18. Rommel, Infantry in the Attack/Infantry Attacks, 121.
19. Ibid, 94.
20. Young, Rommel The Desert Fox, 23; Werner quoted in Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 17.
21. Rommel, Infantry in the Attack/Infantry Attacks, 102.
22. Ibid, 127.
23. Ibid, 137.
24. Ibid, 148.
25. Ibid, 150.
26 There is more than a bit of what old soldiers know as a “pissing contest” involved in the spat between Major von Bothner, Major Sprösser, and Oberleutnant Rommel. The Bavarian Life Guards were a self-proclaimed “elite,” and like Guards regiments everywhere, had a tendency to look down their collective nose at “mere” line units. Given that the Württemburgische Gebirgsbataillon possessed a combat record every bit as distinguished as that of the Bavarians’, Sprösser no doubt felt justified in putting the arrogant von Bothner in his place.
27. Rommel, Infantry in the Attack/Infantry Attacks, 159.
28. Like Rommel, Ferdinand Schörner would attain the rank of feldmarschall in the next war. Unlike Rommel, he would not be remembered as an honorable man: he would be tried and convicted of war crimes by both the Soviets and the Germans. The Soviet charges were for the most part the usual trumped-up rubbish through which Stalin exacted his vengeance on German officers (there is no evidence, for example, that Schörner ever aided and abetted the SS Einsatzgruppen in occupied Russia, as other German generals had done), but the German charges were far more serious. On page 50 of his book The End, historian Ian Kershaw decribes Schörner as “a fanatical Nazi loyalist” who pandered to Adolf Hitler’s wildest delusions in the closing days of the Third Reich, and who cheerfully carried out summary executions of German soldiers who were deemed as having left their posts without orders, the usual penalty being hanging rather than a firing squad. Schörner was also something of a coward: when captured by the US Army on May 11, 1945, he was wearing civilian clothing, having deserted his post as commanding officer, Army Group Center. When he died in 1973, the last German field marshal, the West German government forbade any official recognition of the man or his passing.
29. Rommel, Infantry in the Attack/Infantry Attacks, 179.
30. Ibid, 183–184.
31. Ibid, 185–185.
32. Ibid, 203.
33. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 201.
34. Rommel, Infantry in the Attack/Infantry Attacks, 214.
CHAPTER THREE: AN OFFICER OF THE REICHSWEHR
35. Manchester, The Arms of Krupp, 306.
36. Fest, Hitler—Eine Biographie, 175.
37. Wette, The Wehrmacht, 145.
38. Ibid, 144.
39. Von Seeckt, “The Remarks of the German Chief of the Army Command Based on His Inspections during 1921,” in United States Military Intelligence Reports: Germany, 1919–1941 (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1983), microfilm reel XV, frames 73–150, 3–4.
40. Fraser, Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, 86.
41. Lewin, Rommel As Military Commander, 1.
42. Manfred Rommel, quoted in Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 32.
43. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 241; Rommel’s Personnel File 6/5, Bundesarchiv—Abteilung Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau.
44. Intriguingly, throughout his career, General George S. Patton, Jr., when emphasizing the necessity of frequent, intense training, would remark to his soldiers that “A pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood.” Both men, the best-known armor commanders of the Second World War, deeply understood the truth of Flavius Josephus’ commentary on the Romans: “Their drills are bloodless battles, and their battles bloody drills.”
45. Rommel quoted in Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 28.
CHAPTER FOUR: THE THIRD REICH
46. Wheeler-Bennett, The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics 1918–1945, 726.
47. Evans, The Third Reich in Power, 26.
48. Höhne, The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS, 117.
49. Fest, Hitler—Eine Biographie, 470, Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer, 73–74, Fraser, Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, 115.
50. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 30.
51. Fest, Hitler—Eine Biographie, 469.
52. Manchester, The Arms of Krupp, 365.
53. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 31.
54. Mitcham, Triumphant Fox, 16.
55. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 32.
56. Ibid, 35–36.
57. It has been said the Swabians are the German Scots—thrifty, hardworking, mechanically gifted, and terrific fighters. As the author has a Scots heritage, he concedes that there could well be some substance to that comparison.
58. Hitler quoted in Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, 135.
CHAPTER FIVE: BLITZKRIEG
59. Text of the Treaty of Versailles, from The Avalon Project website: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/partiii.asp.
60. Text of the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, from the Australian Treaty Series website, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1920/3.html.
61. Rommel quoted in Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 39.
62. Fraser, Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, 134–135; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 39.
63. BBC Archive, “Chamberlain Addresses the Nation on His Negotiations for Peace,” September 27, 1938.
64. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 40.
65. Hitler quoted in Time magazine (2 October 1939).
66. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 45.
67. Ibid, 44.
68. From the title of Goldhagen’s book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners (Knopf Doubleday, 2007).
69. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 46.
