Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel was the most famous commander in Germany during the Second World War. He was born on 15th November 1891. He was the second born of the four other siblings in his family. At the early age of 14 years, Eugene was interested in pursuing a career as an engineer after he and his friend managed to construct a full-scale glider that was able to travel for a short distance. His ambitions to become an engineer were fully demonstrated by his technical interests and abilities. His father however had different plans for him and for the sake of not letting his father down; he started his career as an officer in the 124th Wurttemberg Infantry Regiment in 1910. He later joined the Danzig cadet school where he graduated in 1911 and became a Lieutenant in 1912 (Hans, p22). Since the start of his military career, Erwin demonstrated a strong character of brevity and this was one of the qualities required for a great leader at a time that was characterized by wars. He was very brave in all the wars that he took part in starting in 1914. In 1915, he received an award owing to his brevity which has been referred to as the Iron Cross Class 1.
In 1916 he has reassigned his duties to the Eastern front region where he was to fight against the Rumanians. He was later transferred to the west to fight on Mount Cosna and Caporetto. For his success at the Caporetto, he was awarded a rare award in the military, “The Pour le Merite,” which was meant for very reserved generals. Erwin has then appointed another duty in the junior staff where he worked until the end of the war. In late 1918 he has reassigned his duties at the Weingarten. He was then sent to be in charge of an internal security company in Friedrichshafen in 1919. Erwin then became a school instructor to the infantry school in Dresden. During his teaching career, he demonstrated his writing skills by writing and publishing his first book, “Infantry Attacks” which was mainly addressing his experiences during the World War 1 wars (Desmond, p47).
In 1933 he was promoted to a major position and posted to work in Goslar. Here he was in charge of a mountain battalion. In 1935 he was then promoted to be a Lieutenant Colonel and he was to serve as a teacher in the war academy. His appointment as a teacher in the schools indicated that he must have had the character of a good teacher one of which must be he was a very good oral communicator. By the year 1938, he had managed to win the position of commander of the War Academy but this was only short-lived since he had to leave at the outbreak of World War II. His career was still advancing and he got himself a position as a Major General. During the period of the Polish campaign, he was appointed to command Adolph Hitler’s Body Guard. He was a fast learner and he did not fail to realize the opportunities that lay in the Panzer divisions and also learning the tactics of Blitzkrieg. He did not waste his opportunity to command the Panzer divisions when Hitler gave him the chance to choose what he wanted to command after the Polish campaign. This was gladly granted to him on 15th February 1940 where he was assigned to the 7th Panzer Division. He did not have any practical experience of the Panzer affairs but he had the will and motivation that he would make it. His first roles were involved with the plans that Germany had on attacking the Low Countries and also France. This was to be achieved in conjunction with the 15th Panzer Division which was under the command of General Hoth (George, p58).
The invasion of Germany to Western Europe took place on May 10th in 1940 Rommel’s7th Panzer went as far as Dinant and there was a very heavy fight on May 13th. He managed to reach the Philipiville on May 15th unopposed. Later he proceeded to the Western side capturing the Le Cateau, Avesnes, and finally, on May 20th, he managed to get to Arleux. He had planned to get to Arras in the south and then divert to the north towards Lille. On reaching Arras, he was met with heavy resistance from the British who were armed with two British Tank regiments which were estimated at 70 tanks. This however was not to stop him from accomplishing his mission and he engaged the British. As the fight advanced they lost against the German Infantry and they choose to go for the tanks. This did not succeed as Rommel had managed to set the rear with 88mm anti-craft guns which were used to destroy the tanks. Edward became very famous for the victory over the tanks since this was the first time that the 88mm flak guns had been used on the ground and mainly to attack the War tanks. Later they became very famous as tank killers (Desmond, p55).
The second German invasion task assigned for the 7th Panzer was the invasion of France which was destined to take place on 5th June 1940. Under the command of Rommel, the 7th Panzer was assigned the area adjacent to Abbeville on the coast of France. On the 8th of June Rommel had already reached the Rouen. On the 19th of June, the city’s garrison surrendered to him as the fight came to an end on the 25th of June. His 7th Panzer earned a title of the Ghost/phantom Division. Their success in conquering France was based on the distance traveled to the interior of France and also the speed at which they progressed to these regions. Rommel demonstrated very distinguished characters of a leader through the use of very unique attack methods. For example, he found it very necessary to be near his troops and for this reason, he commanded them from the front line. He always kept his closeness to the troops and would occasionally ignore communications from the higher command just to avoid any disturbance to his motives. He was very focused on whatever he wanted to achieve (Ronald, p22).
In 1941 he was promoted to be the Lieutenant General and assigned roles in Berlin. He was placed to command the Deutsches Africa Korps which consisted of two divisions. One of the mandates of this troop was to assist Germany’s Italians against their struggle with the British. On arriving in this region, Rommel considered the Italians very demoralized by the numerous defeats from the British troops. In this particular attack on the British, Rommel ignored the orders given to him and he decided to take the whole command from the front. He applied the Blitzkrieg tactics and he managed to take over the British by surprise (David, p37).
