Erwin Rommel

Rommel's career runs through four battles covered on this site. In 1917 he fought in the Battle of Caporetto, storming Monte Matajur. In 1941 he failed to take the fortress in the siege of Tobruk. In 1942 Bernard Montgomery beat him at the Second Battle of El Alamein, and in 1944 his Army Group B faced the Allied landings in Normandy.²

What was Erwin Rommel famous for?

Rommel was famous for his campaigns in North Africa in 1941 and 1942. With a small German force and Italian allies he twice overran Cyrenaica, and on 21 June 1942 he captured Tobruk, which won him promotion to field marshal. Nazi propaganda turned him into a popular hero, the “Desert Fox,” and he helped to build that image himself.³

The propaganda campaign was deliberate. Goebbels's ministry spread a flood of pictures and reports about the “Wüstenfuchs” after Tobruk, and newsreels showed him again and again. Rommel kept a camera crew close and played his part. On the other side, Allied officers and war correspondents also built up his reputation.⁴

Rommel was born on 15 November 1891 in Heidenheim an der Brenz, in Württemberg, the son of a schoolteacher. He joined the 124th Württemberg Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet in July 1910. In October 1917, serving with the Württemberg Mountain Battalion on the Isonzo front, he stormed Monte Matajur, and in December he received the Pour le Mérite, the highest award for bravery in imperial Germany.⁵

Between the wars he taught tactics at the infantry school in Dresden, and his book Infanterie greift an (Infantry Attacks), published in 1937, sold 400,000 copies by 1945. He welcomed Hitler's rise to power in 1933, commanded Hitler's escort in 1938 and his field headquarters in 1939, and in February 1940 took over the 7th Panzer Division.⁶

The historian Sönke Neitzel writes that this armored command went to Rommel, an infantryman, probably because he was close to Hitler. In France in May 1940 the division advanced so fast that it kept vanishing from the situation maps and became known as the “ghost division.” During the campaign Rommel received the Knight's Cross.⁷

Compare: Patton vs Rommel

Erwin Rommel's greatest victories

Rommel's greatest victories were the storming of Monte Matajur in 1917, the 7th Panzer Division's drive through France in 1940, the reconquest of Cyrenaica in the spring of 1941 and again in January 1942, and the Gazala battles that ended with the capture of Tobruk in June 1942, which Robert Citino calls the greatest victory of his career.⁸

Rommel arrived in Libya in February 1941 to support Italian forces beaten by the British. His orders were defensive, but he attacked at once and within weeks reached the Egyptian border. Tobruk, held by the Australian 9th Division, threw back his assaults in April and May. Later that year he took over the larger Panzer Group Africa. The British offensive Operation Crusader lifted the siege in December 1941 and forced him back to his starting line.⁹

In January 1942 he struck again and retook Cyrenaica; his command was soon renamed Panzer Army Africa. In late May 1942 he opened the Gazala offensive. After weeks of fighting his troops took Tobruk on 21 June, and Hitler made him a field marshal the next day.¹⁰

Did Rommel ever lose a battle?

Yes. He failed to take Tobruk in 1941 and was driven back by Operation Crusader that winter. In July 1942 his advance into Egypt stalled at El Alamein, and a second attack in late summer also failed. In the Second Battle of El Alamein, from 23 October 1942, the British Eighth Army broke his German and Italian army.¹¹

Montgomery's breakthrough came in early November 1942. Rommel then ordered a retreat, despite Hitler's order to hold the line. His army fell back out of Egypt and Libya into Tunisia. Rommel left Africa in March 1943, and Army Group Africa surrendered in May 1943.¹²

How did Rommel fight?

Rommel led from the front and relied on speed and surprise. He looked for the enemy's weak points and struck with fast, unexpected thrusts that threw larger forces off balance. His critics, then and since, point to the other side of that style: he paid too little attention to supply and pushed tired troops beyond what his logistics could sustain.¹³

• Close to the fighting. He commanded near the front line, which let him seize chances quickly but, his critics argue, sometimes cost him an overview of the whole battle.¹⁴
• Logistics were the limit. His army depended on supplies shipped across the Mediterranean, and after Tobruk he pressed into Egypt with weakened, poorly supplied troops.¹⁵
• Respected by opponents. His enemies recognized him as a brave commander and a fine tactician, and Allied officers and war correspondents helped to spread his fame.¹⁶

From the Alps to the desert

1. 1891Born on 15 November in Heidenheim an der Brenz, Württemberg, the son of a schoolteacher.¹⁷
2. 1910Joins the 124th Infantry Regiment in Weingarten as an officer cadet.¹⁸
3. 1917Storms Monte Matajur on the Isonzo front in October and receives the Pour le Mérite in December.¹⁹
4. 1937Publishes Infanterie greift an (Infantry Attacks).²⁰
5. 1940Leads the 7th Panzer Division in the campaign in France.²¹
6. 1941Takes command of the German troops sent to Libya in February.²²
7. 1942Takes Tobruk on 21 June and is made field marshal on 22 June; defeated at El Alamein in October and November.²³
8. 1943Leaves Africa in March; from late in the year commands the defense of the French coast.²⁴
9. 1944Badly wounded on 17 July; forced to take poison on 14 October.²⁵

Was Rommel part of the plot to kill Hitler?

Historians still disagree. Rommel took no part in the bomb attack of 20 July 1944. By mid-July he believed that the war in the west was lost and had to be ended by political means, and the conspirators sought his support. Whether he knew of the plan to kill Hitler, and how far he backed it, remains disputed.²⁶

From November 1943 Rommel inspected and strengthened the defenses of the French coast, and he then led Army Group B in northern France. After the Allied landings of 6 June 1944 he soon judged the situation hopeless but could not persuade Hitler. On 15 July he set out his view in a memorandum that went to Hitler. Two days later he was badly wounded in an attack by low-flying aircraft.²⁷

The evidence is thin and contradictory. Neitzel writes that on 20 July the conspirators were not sure they could count on him. After the war his widow Lucie stated that he had not belonged to the military resistance. The historian Winfried Heinemann thinks he probably knew nothing of Stauffenberg's assassination plans, and the Haus der Geschichte Baden-Württemberg notes that whether he counts as a resistance fighter is still disputed.²⁸

How did Erwin Rommel die?

Rommel was forced to kill himself on 14 October 1944. Hitler's envoys, Generals Wilhelm Burgdorf and Ernst Maisel, came to his home in Herrlingen, near Ulm, accused him of complicity in the 20 July plot and pressed him to take poison. By agreeing, he spared his family from persecution. He died from a poison capsule shortly after leaving the house.²⁹

The sources name different witnesses against him: the Neue Deutsche Biographie points to statements by his chief of staff, Hans Speidel, under Gestapo interrogation, while Planet Wissen cites the interrogation of the conspirator Caesar von Hofacker. Officially, Rommel had died of the effects of a car accident. On 18 October 1944 the regime held a state ceremony in Ulm, where Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt gave the address.³⁰

The “Rommel myth” outlived the war. After 1945 he was often presented as a chivalrous soldier and even a resistance fighter, and references to him served the legend of a clean Wehrmacht. Robert Citino calls the picture of a desert “war without hate” practically all false, and the Haus der Geschichte Baden-Württemberg examined the myth in its exhibition Mythos Rommel.³¹

For the campaigns that decided the war around him, see our guide to the greatest battles of World War II. To set Rommel beside other commanders, read the greatest military commanders in history, or find your own match in the Which Commander Are You quiz.

More head-to-head comparisons: Montgomery vs Rommel.