70. Ibid, 49.
71 Pzkw: Panzerkampfwagen—“Armored Fighting Vehicle” or tank, usually reduced to simply “Panzer.”
72. Rommel, Infantry Attacks, 128.
73. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 6.
74. For a thorough examination of von Manstein’s Sichelschnitt plan and its evolution, see Robert Allan Doughty’s The Breaking Point: Sedan and the Fall of France, 1940, and Karl-Heinz Frieser’s The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West.
75. Leutnant Braun, National Archives, T 84/277.
76. Leutnant Braun, National Archives, T 84/277.
77. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 22.
78. Ibid, 24.
79. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 720; Churchill, History of the Second World War: Vol. 2 Their Finest Hour, 43–51.
80. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 30–32.
81. Ibid, 34.
82. Ibid, 39–40.
83. 7th Panzer Divisional History, National Archives, T 84/277.
84. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 64.
85. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 43.
86. Ibid, 44.
87. Ibid, 49.
88. Ibid, 66–67.
CHAPTER SIX: AFRIKA KORPS
89. Throughout the North African campaign Great Britain deployed troops from several nations in the Empire and Commonwealth, including Indian, Australian, New Zealand, and South African divisions, along with units of the British Army itself. For the sake of brevity, the author has chosen to use the term “British” when referring to these forces as a whole. Unit nationality is distinctly identified when specific reference is made to it. Later references to “the Allies” are meant to include the British and American armed forces; Soviet forces are mentioned separately, unless otherwise noted.
90. Playfair et al, The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume I–IV, 265.
91. Schofield, Wavell: Soldier and Statesman, 206.
92. Ciano, The Ciano Diaries 1939–1943, 297.
93. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 103–104.
94. Ibid, 198.
95. “Flak” was the German abbreviation for Flugzeugabwehrkanone—antiaircraft gun.
96. Lewin, Rommel As Military Com
mander, 33.
97. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 111.
98. Ibid, 110.
99. Ibid, 112.
100 Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 82, taken from General Streich’s unpublished memoirs.
101. Hans von Luck, Hans, Panzer Commander, (Praeger, New York, 1989), 82.
102. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 116.
103. Ibid, 118.
104. Ibid, 119.
105. Lewin, Rommel As Military Commander, 143.
106. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 82.
107. Streich, Lecture notes, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, University of Munich.
CHAPTER SEVEN: TOBRUK
108. He wasn’t alone in such a circumstance. Major General George S. Patton, Jr., in what was unquestionably the most tactically inelegant battle of his career, was frustrated for three months before the walls of the ancient French fortress city of Metz in the autumn of 1944. His Third Army eventually took the city through sheer brute force, Patton being able to draw on resources of materiel and men on a scale of which Rommel could only dream. It’s interesting to note how two of the Second World War’s best-known armor generals, remembered for their mastery of mobile warfare, were so stymied by fixed fortresses.
109. So well executed would be Morshead’s defense of Tobruk that it is still presented in military academies and war colleges, including the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as an example of how a largely infantry force can successfully conduct an in-depth defense against superior armored forces.
110. Both sides could—and did—fight ferociously in actual combat, but by a mutual, unspoken agreement, they also understood that there were lines to be drawn and respected even in warfare. No mention is made in either German or Australian records of any attempt by the Australians to hinder the German soldiers in taking away their dead and wounded comrades. Already being set was the tone of what would, in harsh contrast to the war without quarter on the Eastern Front, become known as the “war without hate.”
111. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 124.
112. Streich, Lecture notes, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, University of Munich.
113. Coombes, Morshead: Hero of Tobruk and El Alamein, 121.
114. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 126.
115. Ibid, 126.
116. Ibid, 129.
117. Ibid, 131.
118. Halder, War Diary, Vol VI, 41, 64, 71, 81.
119. Streich, Lecture notes.
120. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 134.
121. Paulus, of course, is best remembered as the German commander of the Sixth Army during the battle of Stalingrad, where a quarter-million German soldiers were killed or captured, and who surrendered to the Soviet Red Army there on January 31, 1943. Hitler, in an effort to encourage Paulus to fight to the last man and last round, promoted him to the rank of field marshal on January 29, 1943, with the pointed reminder that no Prussian or German officer of that rank had ever been captured alive by the enemy. Paulus refused to take the hint and commit suicide, and instead surrendered his command the next day, eventually collaborating with the Soviets to oppose the Nazis. His actions were, at the time, regarded as a disgrace to the reputation of the German Army.
122. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 137–138.
123. Ibid, 139.
124. Streich, Lecture notes.
125. Wavell quoted by Churchill, The Grand Alliance, 304.
126. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 139.
127. Ibid, 144.
128. Ibid, 145.
CHAPTER EIGHT: CRUSADER
129. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 146.
130. Berndt, “27 Monate Kampf in Afrika.”
131. Keitel and von Brauchitsch quoted in Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 132.
132. Auchinleck, “Despatch on Operations in the Middle East From 5 July 1941 to 31 October 1941,” 4215.
133. Montgomery, Memoirs, 71.
134. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 148–149.
