Product Description

Erwin Rommel was one of the oustanding commanders of World War II, respected as well as feared by his opponents. His instinct for battle and leadership set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired the men under his command. David Fraser's study brings to Rommel's career not only the insights of a biographer, but also those of a soldier. He shows how superficially undisciplined Rommel's style of leadership could be, and how he believed in boldness of manoeuvre, ferocity in attack, and tenacity in pursuit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36576 in Books
• Published on: 1994-10-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 615 pages

Review
A judicious appraisal of Germany's best-known WW II soldier, from a retired British general whose published works include a well-regarded 1982 biography of Lord Alanbrook. Drawing on archival and secondary sources, as well as on the assistance of Rommel's son, Fraser offers a nuanced portrait of the so-called Desert Fox. The son of a Swabian schoolmaster, Rommel decided to make arms his profession at an early age. Commissioned less than three years before the outbreak of WW I, he led small units in combat on several fronts, earning the highest awards for bravery. Rommel's organizational gifts attracted Hitler's attention after their initial 1934 meeting, and the officer was given command of the 7th Panzer Division, which spearheaded the Wehrmacht's 1940 conquest of France. Posted to the North African theater early in 1941, he made a world-class name for himself as a master of battlefield maneuver by keeping better-equipped, numerically superior enemy forces at bay for over two years in campaigns from Cyrenaica to the Kasserine Pass. Back in Europe in mid-1943, Rommel oversaw strengthening of Axis defenses against an anticipated invasion by the Allies. Anglo-American troops nonetheless gained a secure foothold in Normandy, which marked the beginning of the Third Reich's end. Meanwhile, Rommel (whom been implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler) chose to commit suicide in return for a promise that his family would not be harmed. In addition to authoritative critiques of Rommel's military career, Fraser probes the content of his character and provides perceptive takes on the geopolitical as well as socioeconomic events that made him an originally enthusiastic instrument of an abhorrent movement he never formally joined. A tellingly detailed account that manages to put Rommel into a human context. (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Rommel as soldier and as human, from cadet to Field Marshal.
In the 55 years since his enforced suicide on Hitler's orders, Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel has been elevated to the status of a legendary hero, the "Desert Fox" who fought and conquered against vastly superior odds. The greatest strength of David Fraser's biography is that he explores the brilliantly talented yet surprisingly naive human being beneath the popular mythology, without undermining the glamour, the panache, that Rommel's name conveys to this day.

"Of this extraordinary brotherhood is Rommel - the brotherhood of Hector, of Rupert of the Rhine, of those who can only be described as heroes; and it is curious that so determinedly practical a modernist as Rommel - the least fanciful of men - should have joined a company so bonded by myth."

In a gripping, richly detailed narrative that is both accessible to the lay reader and enlightening to the military historian, Fraser tells the story of Rommel's in the context of the tumultuous changes, social and political, through which he lived. Fraser's is a cohesive and well-balanced story, lavishing as much attention on Rommel's experiences in the First World War and between the wars as on his glory days in the North African desert.

General Sir David Fraser, who is a retired Vice Chief of the General Staff, describes Rommel's battles and campaigns with admirable clarity and an engaging sense of immediacy. His maps are informative and uncluttered, although they would have been easier to use if they had been grouped together rather than sprinkled throughout the text.

Fraser wisely recognises that Rommel was much more than just a soldier. The Rommel he portrays is a devoted husband and father, a gifted amateur mathematician, an energetic and enthusiastic sportsman, a popular teacher and author, as well as a professional winner of battles. Although every inch a patriot, Rommel was no fanatic, publishing his memoir of the First World War under the title "Krieg ohne Hass" ("War without Hate"). It is fitting that Rommel spent the last days of his life quietly at home, tutoring his son Manfred in mathematics, as well as preparing to return to the Western Front.

Fraser devotes two of his twenty-four chapters to analysing Rommel's role in the bomb plot against Hitler. While much of this is necessarily speculation, Fraser constructs a credible scenario well-supported by the intimate character portrait built up in the rest of his book.

All in all, this is a vivid biography, an excellent military history and a damned good read.