Erwin Rommel

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (15 November 1891 - 14 October 1944) was a general of the Wehrmacht in World War II - hence, in the service of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.
During March 1941 until his troops' surrender in May 1943, he was the leading German commander of the Axis troops in Libya (then, an Italian colony), western Egypt, and Tunisia.
He knew a few things involving the conspiracy of Operation Valkyrie (Unternehmen Walküre), the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20th, 1944. For this reason, the Nazis forced him to commit suicide.
One of the best-known German generals in the western world, Rommel is neither squeaky clean nor 100% dark - an interesting, multi-colored character. That's why this page shall tell about each of his sides, albeit not in this particular order.
== The competent commander ==
* During the western campaign, Rommel's panzers moved so fast that the leadership in Berlin lost track where he actually was and a nervous "führer" told him to stop several times. Hence his division gained the nickname "Gespensterdivision" (ghost division)
* During "Case Red" in France, Rommel's panzers at one point managed to get ahead 240 kilometers in 24 hours, reaching Cherbourg.
* Rommel's break with the Nazi leadership began in 1942, as soon as the "führer" started to interfere more and more with him trying to fight a war, which made Rommel stop believing that the "führer" was the best that could happen to Germany.
** Same thing with the "führer" making promises to support Rommel's army and never doing it.
* Allied commanders acknowledged his competence as well, culminating in the alleged George S. Patton quote "Rommel, you magnificent bastard - I read your book!"
** Said book "Infanterie greift an" (Infantry Attacking - covering his experiences in World War I) was printed several hundred thousand times and translated into several languages. It reads more like a war novel than non-fiction. The "führer" read it too.
** Even Winston Churchill called him an "extraordinary bold and clever opponent" and a "great field commander" after the fall of Tobruq.
* While there are many generals who criticized him, some of them were less than stellar (Keitel!) and might have been motivated by envy and nothing more.
* Had been a successful officer (for the army of Württemberg) in World War I as well, being decorated with the "Pour le Mérite", the highest royal Prussian order of bravery for officers of all ranks.
== The trickster ==
* Rommel used tricks like taking advantage of sand storms and the dark of night to conceal the movement of his forces, creating dust clouds in the desert to let his force look much stronger than it really was, using fake panzers, or having his panzers drive several times around a block to make it seem like he had way more of them than he really had.
* When it turned out that the German anti-tank guns were too weak against the French Char tanks, he decided to attack them with the 8.8cm anti-air cannons instead, which worked and was copied by other German commanders.
** Germans used this trick as early as in the Spanish Civil War. Whether Rommel (who hadn't been there) knew about this or had the idea independently, isn't sure yet.
* At one point, Rommel and his driver spent almost two hours driving openly among large numbers of British troop transports and armored cars; he went unnoticed because his staff vehicle was a captured British car, and its German markings were concealed by the night.
* Before Operation Overlord, Rommel had various Atlantic Wall obstacles built, including the famous Rommelspargel (Rommel's asparagus). "Rommel had thoroughly muddled our plans. Attacking at high tide as we had intended, we'd never get enough troops in over those obstacles..." (Edward Ellsberg, US Navy) The obstructions compelled the Allies to land at low tide, which narrowed the time frames they could land and increased the length of the beach to be crossed, but uncovered and revealed the obstacles, reducing their effectiveness.
* Had watchtowers "manned" by scarecrows in uniforms, until the Allied soldiers stopped shooting them.
== The chummy general ==
* Other than most WW2 generals, Rommel preferred leading from the front (German: Vorne-Führung)
** There were critics of this kind of leadership, who pointed out that he wasted much time doing things a lower-ranking commander could have done instead, and complained he was hard to find in battle.
* He felt it the obligation of a commander to be willing to suffer whatever hardships the soldier in the line was facing, and he understood the effect of this on the morale of his men.
* Rommel was genuinely popular with his men. "...the men knew that Rommel was the last man to spare Rommel." (Friedrich von Mellenthin)
** "While very popular with young soldiers and N.C.O.s, with whom he cracked many a joke, he could be most outspoken and offensive to commanders of troops if he did not approve of their measures." (F. v. M.)
* Always speaking his local Swabian dialect instead of standard German, Rommel also did sound different from the stereotypical Prussian Heer officer.
** The fact that other generals didn't like him, often envied him, and considered him an upstart, certainly helped.
* When the British mounted a commando raid deep behind German lines in an effort to kill Rommel and his staff on the eve of their Crusader offensive, Rommel was indignant, not that the British had singled him out to be killed, but that the British could believe his headquarters would be found 250 miles behind his front.
* On the other hand, Rommel repeatedly got into trouble with higher officers up to fellow generals, his superiors, and Italian generals for harshly criticizing them / disobeying them / making his fellows envious of his successes / ignoring them.
* Even as a general, he was living rather frugally, eating the same rations as his men.
== The propaganda idol/expert ==
* Rommel became one of the highest-decorated soldiers of the Wehrmacht, esp. the Heer, and the youngest Generalfeldmarschall.
* While being competent, Nazi propaganda liked to depict Rommel as even more awesome: The ideal soldier, in fact.
** When the Nazis started however to depict him as a member of the Nazi Party (which he never was), even as an early leader, which was plain wrong, he protested.
* Nazi propaganda also liked to weave legends around him, like "'Rommel' is one of the 80 Arab words for 'sand'".