He led the Africa Korps in defeating the British and re-treating them until he advanced to the eastern region where he managed to capture Benghazi. He later managed to conquer the British who had invaded the Bardia region, Salum, and finally reaching the Egyptian border towards the west. This forced the British to fear his tactics and they started to relocate to safer regions such as the Tobruk. Rommel was a very determined person and he attempted to attack the Tobruk on 13th April 1941 which was unfortunately failed. A second unsuccessful attempt was made on April 30th which went on until 2nd May. The spirit of not giving up on his motives demonstrates his qualities to accomplish his missions as a leader. In a bid to win over his enemies in the war, he always applied new ideas and tactics and due to his ability to lead others, all the commands which were placed under him emerged victoriously. His physical stamina to achieve his goals was demonstrated by his determination not to give up no matter the number of times he had to try (George, p62).
Due to his character of applying new ideas and tactics to conquer his enemies, Rommel was nicknamed the Desert fox by his friends and opponents. He also managed to earn himself another promotion to the rank of a Field Marshal. He made history by becoming the youngest Field Marshal ever appointed in Germany. One of his memorable creativity and uniqueness was the 88 Ambush. In this ambush, he deployed his troops to place 88mm flak guns underground which was placed in a U-Shape kind of formation. He ensured that they were dug very deep in a manner that the barrel was only restricted to 30-60cm above the ground. The major reason he did this was that the 88 Flak guns had no wheels capable of moving on the sand.
The guns also stood very high and were known for their high profile. The guns were then covered with low tents which were even with the ground and this made them appear like normal dunes. He was very intelligent to know that the British would not suspect anything since they were used to seeing dunes. Later he sent his troops with light tanks to pretend an attack on the British. The British were quick to fall into the trap as they found the tanks very easy to attack. They followed the Panzers to the U-shape-placed traps without any clue. To their surprise, the 88mm Flak gun sprang and they opened fire on them. Throughout 1941 he became very famous as the British liberator. This led the British to feel very agitated and they planned attacks to assassinate him on 17th November 1941 but they were not successful since he was not there (David, p42).
Rommel decided to strengthen his forces by getting new equipment but he got very low supplies. This did not however deter him from his motives of launching new attacks to capture Tobruk. He laid his 3rd attack in January 1942 which was again unsuccessful. He later developed new attack skills and attacked the British on May 26. On June 30th he managed to capture Tobruk and further continued to the Eastern side towards Egypt. His lack of supplies of the war equipment was however a big blow to his attempts to retreat the British troops and for this reason, the British were able to recapture Benghazi, El Agheila, and Tripoli among other cities. The superiority of the equipment of the British forces did not however stop Rommel from attempting attacks or giving up on the war with the British. With his limited supplies he managed to recapture the Kasserine. Later he took a sick leave and was flown back to Germany. Here he diverted his motives to overthrow Hitler but he was careful to keep it secret since Hitler was a famous public figure. This demonstrates his sensitivity to the occurrence of problems due to his actions (Ronald, p26).
In conclusion, Erwin Rommel was a distinguished military leader especially owing to his unique methods of command. He earned himself respect even from his enemies. He is greatly remembered for his aggressiveness to achieve his ambitions no matter the resistance and challenges he met on the way. His leadership qualities are greatly demonstrated by his ability to organize his troops during the wars and leading them to numerous victories that made him very famous (George, p75). He was very good at planning his attacks and this was why they were successful. Even when the war seemed to be challenging he was not afraid of losing but this did not make him give up. This is especially seen in his four attempts to capture the city of Tobruk from the British.
Each failure was followed by a period of planning where he laid down new tactics of attack. This attack and also the 88mm ambush demonstrated his ability to analyze the problems he faced very well. Even with a lack of supplies, he managed to sort his challenges using different tactics. The very successful ambush also demonstrates his ability to judge the outcome of situations. His ideas were quite logical and his judgment that the British would fall into his trap was very right. Throughout his military career, he was assigned various leadership roles where he led in the education centers and also leading the troops. He managed to lead all these groups by influencing them to adopt his ideas and following his command. His ability to successfully lead these groups and influence their thoughts was respected by many and this ability helped many people to have confidence in him. He recognized the importance of others and this is why he always kept close to his troops. He trusted his initiative and acted on his originals ideas and this sometimes called for ignorance of some orders from above. His leadership in the war left great qualities that have been desired by many.
Work cited
Forty, George. The Armies of Rommel. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1997, p56-78.
Fraser, David. Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. New York, 1994, p34-79.
Lewin Ronald. Rommel as Military Commander. New York, B&N Books, 1998, p22-47.
Von Luck, Hans. Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck. Da Capo Press, 1989, p21-34.
Young, Desmond. Rommel The Desert Fox. New York, Harper & Row, 1950, p45-61.