Discovering the Rommel Murder

by Charles F. Marshall

  Rommel playing with a fox cub in his dugout in the Argonne in World War 1. "He loved animals," Mrs. Rommel told the author, "and he also loved to hunt them. In Africa he kept a couple of chickens in his van as pets." Photo from Mrs. Rommel.

  The next day, September 1, Poland was invaded:

  It happened. /am curious to find out how the operations against Poland will turn out. We have been following the events over the radio since 5 A.m. The fog has lifted now (8:30 A.M.) and is giving our Air Force an opportunity to operate. We expect the honored guest this evening....

  And the following day:

  We have been at war with Poland for one day. We did well beyond expectation on this front. The morale of the troops is accordingly high. / am curious to find out whether Britain and France will come to the assistance of the sinking vessel. If they do, we can't help it. I am quite convinced that we shall succeed nevertheless. We are still without the Master here. Of course there is much work for him in Berlin....

  The glorified guard duty made insufficient demands on Rommel's talents, and he soon wearied of the job. One senses Rommel's urge to get into the action. In spirit and by experience a line officer, trailing the armies seemed a poor way to spend the war. To him headquarters officers were glorified amateurs, fancy Dans or, as he was to sometimes sarcastically refer to them in letters to his wife, "eminent gentlemen" who became old soldiers by never getting near to battle.

  The Poles were no match for the mechanized German war machine, and the campaign had set Rommel's head seething with ideas on how armor should be employed. In February 1940, a brigadier general now, and despite having no experience with tanks, he wangled the command of the 7th Panzer Division. With the invasion of France three months later, he found a chance to test his theories.

  In a lightning campaign his troops forced a crossing of the Meuse and burst through the Belgian-French fortifications to reach the English Channel, the first formation to arrive there. There quickly followed a race to the Atlantic coast where his forces destroyed two French divisions. At Saint Valery-en- Caux the commander of the French 9th Corps surrendered together with another eleven French and British generals and 18,000 French and British servicemen. The quick capture of Cherbourg followed and resulted in the surrender of the admiral of the French Navy and four other admirals, another 30,000 enlisted men and officers, and great numbers of tanks, guns and vehicles. The action won the professional admiration of even the enemy. Because of the speed, power, and surprise with which he struck, the 7th Panzer Division soon became known as la Division Fantome (the Ghost Division) to the French. In his swift strikes he had captured nearly 100,000 prisoners. He had also captured the headlines. In the German Army his name was on every tongue. The unmatched ascendancy of Rommel's military star had begun.

  With the German press showering him with encomiums, rumors about the Swabian's past appeared overnight like mushrooms, both in Germany and outside. Every day brought new ones: He had been a bricklayer and early comrade of Hitler; he had been a street-corner bully; he had been a policeman between the two wars and had studied at Tuebingen University; he had been a swashbuckling storm trooper and one of the first adherents of the Fi hrer. And so went the stories, ad infinitum. That some of this propaganda was effective is clear. A decade after the war's end, some American encyclopedias were still referring to him as "a leader of storm troopers."

  Some of this hogwash had its genesis in Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbel's newspaper Das Reich and was intended to show the Germans how high a dedicated Nazi follower of Hitler could rise. A second purpose was to portray the marshal to the foreign correspondents as an endearing personality.

  The story was much different once it was possible to get past the murky clouds of propaganda. A glance at Rommel's Wehrpass (official record of service), shown to me by his widow after the war, quickly dispels any notion that this was a man who rose through the ranks of the Party apparatuses. It proves him to have been a professional soldier from the day he entered the Army at the age of seventeen until his death. At no time had he ever left the Army. He could only have been "more army" if he had been born on an army post.

  The sharpest insight into the man can perhaps be best derived from his letters to his wife. Written from the battlefield, they are a sketchily told but emotionally revealing story of the African campaign. As the expressions of an unmatched warrior and personality, they are of definite and timeless interest. Here are not the patriotic bromides and cliches so often found in official communiques and orders of the day. These are the words of a commander honestly and succinctly describing his actions and reactions to the events he is molding. They have a candor and immediacy not found in other historical documents. They show him in heroic moments and in weak moments. They truly bare his innermost thoughts, his torments. All end with expressions of endearment. They were never meant for the eyes of anyone but "Dearest Lu."

  Extracts from excerpts of these uncensored letters briefly tell the story of Rommel's battles.

  The letters written from Africa are not only a study of the desert campaigns but are a portrait of a man who undertook his assignment with high hopes and great enthusiasm only to find himself working against overwhelming odds. They reveal that he was bitter against his Italian allies, brought to despair by broken promises of supplies and reinforcements, battling his own exhaustion and illness, and convinced that his sacrifices were in vain and that Germany had lost the war.

  ROMMEL'S ARRIVAL IN AFRICA IN FEBRUARY 1941 COINCIDED WITH A low ebb in the Italian fortunes. The previous September Mussolini's warriors had launched a campaign under Marshal Rodolfo Graziani to seize control of the Suez Canal. After penetrating fifty miles into Egypt, as far as Sidi Barrani, against weak British forces, the drive stopped to reorganize, await new supplies, and organize water supplies, which were vital in desert warfare. Weeks passed and then months, a grave Italian error. The delay allowed the British time to gather forces from all over the Empire to prepare for a defense of Egypt, and in December the British under General Wavell struck back.

