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 Erwin Rommel was born
on November 15, 1891 in Heidenheim, Germany. His father,
Erwin, was a headmaster at a secondary school and
his mother, Helene, was the daughter
of a wealthy local family. Erwin had three siblings,
Karl, Gerhard, and Helene.
At an early age, he expressed an interest in engineering.
At the age of fourteen, he constructed a glider that
was capable of flying, albeit only short distances. His father,
however, suggested that he join the cadets and he
eventually joined the 124th Wurttemberg Infantry
Regt. and was sent to an Officer Cadet School in Danzig in 1910.
When World War 1 started, Rommel joined the Alpen
Korps. He fought on the front lines of numerous campaigns
in France, Italy, and Romania. During battle, he was wounded
on three occasions, but continued to fight valiantly.
One of his most successful battles was the Battle
of Longarone, where he and other soldiers captured Mount Matajur
and over 7000 Italian soldiers.
After the war ended, he was awarded the Iron Cross and
the Pour le Merite, Prussia's
highest commendation for military service. He spent most of the
1920s serving as commander of various battalions in the German
Army. In 1929, he was chosen as an instructor at the Dresden
Infantry School, serving until 1933. In 1935, he was chosen to
teach at the Potsdam War Academy. In 1937, he published his diaries
from World War 1 as "Infanterie greift an" and they
subsequently became a military textbook.
The release of the book managed to attract the attention of
Adolf Hitler, then chancellor of Germany, who placed Rommel in
charge of training the Hitler Youth in 1937. He spent much of
his free time studying the military strategies of past leaders,
including Stonewall Jackson and Nathan Bedford Forrest, who were
able to consistently fight back larger forces. In 1938, he was
given command of the War Academy in Wiener Neustadt, where he
wrote his second novel, "Panzer greift an".
In late 1938, Rommel was placed in charge of the FuhrerBegleitbataillon,
Hitler's personal batallion assigned to his protection. The batallion
normally traveled with Hitler to captured territories to ensure
that he was safe from any insurgent forces or guerillas. After
the invasion of Poland in 1939, Rommel was assigned to arrange
the victory parade for Hitler in Berlin.
On February 6, 1940, Rommel was given command of the 7th Panzer
Division in preparation for the invasion of France. He commanded
the division with vigor and it was the first to reach the english
channel on June 10, 1940 and capture the port of Cherbourg on
the 19th. During the invasion, he was able to repel an offensive
by the British Expeditionary Force in the city of Arras and other
obstacles that stood in his path.
In 1941, Rommel was placed in command of the 5th Light Division
and 15th Panzer Division and sent to Libya. The Italian forces
there were in terrible shape and it was Rommel's job to reinforce
them and fight the British troops in Northern Africa. After spending
much of the year building up his Deutsches Afrika Korps, Rommel
advanced on Allied forces and pushed them out of Libya and back
into Egypt.
After Rommel's forces surrounded the port of Tobruk, which
was being held by Leslie Morshead, Allied forces attacked him
twice in an attempt to relieve the city. The two offensives,
known as Operation Brevity and Operation Battleaxe, were both
failures. Unfortunately for him, they prepared a third offensive,
Operation Crusader, which managed to break through his line.
Rommel immediately ordered his troops to withdraw from the
area around Tobruk and retreated to the city of El Agheila on
December 7, 1941. Allied forces pursued him, but he launched
a counterattack on January 20, 1942 that managed to greatly damage
the Allied forces. Afterwards, Rommel pushed the Allies back
to Tobruk, where they took up a defensive position.
On May 24, 1942, Rommel ordered his forces to attack the Allied
forces. The resulting blitzkrieg allowed his forces to flank
the Allies in the cities of Gazala and Bir Hakeim. The Allies
quickly retreated, leaving Tobruk to the mercy of Rommel and
his Afrika Korps. He attacked the city on June 21, 1942 and its
33,000 strong force of defenders surrended. The tremendous victory
led Hitler to promote Rommel to the rank of Field Marshal.
Rommel continued pursuing the Allies through Egypt, stopping
at the city of El Alamein. He took sick leave in Germany in September,
but returned after the Second Battle of El Alamein forced the
Afrika Korps back to Tunisia. He staged a counterattack against
the US 2nd Corps in the Battle of Kasserine Pass, which turned
out to be a success for Germany.
Unfortunately for Germany, Rommel's victories would not last
forever. By 1943, the Allies had developed ways to decode German
radio transmissions and were able to tell when supplies were
being shipped to reinforce Rommel's lines. On March 6, 1943,
he advanced to attack in the Battle of Medenine, but Allied intelligence
learned of the attack beforehand and ordered the lines reinforced
with numerous anti-tank weapons. Rommel's Panzer divisions were
slaughtered and he was forced to retreat. After this massive
defeat, he returned to Germany and his former Afrika Korps was
eventually captured by Allied forces.
On July 23, 1943, Rommel was placed in command of Army Group
B and spent several months moving around to meet various threats.
On November 21, 1943, he moved his forces to Normandy, France
to prepare for a potential Allied landing. He ordered work on
defensive fortifications to be accelerated and oversaw the laying
of millions of mines, thousands of tank traps, and various bunker
systems.
Rommel wanted desperately to fortify the beaches with small
groups of tanks, but his commander, Gerd von Rundstedt wanted
the tanks in the middle of France to prepare for an inland invasion.
Hitler sided with Rundstedt and Rommel was left with only infantry
support to defend the beaches of France. On D-Day, the Allies
invaded at Normandy and were able to break through German lines,
largely due to the lack of artillery and armored forces.
On July 20, 1944, a failed assassination attempt was conducted
against Adolf Hitler and he ordered the arrest of numerous persons
believed to be involved. A number of people that were arrested
tied Rommel in with the conspiracy to kill Hitler, raising suspicions
against him. Rommel supposedly did not support the assassination,
but did in fact support an effort to remove Hitler from power.
Hitler gave Rommel the options of either facing a trial before
the "People's Court" or committing suicide and Rommel
chose the latter. On October 14, 1944, he committed suicide using
a cyanide capsule and he was buried in Herrlingen. |