia , and then to Canberra , where his third wife , Eleanor Hancock , taught at the Australian Defence Force Academy . Although retired , he continued to teach , lecture , and publish reviews . He also wrote two more books . Life in Australia did not always please him ; he missed both his colleagues in North America and his Purdue students . His politics — he " was anything but politically correct " — did not mesh well with Australia ' s leftist atmosphere . He wrote indignantly to a friend in the United States that he regretted moving to Australia when the authorities confiscated his muzzle loaders , which were prohibited " Down Under . " In 2004 , he returned to the United States to present the keynote address at the 34th Annual Conference of the Consortium on Revolutionary Europe . He had recently completed " The Emperor ’ s Last Victory : Napoleon and the Battle of Wagram , " which was published posthumously in November 2004 . He died at the age of 80 . Legacy . Rothenberg ' s legacy is not only the generations of scholars he prepared , but also his vast historiographical contribution to understanding the Revolutionary era . For many years , his " Army of Francis Joseph " ( 1976 ) was the standard and the only English language analysis of the Habsburg Army in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic wars . He changed the widespread perception of Archduke Charles ' military acumen . A masterful historian , Rothenberg was known furthermore as an eminently fair scholar . After publishing a critique of a publication , the author contacted him , and proved the critique unjust ; Rothenberg immediately wrote to a review retracting the criticism , and the two scholars remained friends for the remainder of his life . Some of his colleagues considered Rothenberg " the greatest scholar of the Napoleonic era of our day . " His adventurous life and diverse experiences gave him a deep understanding of human nature . This made him a valuable colleague and a treasured mentor for his many graduate students . Personal life and family . His first marriage in 1952 ended in a 1967 divorce . In 1969 , Rothenberg married Ruth Gillah Smith , a widow with three daughters , whom he helped to raise ; she died in 1992 . In 1995 , he married for a third time , to Eleanor Hancock , a lecturer at Monash University in Australia . She is now a Senior Lecturer in History at the Australian Defence Force Academy at the University of New South Wales , and has written the first biography of Ernst Julius Röhm . Her 1988 doctoral thesis , " National Socialist Leadership And Total War , 1941 – 45 " for the Australia National University was published by St . Martin ' s Press in 1992 . Publications . Rothenberg published hundreds of journal articles , reviews , and lectures . This is a partial list . References .