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| Generaloberst Erwin Rommel, 6 Jun 1942. (Bundesarchiv photo Bild 146-1977-018-13A) |
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. Other historians have rejected the phrase as a myth, citing crimes against North African Jewish populations. 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 ultimately 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 a third ship of the Lütjens-class destroyer of the German Navy are both named in his honor. His son Manfred Rommel was the longtime mayor of Stuttgart, Germany, and namesake of Stuttgart Airport.
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| Field Marshal Rommel inspecting railway artillery as part of the Atlantic Wall defenses. |
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| Rommel greets the Italian Gen. Navarini, XXI Corps, in North Africa; immediately right of him are Gens. Gause and Nehring. This command group is in the most typical clothing for senior officers during 1942: peaked field cap, tropical tunic with shirt and tie, tropical breeches and high laced boots. |
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| Rommel with German and Italian officers; behind him stands Oberst Diesener, at extreme right Gen. Gause, and at left sits Gen. Navarini. Behind the Italian general stands a Sonderführer interpreter; note collar patches. |
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| Hitler decorates Rommel, 1942. Major General (later General of Infantry) Rudolf Schmundt, the Chief of the Army Personnel Office, is in the background. Schmundt was blinded and critically wounded in the Stauffenberg assassination attempt on 20 July 1944, and died on 1 October 1944. |
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| Drawing by Rommel showing one of his schemes designed to prevent invasion from the air. |
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| Rommel and Hoth who commanded XV Corps, at Eplessier, on 7 June 1940. |
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| SdKfz 250/3 radio half-track “Greif” (Griffin), used by Rommel, North Africa, 1942. |
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| Award document for an Iron Cross, 2nd Class, bearing Rommel’s distinctive signature. He did not sign many such documents personally, a facsimile or rubber stamp version being used instead. |
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| Rommel inspecting the defenses of Normandy before D-Day. |
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| German photographer, Hans Ertl (far left), walks in the Sahara Desert behind a group of German officers, including their commander, Erwin Rommel (front right), in this undated photo. Ertl photographed the North Africa campaign for Rommel, as well as the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin for Adolf Hitler. |
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| Field Marshal Erwin Rommel tours the Normandy beaches and inspects the anti-invasion obstacles, May 1944. |
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| Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in North Africa on a relatively rare staff car, an Italian Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Coloniale, only 150 of this variant were made, June 1942. |
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| Field Marshal Gen. Erwin Rommel, commander of the German Afrika Korps, drinks out of a cup with an unidentified German officer as they are seated in a car during inspection of German troops dispatched to aid the Italian army in Libya in 1941. |
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| Mussolini in conversation with Field Marshal Rommel in January 1944. |