  The strategy of the Wavell assault was based on a series of envelopments of the coastal towns and was intended only to expel the Italians from Egypt. Employing highly motorized troops and using tanks, planes, and artillery much superior to the archaic Italian arms, the strategy proved exceptionally successful. Instead of stopping at the border, the British continued into Libya, capturing Tobruk in the latter days of January. Mountainous quantities of supplies and equipment fell to them, and the Italians numbered their losses in prisoners at over 30,000.

  By early February the British had taken Benghazi and El Agheila and were on the border of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania; and Italian losses in prisoners had mounted to 130,000, not counting the dead and wounded or losses of vehicles, tanks, and equipment.

  The crushing defeat had so demoralized the Italians that they were incapable of offering any further meaningful resistance. Wavell, though, before moving on to take Tripoli, called a halt to reorganize, in retrospect a bad decision because it afforded the Axis powers time to get ready to rebuff farther westward advance.

  Three factors saved the Duce's routed and demoralized army from further destruction. One was Wavell's tenuous supply lines. The second was the Imperial Staff's decision to withdraw to Greece some of its force to meet the anticipated German invasion of the Hellenic peninsula. The third was the timely appearance of a German officer destined to make his mark in the annals of military history.

  As 1941 drew to a close Rommel was enjoying a Christmas leave with his wife and son when he was abruptly called back to his division, then stationed in Bordeaux in the occupied area of France. Reports to the High Command indicated the possibility of a rebellion in the unoccupied zone. In such an eventuality the plans of the High Command called for the immediate occupation of the whole of southern France.

  The reports proved false, and in early February, to make up for his aborted Christmas idyll, Rommel went on leave again, only to be called
on the second day and told to report immediately to the Fi hrer and to the commander in chief of the Army, Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch.

  Rommel was briefed by the marshal on his new mission in North Africa and was informed that the 5th Light Infantry and the 15th Panzer Divisions were to be put under his command in addition to the Italian motorized forces, while he himself would be subordinate to Marshal Graziani. Hitler told him that he had been chosen for this assignment because it was believed he was the man who could most quickly adapt to the difficult conditions of the desert and showed him some British and American illustrated magazines describing General Wavell's advance through Cyrenaica, the eastern coastal region of Libya. "Of particular interest," Rommel was to write, "was the masterly coordination these showed between armored land forces, air force, and navy."

  This same coordination would also plague him in North Africa and later again in the defense of Normandy.

  On February 12, 1941, six days after the British capture of Benghazi, capital of Cyrenaica, a plane with German markings rolled to a stop on an airfield near Tripoli and two officers jumped briskly out to set foot for the first time on African soil. On the one world interest would soon focus. He was a five-foot-ten-inch general, slender but for a slight thickening around the waist, foreshadowing a future paunch. His warm, animated face was topped with a widow's peak of thinning light brown hair parted in the middle and leading to a balding pate. A knowledgeable observer would have noticed the absence of the broad red stripe down the trousers, betraying the fact that this officer was not a member of the vaunted General Staff Corps. Nevertheless, this was the newly appointed commander of the German troops in Libya who had the daunting mission of assisting the Italians and forestalling a British advance to Tripoli. There, at the Italian headquarters, morale was at a low ebb.

  The other officer on the flight was Colonel Rudolf Schmundt, Adolf Hitler's chief adjutant, with whom Rommel formed a friendship during the trip and in the ensuing days. Schmundt, like Rommel at this time, was an admirer of Hitler and felt, as did Rommel, that the revolting acts being perpetrated in the cause of Aryan purity were not the promulgations of the Fuhrer, but were the product of the political coterie around him. In the period ahead this friendship with Schmundt proved a handy way for Rommel to bypass the powerful and often obstructionist triumvirate of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Colonel General Alfred Jodl, and Colonel General Franz Haider (respectively the chief of the High Command, the chief of operations, and the chief of the General Staff) when he felt he had to get to Hitler's ear.

  Rommel had been on a short leave with his family in the mountains when the news of Benghazi's fall had brought him a hasty summons to Berlin. That night from the Hotel Kaiserhof he wrote his wife:

  My plane landed at 12:45. The railroad car ordered by Major Oppel was ready. We first went to see the Supreme Commander of the Army, who informed me of my new task. Then to the F. It's all terribly urgent. My baggage will be sent here. I can take only the absolutely necessary articles. I may come back for the rest. You can imagine how my head is spinning because of the many new developments. What will come of it? Many months will pass before these things take effect!

  The next day:

  Slept over my new assignment. (I take my treatments for rheumatism this week.) In these few hours I will be extremely busy truing to get together everything I need. / hope to start Sunday night with an entire staff. My new assignment is the equivalent of a corps command.

  For security reasons Rommel could not tell his wife that his next assignment was in Africa, but the reference to his rheumatism was a tip-off to her. He had earlier been told by his doctor that the best treatment for his rheumatism would be plenty of sunshine. And sunshine he would get in Africa, much of the time more than he wanted.

