Erwin Rommel (1891–1944,) fully Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, was a German field marshal and military tactician. One of the German army’s most gifted commanders, he deployed a series of surprise maneuvers and succeeded in capturing Tobruk (1942.) He was forced to commit suicide after being implicated in the officers’ conspiracy against Hitler in 1944.
Born in Heidenheim, Rommel served in World War I and became an instructor at the Dresden Military Academy, where he was an early Nazi sympathizer. He commanded Hitler’s headquarters guard and displayed such skill while leading a panzer division during the invasion of France in 1940 that he was appointed to command the Afrika Corps. His spectacular successes against the attenuated Allied 8th Army earned him the title ‘Desert Fox’ and his opponents’ admiration.
Rommel drove the British back to El-Alamein, but in November 1942 was defeated there by British Army Commander Bernard Montgomery and retreated to Tunis. In March 1943, Rommel was withdrawn, a sick man, from North Africa at Mussolini’s insistence. Hitler subsequently appointed him commander of the Channel defenses in France. Returning home wounded in 1944, he supported the July plot against Hitler’s life. After its failure, he committed suicide.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Erwin Rommel
Sweat saves blood.
—Erwin Rommel
One of the most important factors, not only in military matters but in life as a whole, is . . the ability to direct one’s whole energies towards the fulfillment of a particular task.
—Erwin Rommel
Topics: Aspirations, Goals
Courage which goes against military expediency is stupidity, or, if it is insisted upon by a commander, irresponsibility.
—Erwin Rommel
Topics: Warfare, Courage
Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success.
—Erwin Rommel
The peril of the hour moved the British to tremendous exertions, just as always in a moment of extreme danger things can be done which had previously been thought impossible. Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas.
—Erwin Rommel
Topics: Motivation
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