* The western Allies also liked to depict Rommel as even more competent than he was, making them look better (or less bad).
* At times during the war, both Axis and Allies believed it might be possible that Rommel could not only take Alexandria (although logistical reasons spoke against that), but invade the whole Near and Middle East, maybe even attacking Transcaucasia next.
* Post-WW2, many liked to depict him as "the good Wehrmacht general". In fact, the first five major autobiographies of him were written by Brits. (Source: Reuth)
* While other Wehrmacht generals spoke disparagingly about "propaganda fritzes", Rommel liked them and used them to polish his image.
* Was celebrated even more since early 1942, when he was the only German general left who still won victories.
* In movies, he was played by famous actors like Erich von Stroheim, James Mason, and Ulrich Tukur.
* Rommel went so far to claim the successes of other panzer commanders for himself. This despite the fact that in the First World War, other officers had done the same to him. (Source: Reuth)
== The naive... what? ==
* As late as August 1939, Rommel believed that the "führer" did not want to start a war. (Source: Guido Knopp)
* In 1943, Rommel suggested to the "führer" that it'd help the image of Nazi Germany if it was possible that a Jew (yes) was allowed to become a gauleiter. (Source: Guido Knopp, Ralf Georg Reuth)
* He did write positive things in his diary/letters about the Nazis, up to "[he speaks] like a prophet".
** Unless he was doing that to deceive the SS/Gestapo who might have been reading what he wrote.
* He never actually read "Mein Kampf" - although this might have revealed the truth to him.
* When invading Poland, he wrote home that he thought that the Polish population was relieved by the Wehrmacht. (Source: Reuth)
* As late as August 1943, he wrote home that pretty much everyone was a "Würstchen" (little sausage) compared to the "führer". (Source: Reuth)
* Believed that Nazi Germany's "miracle weapons" might still turn the tide of the war.
* Was fooled like any other Nazi general by expecting the Allied invasion near Calais, mistaking Overlord for a diversion.
** While claiming in his book to have done the opposite, years later.
* Thought for a long time that the problem with the war was that the "führer" was surrounded by idiots.
== The man with a conscience ==
* Rommel knew about the plans of various officers to topple the Nazis (the July 20th plot) and didn't tell them off. If it had succeeded, he'd have taken over command in the west next. While he wasn't part of the inner circle, his knowledge alone made the Nazis force him to commit suicide after the 20th July.
** Then again, he seems to have believed that the other conspirators just wanted to arrest the "Führer", not kill him.
** Also, it took him until Operation Overlord to finally break with the Nazi regime.
** If he sided with the resistance, it rather was because of others' influence, not by his own decision. (Source: Reuth)
* He told his son Manfred not to join the Waffen-SS.
* Rommel was one of the commanders who protested the massacre. (Source: Ahlrich Meyer)
* While he implemented the construction of the many obstacles to strengthen the Atlantic Wall, Rommel directed that French workers were to be paid for their labour, and were not to be used as slave labourers. (Source: Bryan Mark Rigg)
* Nazi officials who did not like Rommel, such as Bormann and Schirach, whispered to each other that he was not a Nazi at all.
* He had the soldiers of Free France not shot, supposedly being partisans, even when ordered. (Source: Reuth)
* He did not "select" Jewish prisoners of war to have them shot, even on the "führer"'s order. (Source: Reuth)
* He did not separate white and "colored" South African prisoners of war, even when the white South African General Klopper protested this treatment. Rommel’s response: “For me, the soldiers are all equal. The blacks wear your own uniform, fought at your side, and then you’ll be locked up in the same enclosure.” (Source: Reuth)
== The Nazi tool ==
* Rommel's competence as a general, which otherwise might be considered all in all a positive thing, at the end of the day helped Nazi Germany to prolong the war, hence turned out to be a bad thing.
* Rommel had no problem being the leader of the "Führer"-Begleit-Batallion (his military bodyguards, distinct from the SS), or being repeatedly invited by the "führer" and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
* were planned to be sent to North Africa and the Near East as well, to hunt and exterminate Jews. SS-Obersturmbannführer Walther Rauff even went to Africa for meeting Rommel, although it is improbable they ever met, with Rommel busy fighting at El Alamein 500 kilometers away. (Sources: Mallmann, Cüppers & Smith; Ben H. Shepherd)
** According to Rauff's diary, his job in North Africa was putting the local Jews into labor camps, but not extermination camps. The confusion is understandable since Rauff was responsible for organising the deportation for later extermination of Vichy France's Jews, and even had been involved in creating mobile gas chambers. (Source)
*** What'd happen in ATLs where the Wehrmacht actually'd succeed in reaching Alexandria - as improbable as it is - is a very different question.
* War crimes (rapes, murders, plunder) happened under Rommel as well, even if they pale in comparison to that under other Wehrmacht generals, e.g. Paulus' 6th Army.
Hence, it is not surprising that he isn't just interesting for military historians, but also appeared in dozens of fictional books, movies and video games. Also repeatedly appeared in Alternate History, in all kinds of positions from new Führer (in TLs where the Axis won) to head of a nazi-free Germany (after a successful putsch).
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Alternate versions of Erwin Rommel have been discovered throughout the multiverse:
* Erwin Rommel (Cinco De Mayo)
* Erwin Rommel (How many Sixes does Adolf Nazi have to Roll?)
 
Category:Wehrmacht
Category:Military leaders
Category:People (real world)
Category:People from Germany