Saturday, November 30, 2019
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel began his military career during WWI where he fought for Germany as a Lieutenant in France, Romania, and Italy. His outstanding military abilities became clear to his higher ups who offered him a position in the general staff, but even after WWI had ended Rommel declined all of the offers and chose to remain in the infantry. Rommel was extremely gifted at training soldiers which lead to him writing an informative book called "Infanterie grief an" (Infantry attacks) as well as taking up a teaching position at a training facility in Vienna where he taught officers. Shortly after the start of WWII Rommel was appointed as the commander of the troops protecting Hitler's headquarters. He developed a relationship with Hitler, and impressed Hitler with his abilities when he took command of the 7th Panzer Division. This prompted Hitler to send Rommel off to Libya to help the struggling Italians in their conquest of Africa. Rommel was extremely successful in North Africa, and he was given the nickname "Desert Fox" because of his surprise attacks. Hitler quickly promoted Rommel to Field Marshall and back in Germany, Rommel became known as the "People's Marshall" because of Propaganda portraying him as invincible. However in 1943 Rommel's offensive on Egypt failed because Rommel had over exhausted his resources, so Hitler ordered him to come back to Germany. When he returned he was entrusted with the job of defending the French Channel from an Allied Invasion. However, due to some disagreements with other Generals, the defense was very unorganized which lead to an easy victory for the allies along the Normandy coast. in 1944 when many German people began doubting the chances of Germany winning the war, there was a movement to overthrow Hitler and have Rommel take his place as the Fuehrer. This plan was thwarted when in 1944 Rommel's car was assaulted by allied fighter bombers which left him hospitalized. Hitler quickly found out about Rommel's plan after he was nearly assassinated and he offered Rommel poison to commit suicide with, so that Rommel wouldn't have to be tried in front of a court and have his reputation be tarnished. Rommel decided to take the poison and was pronounced dead on October 14th, 1944.
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I found your post very informative and an interesting look into one of Germany's top military leaders in WW2. But specifically for when you described his role in WW1 I got curious to research a bit more. Specifically at the Battle of Caporetto, a battle that saw a combined Austrian-German army drive back the Italians considerably, as well as was one of the greatest Entente defeats during the war, was one famous example of one of Rommel's achievements during the war. His forces in just 2 days in one instance during the overall battle defeated 5 Italian regiments and captured over 9,000 Italian soldiers while only facing 36 causalities himself, with only 6 of the 36 actually dying. Rommel was however at this point still a minor military figure, the main assault being headed by the more famous German military figures of the time. However, this battle, among others, were crucial in Rommel's rise to fame.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-caporetto
https://michaeltfassbender.com/nonfiction/the-world-wars/battles-and-campaigns/rommel-at-caporetto-1917/