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Erwin Rommel - The Desert Fox
Erwin Rommel was born in Heidenheim, Germany, on 15th November, 1891. He wanted to study engineering but his father disapproved so in 1910 he joined the German Army.
By the outbreak of the First World War Rommel had reached the rank of lieutenant. He fought on the Western Front and in January 1915 won the Iron Cross.
In 1917 Rommel served on the Italian Front and after leading the attack on Monte Matajur, was promoted to captain. Soon afterwards Rommel and a small group of men swam the Piave River in order to capture the Italian garrison at Lognaroni.
After the war Rommel remained in the German Army and in 1929 he was appointed an instructor at the Infantry School in Dresden. In October 1935 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and began teaching at the Potsdam War Academy.
An excellent teacher, Rommel's lectures were published as a book on infantry tactics in 1937. The book was read by Adolf Hitler. Greatly impressed by Rommel's ideas Hitler arranged for him to command his HQ staff in Austria and Czechoslovakia. The following year he did the same job in Poland.
Rommel was given command of the 7th Panzer Division that invaded France in May, 1940. Rommel's troops moved faster and farther than any other army in military history. After reaching the Channel he turned south and raced along the coast until he reached the Spanish border.
As a result of his exploits in France he was promoted to the rank of general. When Benito Mussolini asked for help in North Africa Adolf Hitler sent Rommel to command the new Deutsches Afrika Korps and successfully drove the British 8th Army out of Libya. He moved into Egypt but was defeated at El Alamein. With the USA Army landing in Morocco and Algeria, his troops were forced to leave Tunisia.
In the early months 1944 Rommel was approached by Ludwig Beck and Carl Goerdeler about joining the July Plot. Rommel refused, criticising the tactic of assassination claiming that it would turn Adolf Hitler into a martyr. Instead he suggested that he should be arrested and brought to trial.
Rommel was now sent to head the German Army in France that was preparing for the Allied invasion. Unable to halt the Allied troops during Operation Overlord, on 15th July, 1944, Rommel warned Hitler that Germany was on the verge of defeat and encouraged him to bring the war to an end.
Once Erwin Rommel realized that the war was hopelessly lost and that to condone Hitler's senseless continuation of it would be irresponsible. Injured in a strafing air attack on July 17th of 1944, Rommel could not personally participate in the attempt to overthrow Hitler three days later (July 20, 1944), but he was gravely implicated. (Rommel's role in the overthrow of Hitler is still not clear and highly disputed by the historians.) Rommel's opposition to Adolf Hitler was kept secret, because of his popularity. On August 8th, Erwin Rommel was transported from the French Hospital to Herrlingen, where he was placed under house arrest. Erwin Rommel was given the choice of suicide, to be reported as death from his wounds, as an alternative to execution as a traitor, which would have placed his family and close associates in grave danger. On October 14, 1944, Rommel was taken to the hospital at Ulm, where he died by his own hand taking the poison. On October 18th, Erwin Rommel was buried with full military honors and it was a day of national mourning ordered by Adolf Hitler himself.
Overall, Erwin Rommel was an outstanding and an unconventional military leader with unique methods of command. Erwin Rommel is one of the few commanders, who was not involved in any war crimes.
Rommel was highly respected by his enemies and was considered to be the last of the knights. During the North African Campaign, Rommel often cut the water rations of his troop, so that the prisoners of war could survive.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERrommel.htm
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/gen1.htm