135. Ibid, 148.
136. Ibid, 148–149.
137. Ibid, 150–151.
138. Ibid, 152–153.
139. Bayerlein, quoted in The Rommel Papers, 159.
140. Fraser, Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, 282.
141. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 160.
142. Bayerlein quoted in The Rommel Papers, 161–162.
143. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 162.
144. Bayerlein quoting Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 163.
145. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 168.
146. Ibid, 173–174.
147. In the original letter Rommel actually used only the first character of the town’s name.
148. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 175–176.
149. Ibid, 178.
150. Ibid, 179.
CHAPTER NINE: DER HEXENKESSEL
151. Colonel Fellers left Egypt at the beginning of July and returned to the United States, where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and promoted to brigadier general in recognition of the work he had done in Egypt. He had been in no way responsible for the security failure, his concerns about a possible compromise of the Black Code being summarily overruled by his civilian superiors. He would go on to serve with the OSS and then in the Pacific on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur. He retired from the US Army in 1946, after 30 years of service, and died in 1973.
152. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 182.
153. Ibid, 182.
154. Ibid, 182.
155. Ibid, 183.
156. von Esebeck, Afrikanische Schicksalsjahre: Das deutsche Afrikakorps unter Rommel, 148.
157. Bayerlein quoted in The Rommel Papers, 185.
158. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 187.
159. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 166.
160. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 188.
161. Lewin, Rommel As Military Commander, 109.
162. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 204
163. Fraser, Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, 319.
164. Young, Rommel The Desert Fox, 135.
165. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 212.
166. Ibid, 216.
167. Ibid, 222–223.
168. Ibid, 224.
169. Ibid, 231.
170. Ibid, 232.
171. Ibid, 232.
CHAPTER TEN: AFRICAN APOGEE
172. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 344.
173. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 226.
174. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 240.
175. Ibid, 241.
176. Ibid, 233.
177. Ibid, 241.
178. Ibid, 248.
179 Ibid, 249–250.
180. Ibid, 261.
181. Ibid, 262.
182 Ibid, 263.
183. Ibid, 270.
184. Ibid, 270–272.
185. Quoted by Bayerlein, in The Rommel Papers, 271.
186. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 271–272.
187. Ibid, 275.
188. Ibid, 282.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: EL ALAMEIN
189. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 285–286.
190. Ibid, 290.
191. Ibid, 291–292.
192. Ibid, 292.
193. The full text of the Commando Order can be found in The Avalon Law Project’s website containing full transcripts of the indictments handed down by the International Military Tribunal for Germany, Nuremberg, 1945–46, specifically the section “Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression,” Volume 2, Chapter 15, Part 7: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/chap15_part07.asp
194. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 420.
195. Lewin, Rommel As Military Commander, 245–246.
196. “Legend” is used here as defined in the intelligence community, i.e. a well-prepared synthetic identity.
197. See Jonathan Fennell, “‘Steel my soldiers’ hearts’: El Alamein Reappraised” in the Journal of Military and Strategic Studies (Volume 14, Issue 1, Fall 2011) for an in-depth examination of the morale proble
ms experienced by Eighth Army in the summer and early autumn of 1942. Fennell presents an excellent original analysis of the mood and temper of Eighth Army’s soldiers, as well as the root causes of the army’s crisis of confidence in those months, but errs in significantly overestimating the speed with which Montgomery would have been accepted by the Tommies as not only a proven combat general but a winning one as well.
198. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 294–295.
199. Ibid, 295.
200. Behrendt, Rommels Kenntnis vom Feind im Afrika Feldzug, 208.
201. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 304, 305.
202. Ibid, 308.
203. Ibid, 308.
204. Ibid, 310.
205. Ibid, 288.
206. Ibid, 321.
207. Ibid, 321–322.
208. Ibid, 322.
209. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 279; Peter Hoffman in Denton, The Limits of Loyalty, 118.
210. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 324.
211. Ibid, 325–326
212. Ibid, 360–361.
213 Von Luck, Panzer Commander, 129–130.
214. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 362.
CHAPTER TWELVE: AFRICAN PERIGEE
215 Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 360–362.
216. Ibid, 362.
217. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 245.
218. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 365–366.
219. Ibid, 366.
220. Ibid, 367.
221 Bayerlein in The Rommel Papers, 366.
222. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 369.
223. Ibid, 371.
224. Generalleutnant Wilhelm Meise, in a private letter to William W. James; the original resides in the archives of The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina.
225. Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 250; Fraser, Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, 395.
226 Bülowius would become a prisoner of war in early May 1943, and subsequently be sent to a POW camp in the United States. There are stories that suggest some sort of mental instability on his part, but the details remain unknown. On 27 March 1945, Bülowius committed suicide.
227. Rommel, The Rommel Papers, 377.
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