  Major General Erwin Rommel, the month before still a brigadier general, was the newly appointed commander of the newly forming Afrika Korps and the soldier who in the next two years was to outwit, outweary, and outgeneral a succession of Britain's most eminent tacticians. Eventually considered by many military authorities to have been the most brilliant general on either side, Rommel raised havoc in North Africa as his Afrika Korps swept across the desert to within sight of the Pyramids, causing deep despair among the Allies. For his wily unorthodox tactics and audacious attacks, based on his exceptional gifts of initiative and improvisation, he became known as the "Desert Fox"-a fitting tribute, as he was to demonstrate over and over again. Admiring British veterans soon came to call any ingenious tactical move "pulling a Rommel."

  The Swabian quickly became a figure of awe not only to his own men but also to the troops of the British Eighth Army. When the news spread that an engineer unit sent through the lines to take him dead or alive had failed to do so, the legend was only further enhanced.

  On both sides he was often referred to as "that bastard Rommel." For the Germans, cajoled, challenged, and lashed to victory, it was a term of endearment; for the Tommies with their innate sense of sportsmanship, it was a term of respect. So large was this figure conjured in the minds of the men of the British Eighth Army that Sir Claude Auchinleck, the fifth general to assume command of the forces opposing the Germans, felt it important to issue a "de-Rommelizing" directive to his commanders in an attempt to counter the growth of the Rommel legend. It stated that the German commander was "no superman, although he is very aggressive and capable" and warned that the constant reference to Rommel was becoming a psychological hazard to the troops. Commanders were instructed when addressing their men to refer to the Germans as "the enemy" and not as "Rommel."

  The high regard the Tommies had for Rommel was to last throughout the war and exists in Britain to this day. It is in tribute to his skill, his honorable conduct of operations, and the treatment he accorded prisoners. Orders the Fox considered immoral, even if coming from the Fiihrer, he quietly ignored and kept from going down the chain of command. The British generals were to say, "Rommel always fought a clean fight." His chief of staff in Africa, General Kurt Westphal, testified to an Allied commission after the war that Rommel immediately destroyed an order sent to him by Hitler in 1942 directing that all captured British commandos were to be shot.

  With the first elements of his German forces due to arrive, and officers assigned to his staff beginning to report in, Rommel's spirits were soaring. To boot, the Italians were cooperative and grateful for his advice. Relations between the Italians and the Germans were on a honeymoon level.

  February 15: Yesterday we had our official reception and conference. We had a ghibli [blinding sandstorm] in the afternoon, so I could not fly, only drive. I visited one Italian division and they made a good impression on me. In the evening the first task force of our Wehrmacht troops arrived. They unloaded at night and will mass in review today. Much work, but nice work.

  February 17: lam on excellent terms with the Italian Command and could not hope for better cooperation. My tanks are now at the front, which has moved 350 miles east. The other side can only run away from us. For the time being I can't even think of f ving home since I have too much work and responsibility.

  He wrote to his wife in the days ahead that he was "working like a horse to keep things going." He fretted about having to stay in the rear area frequently "to iron out all the difficulties of coordination." To mislead the British as to his tank strength and to discourage an offensive while the German troops were arriving in Africa, he had large numbers of dummy tanks built of wood and cardboard and then mounted on Volkswagens-the first of many ingenuities that were to become his trademark.

  While the enemy occupied Benghazi, he made no moves to attack westward, and Rommel moved his arriving troops quickly to the east. On daily flights from Tripoli to the front he studied the terrain. Not until February 24 did scouting units of the opposing forces clash. By the end of the month his troops were 400 miles from Tripoli. While there was no railroad along the coast to carry supplies to him, his quartermaster had arranged for small boats to car
ry part of the load, reducing the burden on his truck delivery.

  March 2: / did not get around to writing yesterday. There was too much going on all day.... It's bitterly cold at night. One has to cover one's self warmly. Yesterday Italian troops who had just arrived passed in review. After that the army commander presented me with a brand-new housing van. I am particularly happy about this gift and shall be able to make good use of it.

  March 3: Major Grunow returned from Berlin and brought greetings from the Fuhrer. He reported that the Fuhrer was ex tremely pleased about the change that has taken place in the situation here since my arrival. He endorsed my measures in every respect. That sort of thing pleases one and gives one energy to go on. Today I am going out to inspect the Italian armored division that will be placed under my command.

  March 5: I am in the best of spirits, for much has been accomplished and every day the situation becomes increasingly favorable. Yesterday we had a gala performance of the film Victory in the West. I used the thrill of the guests (some with ladies) to extract a promise for the eventual production of a film Victory in Africa.

  Succeeding letters depict Rommel exulting over the rapid eastward progress of the Axis partners. He had gotten off to a good start. "Reinforcing" his troops, which he estimated at less than half the enemy number, with his many quickly constructed dummy tanks, he attacked. The cardboard forms mounted on the Volkswagens fooled the British. Under the impression that they were being overwhelmed, they sped their withdrawal.