Erwin Rommel

Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel (November 15, 1891 – October 14, 1944) is a German general and military theorist.

Popularly known as the Desert Fox, he serves as field marshal in the Wehrmacht (armed forces) of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, as well as serving in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, and the army of Imperial Germany.

Rommel is a highly decorated officer in the First World War and is awarded the Pour le Mérite for his actions on the Italian Front.

In 1937 he publishes his classic book on military tactics, , drawing on his experiences in that war.

In the Second World War, he distinguishes himself as the commander of the 7th Panzer Division during the 1940 invasion of France.

His leadership of German and Italian forces in the North African campaign establishes his reputation as one of the ablest tank commanders of the war, and earns him the nickname der Wüstenfuchs, "the Desert Fox".

Among his British adversaries he has a reputation for chivalry, and his phrase "war without hate" has been used to describe the North African campaign.

A number of historians will since reject he phrase as myth and uncover numerous examples of war crimes and abuses both towards enemy soldiers and native populations in Africa during the conflict.

Other historians will note that there is no evidence Rommel had been involved or known about these crimes, some pointing out that the war in the desert, as fought by Rommel and his opponents, still came close to a clean fight as there was in the Second World War .

He later commands the German forces opposing the Allied cross-channel invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

Rommel had supported the Nazi seizure of power and Adolf Hitler, although his stance towards antisemitism and Nazi ideology, his level of knowledge of the Holocaust and his involvement in war crimes will remain matters of debate among scholars.

In 1944, Rommel is implicated in the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler.

Because of Rommel's status as a national hero, Hitler desired to eliminate him quietly instead of immediately executing him, as many other plotters are.

Rommel is given a choice between committing suicide, in return for assurances that his reputation will remain intact and that his family will not be persecuted following his death, or facing a trial that will result in his disgrace and execution; he chooses the former and committed suicide using a cyanide pill.

Rommel is given a state funeral, and it is announced that he had succumbed to his injuries from the strafing of his staff car in Normandy.

Rommel will become a larger-than-life figure in both Allied and Nazi propaganda, and in postwar popular culture, with numerous authors considering him an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of the Third Reich, although this assessment wiil be contested by other authors as the Rommel myth.

Rommel's reputation for conducting a clean war will be used in the interest of the West German rearmament and reconciliation between the former enemies—the United Kingdom and the United States 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, will play key roles in German rearmament and integration into NATO in the postwar era

The German Army's largest military base, the Field Marshal Rommel Barracks, Augustdorf, is named in his honor.

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