Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel (; 15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944), known as The Desert Fox (, ), was a German Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal) during World War II. He served in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, as well as in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, and Imperial German Army of the German Empire.
Rommel was a highly decorated officer in World War I and awarded the Pour le Mérite for his actions on the Italian Front. In 1937, he published his classic book on military tactics, Infantry Attacks, drawing on his experiences in that war. In World War II, he commanded the 7th Panzer Division during the 1940 invasion of France. His leadership of German and Italian forces in the North African campaign established his reputation as one of the ablest tank commanders of the war, and earned him the nickname der Wüstenfuchs, "the Desert Fox". Among his British adversaries he had a reputation for chivalry, and his phrase "war without hate" has been uncritically used to describe the North African campaign. Some historians have rejected the phrase as a myth, citing crimes against North African Jewish populations, while others note there is no clear evidence Rommel was involved in or aware of these crimes. He later commanded the German forces opposing the Allied cross-channel invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
After the Nazis gained power, Rommel pledged allegiance to the new regime. However, historians have given different accounts of the specific period and his motivations. At least until near the war's end, he was a loyal supporter of Adolf Hitler, but not of the Nazi party and the SS. In 1944, Rommel was implicated in the 20 July plot (or Operation Valkyrie) to assassinate Hitler. Subsequently, Rommel was given a choice between suicide or facing a trial that would result in his disgrace and execution. He chose the former and took a cyanide pill. Rommel was given a state funeral, and it was announced he had succumbed to injuries from the strafing of his car in Normandy.
Rommel became a larger-than-life figure in Allied and Nazi propaganda, and in postwar popular culture. Numerous authors portray him as an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of Nazi Germany, although others have contested this assessment and called it the "Rommel myth". Rommel's reputation for conducting a clean war was used in the interest of the West German rearmament and reconciliation between the former enemies – the UK and the US on one side and the new Federal Republic of Germany on the other. Several of Rommel's former subordinates, notably his chief of staff Hans Speidel, played key roles in West German rearmament and integration into NATO in the postwar era. The German Army's largest military base, the Field Marshal Rommel Barracks, Augustdorf, and the third ship of the Lütjens-class destroyers of the German Navy are both named in his honour. His son Manfred Rommel was the longtime mayor of Stuttgart, Germany, and namesake of Stuttgart Airport.
Early life and career Rommel was born on 15 November 1891 in Heidenheim, from Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, then part of the German Empire. He was the third of five children born to Erwin Rommel senior (1860–1913) and his wife Helene von Luz. Her father, Karl von Luz, headed the local government council. As a young man, Rommel's father had been an artillery lieutenant. Rommel had one older sister who was an art teacher and his favourite sibling, one older brother named Manfred who died in infancy, and two younger brothers, of whom one became a successful dentist and the other an opera singer.
At age 18, Rommel joined the Württemberg Infantry Regiment No. 124 in Weingarten as a Fähnrich (ensign), in 1910, studying at the Officer Cadet School in Danzig. He graduated in November 1911 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in January 1912 and was assigned to the 124th Infantry in Weingarten. He was posted to Ulm in March 1914 to the 49th Field Artillery Regiment, XIII (Royal Württemberg) Corps, as a battery commander. He returned to the 124th when war was declared. While at Cadet School, Rommel met his future wife, 17-year-old Lucia (Lucie) Maria Mollin (1894–1971), of Italian and Polish descent.
World War I
During World War I, Rommel fought in France as well as in the Romanian campaign, notably at the Second Battle of the Jiu Valley, and the Italian campaigns. He successfully employed the tactics of penetrating enemy lines with heavy covering fire coupled with rapid advances, as well as moving forward rapidly to a flanking position to arrive at the rear of hostile positions, to achieve tactical surprise. His first combat experience was on 22 August 1914 as a platoon commander near Verdun, when – catching a French garrison unprepared – Rommel and three men opened fire on them without ordering the rest of his platoon forward. The armies continued to skirmish in open engagements throughout September, as the static trench warfare typical of the war was still in the future. For his actions in September 1914 and January 1915, Rommel was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class. Rommel was promoted to Oberleutnant (first lieutenant) and transferred to the newly created Royal Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion of the Alpenkorps in September 1915, as a company commander. In November 1916 in Danzig, Rommel and Lucia married.
In August 1917, his unit was involved in the battle for Coșna Hill, a heavily fortified objective on the border between Hungary and Romania, which they took after weeks of difficult uphill fighting. The Mountain Battalion was next assigned to the Isonzo front, in a mountainous area in Italy. The offensive, known as the Battle of Caporetto, began on 24 October 1917. Rommel's battalion, consisting of three rifle companies and a machine gun unit, was part of an attempt to take enemy positions on three mountains: Kolovrat, Matajur, and Stol. From 25 to 27 October, Rommel and his 150 men captured 81 guns and 9,000 men, at a loss of six dead and 30 wounded. Rommel achieved this by taking advantage of the terrain to outflank the Italian forces, attacking from unexpected directions or behind enemy lines, and taking the initiative to attack when he had orders to the contrary. In one instance, the Italian forces, taken by surprise and believing their lines had collapsed, surrendered after a brief firefight. In this battle, Rommel helped pioneer infiltration tactics, a new form of manoeuvre warfare being adopted by German armies, and later by foreign armies, and later described by some as Blitzkrieg without tanks. However, he played no role in the early adoption of Blitzkrieg in World War II.
