Who is rommel from world war 2

Rommel was friends with some of the conspirators and certainly conversed with them about a post-Hitler future. Nonetheless, the full extent of his involvement in the plot remains unknown. According to his widow, he opposed assassination but wanted Hitler to be arrested and brought to trial.

Whether innocent or not, his name came up during the subsequent Nazi dragnet, prompting Hitler to arrange for his death. At the very least, most historians agree, Rommel likely cared more for his career than he did about Nazi atrocities. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you.

Live TV. This Day In History. The African adventure was over. Rommel has been criticized for lacking strategic sense, for excessive absorption in the tactical battle, for neglect of logistics, for periodic imprudence. These criticisms are shallow. As to logistics, Rommel was acutely aware of them at all times—they dominated the African theater where all commodities had to be imported and transported over huge distances.

He refused, however, to make excessively pessimistic assumptions or to overensure—or, as he put it, to allow the scope and pace of battle to be dictated by quartermasters. A more cautious approach would have often denied him victory.

And although Rommel sometimes underestimated the timing and difficulties of an operation, he was one who believed war seldom forgives hesitation or delay. From his earliest days as a brilliant young leader in World War I , or as a panzer divisional commander crossing the Meuse against fierce opposition and racing across France in , he had proved to himself the virtues of initiative and boldness.

On the whole his decisions were justified by victory: and in Africa victory often against odds. His energetic preparations reflected his conviction that the expected invasion had to be defeated near the coast, because Allied air power would nullify large-scale armored counteroperations after the landing.

He believed, too, that the coming campaign should aim to defeat the invasion for one purpose: so that in the aftermath, peace might be negotiated in the west and a stalemate achieved in the east. Politically this was fantasy and militarily it failed; but for Rommel it was the only rational hope. By then Rommel had lost all faith in Adolf Hitler.

When Rommel found out, he ordered that they be returned to their owners immediately. Rommel knew that his options at the vital battles at El Alamein were limited. Montgomery, who succeeded the dismissed Auchinleck, had the advantage of Bletchley Park feeding him the battle plan Rommel was going to use.

The second battle at El Alamein was a very fluid battle but the sheer weight of supplies that Montgomery had access to amongst other equipment were new Sherman tanks meant defeat for Rommel. The defeat of the Afrika Corps was the first major setback for Hitler and the Wehrmacht. Hitler ordered Rommel to fight to the last man and the last bullet. Erwin Rommel, called "the People's Marshal" by his countrymen, was one of Adolf Hitler's most successful generals and one of Germany's most popular military leaders.

However, after he was implicated in a plot to overthrow Hitler, Rommel took his life on October 14, , at age 52, in Herrlingen, Germany. Rommel was born in Heidenheim, Germany, on November 15, He rejected advancement through the regular channels, choosing to remain in the infantry after the war ended. In February , Rommel was named commander of the 7th Panzer division. The following year, he was appointed the commander of German troops the Afrika Korps in North Africa. Repulsed by the British, he returned with the Afrika Korps in June , and finally took the city; this attack became known as the Battle of Gazala.

Not long after, Rommel was promoted to field marshal by Hitler. Famed for leading his army from the front rather than the rear, as most generals did, for a time, Rommel enjoyed an unbroken string of successes, and earned the nickname the "Desert Fox" for his surprise attacks.

He also became known among his countrymen as the "the People's Marshal," gained popularity in the Arab world as a liberator from British rule, and was regarded as one of Hitler's most successful generals and one of Germany's most popular military leaders.