Microsoft Close Combat manual Erwin Rommel

Chapter 7 The Big Picture: A Short History of World War II 143

Rommel’s forces are again desperately short of supplies, but after receiving promises that supplies will arrive soon, he decides to attack. As usual, Rommel’s tanks lead the attack east. After traversing British minefields, Rommel’s tanks turn north toward the Alam Halfa ridge. The attack is stopped at the ridge when British airplanes and artillery pound the German positions. The Germans try again on September 1, but the lack of fuel is debilitating one Panzer division has no fuel at all. However, the German antitank guns continue to be effective against British armor. Two days later the New Zealand Division tries to cut off the German withdrawal, but is too heavily engaged to make any progress. Both sides settle in again to rest and refit.

In keeping with his ever-analytical character, General Bernard Montgomery, now commander of the British Eighth Army, spends over a month carefully planning his attack on Rommel. Shortly after midnight on October 23, “Monty” launches his attack. Despite all the training and elaborate timetables, the attack quickly lags

Erwin Rommel (1891-

1944). Perhaps the best known and most charismatic German General of World War II, Rommel won the respect of friend and foe

alike during the desert campaigns in North Africa. Rommel’s military career began in 1910, and he finished the First World War as a captain, having won Germany’s highest award for valor, the Pour le Mérite. In 1940 Rommel brilliantly led a panzer division in the campaign that led to the fall of France. Early in 1941 he was promoted to lieutenant-general and took charge of the fledgling Afrika Korps. Over the next 18 months his legend grew with his success in driving the British out of Libya. In June 1942 he captured Tobruk and became Germany’s youngest field marshal. Even when the tide turned and the British under Montgom- ery defeated Rommel’s forces in the second battle of El Alamein, his strategic retreat showed that the “Desert Fox,” as he had come to be known, was a master of defensive as well as offensive tactics.

His defeat of an Anglo-American force at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia in February 1943 was the Americans’ first encounter with Rommel, but by no means the last. In January 1944 he was sent to France to strengthen northern coastal defenses against the impend- ing Allied invasion; his preparations made the Allies’ task far more difficult and more costly, but the German High Command would not allow him to deploy the forces he felt would be necessary to stop the invaders on the beaches of Normandy.

Rommel was wounded In July 1944 when a British fighter strafed his car, and he was returned to Germany. Although he had not taken an active role in the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, Rommel was implicated in the plot. Hitler offered him a grim choice: commit suicide and leave his family and his reputation intact, or face charges in a Nazi “Peoples’ Court.” He took poison and received a hero’s funeral, the government announcing that he had died of his wounds.