Acting as advance guard in the capture of Longarone on 9 November 1917, Rommel again decided to attack with a much smaller force. Convinced that they were surrounded by an entire German division, the 1st Italian Infantry Division – 10,000 men – surrendered to Rommel. For this and his actions at Matajur, he received the order of Pour le Mérite.Der italienische Rückzug ('deutsche amtliche Meldung vom 12. November 1917): 10.000 Italiener mussten sich ergeben.Erwin Rommel: Infanterie greift an, p 328-350.
In January 1918, Rommel was promoted to Hauptmann (captain) and assigned to a staff position in the 64th Army Corps, where he served for the remainder of the war. In his book Infanterie greift an, Rommel wrote in detail about his activities during World War I.
Interwar period Rommel remained with the 124th Regiment until October 1920. The regiment was involved in quelling riots and civil disturbances occurring throughout Germany. Wherever possible, Rommel avoided the use of force. In 1919, he was briefly sent to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, where he restored order by "sheer force of personality" in the 32nd Internal Security Company, which was composed of rebellious and pro-communist sailors. He decided against storming nearby Lindau, which had been taken by revolutionary communists. Instead, Rommel negotiated with the city council and returned it to the legitimate government through diplomatic means. This was followed by his defence of Schwäbisch Gmünd, again bloodless. He was then posted to the Ruhr, where a Red Army was responsible for fomenting unrest. Historian praised Rommel as a coolheaded and moderate mind, exceptional amid the many takeovers of revolutionary cities by regular and irregular units and the associated violence.
According to Reuth, this period gave Rommel the indelible impression that "Everyone in this Republic was fighting each other", along with the direct experience of people who attempted to convert Germany into a socialist republic on Soviet lines. Like Rommel, Hitler had known the solidarity of trench warfare and had participated in the Reichswehr's suppression of the First and Second Bavarian Soviet Republics. The need for national unity thus became a legacy of the first World War. Brighton noted that while both believed in the stab-in-the-back myth, Rommel was able to succeed using peaceful methods because he saw the problem as related to economics, rather than Judeo-Bolshevism – which right-wing soldiers such as Hitler blamed for the chaos.
On 1 October 1920, Rommel was appointed to a company command with the 13th Infantry Regiment in Stuttgart, a post he held for the next nine years. He was then assigned to an instruction position at the Dresden Infantry School from 1929 to 1933. In April 1932, he was promoted to major. While at Dresden, he wrote a manual on infantry training, published in 1934. In October 1933, he was promoted to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) and given his next command, the 3rd Jäger Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, stationed at Goslar. There he first met Adolf Hitler, who inspected his troops on 30 September 1934.
In September 1935, Rommel was moved to the (War Academy) in Potsdam as an instructor, serving for the next three years. His book Infanterie greift an (Infantry Attacks), a description of his wartime experiences along with his analysis, was published in 1937. It became a bestseller, which, according to Scheck, later "enormously influenced" many armies. Hitler owned a copy.
Hearing of Rommel's reputation as an outstanding military instructor, in February 1937 Hitler assigned him as the War Ministry liaison officer to the Hitler Youth in charge of military training. Here, Rommel clashed with Baldur von Schirach, the Reichsjugendführer, over the training the boys should receive. Trying to fulfil a mission assigned to him by the Ministry of War, Rommel had twice proposed a plan that would have effectively subordinated Hitler Youth to the Wehrmacht, removing it from NSDAP control. That went against Schirach's express wishes. Schirach appealed to Hitler; consequently, Rommel was quietly removed from the project in 1938. He had been promoted to Oberst (colonel), on 1 August 1937. After the Anschluss in March 1938, he was appointed commandant of the Theresian Military Academy at Wiener Neustadt.
In October 1938, Adolf Hitler specially requested that Rommel be seconded to command the Führerbegleitbatallion (his escort battalion). This unit accompanied Hitler whenever he travelled outside of Germany. Rommel indulged his interest in engineering and mechanics by learning about the inner workings and maintenance of combustion engines and heavy machine guns. He memorised logarithm tables in his spare time, and enjoyed skiing and other outdoor sports. Ian Beckett wrote that by 1938, Rommel drifted towards uncritical acceptance of the Nazi regime, quoting Rommel's letter to his wife in which he stated "The German Wehrmacht is the sword of the new German world view", as a reaction to a speech by Hitler.