manual entitled Infantry Attacks.More than
400,000 copies of this significant text were
printed, and it became required reading in
military institutions around the world. Among
its biggest enthusiasts was a future U.S. gen-
eral, George C. Patton. Rommel’s growing
celebrity soon brought him to the attention of
Adolf Hitler, who placed him in temporary
command of the Hitler Youth to improve their
discipline. Rommel disdained politics and
evinced no real enthusiasm for Nazism, but
like a good soldier he obeyed. In 1938, he rose
to command Hitler’s bodyguard during the
1938 occupation of the Sudetenland and han-
dled his charge with skill and professional-
ism. After a brief stint as head of the
Kriegsakademie,Rommel returned to Hitler’s
bodyguard throughout the opening phases of
World War II. The general, however, wanted
to fight, so Hitler awarded him the command
of the Seventh Panzer Division in February
- The fact that Rommel was an infantry
officer with no prior experience in armor tac-
tics demonstrated Hitler’s confidence in him.
During the ensuing campaign against
France in May 1940, Rommel quickly estab-
lished himself as a tactical virtuoso, one of
Germany’s most promising military leaders.
Having cleared the dense Ardennes Forest,
which most experts considered impassible,
Rommel crossed the Meuse River under fire
and spearheaded the advance. The Seventh
Division moved with such alacrity that it gar-
nered the nickname Ghost Corps. Rommel, in
truth, was a general who led from the front. In
the course of severe fighting he exposed him-
self recklessly and was nearly captured twice.
His tanks were looming outside the port of
Dunkirk, trapping British forces inside, when
he received a personal order from Hitler to
halt. This interval allowed the British to hero-
ically evacuate their soldiers, but Rommel
subsequently distinguished himself in the
drive toward Cherbourg. By the time the fight-
ing stopped, his division had netted 98,000
prisoners along with tanks, cannons, and
other equipment. Consequently, in January
1941 the young general was promoted to lieu-
tenant general and given command of a new
formation, the Afrika Korps.
Since the beginning of the war, the Italian
war effort in North Africa had gone badly.
Hitler was thus prompted to lend troops and
material assistance to his fascist ally, Benito
Mussolini. Rommel arrived in Libya in Feb-
ruary 1941 with orders to remain on the de-
fensive and allow the Italians to do the fight-
ing. However, he quickly perceived weakness
in British defenses and attacked without
delay. In a lightning campaign, he ran British
forces out of Cyrenaica with such tactical
guile that they dubbed him the “Desert Fox.”
Both sides paused to rest and regroup until
November 1941. Then a determined British
counterstrike drove the Afrika Korps back
into Libya. Undeterred, Rommel received
fresh reinforcements and promptly counterat-
tacked, driving the overextended British from
Cyrenaica again. On June 21, 1942, he scored
a major victory by capturing the British-held
port of Tobruk, a feat that earned him a pro-
motion to field marshal—the youngest in Ger-
man history.
Never one to waste a moment, Rommel
kicked off a drive toward the Suez Canal. He
pursued the fleeing British to the very gates of
Egypt before encountering superior forces
under Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery. The
Afrika Korps was by this time exhausted and
low on supplies when Rommel departed for
Berlin to receive medical attention. Mont-
gomery, meanwhile, continued massing supe-
rior numbers of troops and tanks before at-
tacking across the line at El Alamein in
October. The Germans under Gen. Fritz Bay-
erlein fought furiously, but Montgomery
slowly forced them back. Rommel, mean-
while, hastily returned and commanded the
final days of battle. He conducted a masterful
retreat to Tunisia and abandoned Libya to the
British—against Hitler’s directives. El Ala-
mein had been a defeat, but thanks to the
Desert Fox it was not a disaster.
There was more bad news for the Germans.
In the fall of 1942 U.S. forces under Gen.
Dwight D. Eisenhower landed in Algeria andROMMEL, ERWIN