Author: Hans-Joachim Schraepler
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473812011
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299
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Book Description
Erwin Rommel, Hitler's so-called 'Desert Fox', is possibly the most famous German Field-Marshal of WWII. He is widely regarded as the one of the most skilled commanders of desert warfare and, in contrast to other leaders of Nazi Germany, is considered to have been a chivalrous and humane officer. The letters of his adjutant provide a unique picture of Rommel during his time in Libya. Hans-Joachim Schraepler was by Rommel's side in North Africa for ten crucial months in 1940-41. During that time, he wrote to his wife almost every day. In most cases, the correspondence went via the usual channels but occasionally he used other methods to avoid the censor's gaze.Through his letters, Schraepler supplies a vivid image of the first phase of the North Africa campaign. He covers the siege of Tobruk, the capture of Benghazi, and the difficulties experienced by those fighting in Cyrenica and the wider North African theatre. He also complains that the Italian were poor Allies, lacking training and leadership, and that Berlin regarded North Africa as a theatre of only secondary importance.Schraepler also provides insights into Rommel's character—his dynamism and tactical skill, along with the growing 'cult of personality' which seemed to surround him. One of his unofficial tasks, for example, was to respond in Rommel's name to much of the fan mail that arrived at the Afrikakorps HQ.Hans-Albrecht Schraepler was only seven years old when his father died. The cache of letters was held by his mother and remained untouched for sixty years. His father's last letter, found the day of his death, remains unfinished.
Author: David Fraser
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060925973
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 625
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Book Description
An in-depth biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel written with the cooperation of Rommel's son, by a renowned military analyst and historian who is himself a general.
Author: Desmond Young
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1447484819
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 318
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Book Description
This book contains the story of Rommel, the famous German Field Marshal of World War II, commonly known as Desert Fox. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
Author: Ronald Lewin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780760708613
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
As the Germans wreaked havoc in Europe in the early 1940s, the war in Northern Africa seemed relatively insignificant. Yet a series of surprising victories by the Afrika Korpsforced Winston Churchill to refocus his attention. In the desert, one of the war's most brilliant commanders was blooming - Commander Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel. In this provocative study, Ronald Lewin, prizewinning author of Slim: The Standardbearer and Ultra Goes to War charts the course of Rommel's military career. The Desert Fox, was a tactical genius - his personal leadership and ability to improvise on the battlefield with minimal resources were exemplary. Yet lapses in Rommel's judgment, combined with Churchill's heightened defences and Hitler's neglect, led to a crushing defeat for the Afrika Korps at Alamein in 1942. As Rommel's success waned, so did his relations with Hitler. Rommel was an exceptional commander - not only for his skills, but for the integrity with which he carried himself. This integrity, admired even by his adversaries, proved fatal. Unafraid to voice his objections to Hitler's military decisions, Rommel was associated with the 1944 plot to kill the dictator. In the wake of the plot's failure, Rommel was forced to take his own life.
Author: Terry Brighton
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307461564
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 474
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Book Description
In Patton, Montgomery, Rommel, one of Britain's most accomplished military scholars presents an unprecedented study of the land war in the North African and European theaters, as well as their chief commanders—three men who also happened to be the most compelling dramatis personae of World War II. Beyond spellbinding depictions of pivotal confrontations at El Alamein, Monte Cassino, and the Ardennes forest, author-scholar Terry Brighton illuminates the personal motivations and historical events that propelled the three men's careers: how Patton's, Montgomery's, and Rommel's Great War experiences helped to mold their style of command—and how, exactly, they managed to apply their arguably megalomaniacal personalities (and hitherto unrecognized political acumen and tact) to advance their careers and strategic vision. Opening new avenues of inquiry into the lives and careers of three men widely profiled by scholars and popular historians alike, Brighton definitively answers numerous lingering and controversial questions: Was Patton really as vainglorious in real life as he was portrayed to be on the silver screen?—and how did his tireless advocacy of "mechanized cavalry" forever change the face of war? Was Monty's dogged publicity-seeking driven by his own need for recognition or by his desire to claim for Britain a leadership role in postwar global order?—and how did this prickly "commoner" manage to earn affection and esteem from enlisted men and nobility alike? How might the war have ended if Rommel had had more tanks?—and what fundamental philosophical difference between him and Hitler made such an outcome virtually impossible? Abetted by new primary source material and animated by Terry Brighton's incomparable storytelling gifts, Patton, Montgomery, Rommel offers critical new interpretations of the Second World War as it was experienced by its three most flamboyant, controversial, and influential commanders—and augments our understanding of each of their perceptions of war and leadership.
Author: Erwin Rommel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 228
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Book Description
Rommel himself, one of the most successful and well-known commanders of World War II, writes about his views on the philosophy of warfare, battles, leaders, and the progress of both World Wars. A complete picture of how a military genius grappled with the actuality of war is presented through Rommel's accounts of his experiences.
Author: Heinz Werner Schmidt
Publisher: Constable Limited
ISBN: 9780094785908
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
Originally published in 1973 by White Lion. A first-hand account offering a perspective on Rommel's African campaign. Schmidt was close to Rommel throughout the two years of the campaign and provides details of the military action alongside personal perspectives of fellow-officers.
Author: Alan Levine
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
An exciting account of a little-known, yet vital part of World War II, the Allied effort to blockade Axis forces in North Africa with a relatively small number of planes and submarines included some of the war's most spectacular air battles, and opened the way to the attack on Fortress Europe from the south. This is the first book-length treatment of the crucial struggle to cut Axis supply lines in the Tunisian campaign of 1942-1943, a battle often ignored or played down even by official historians. The campaign marked the first big U.S. victory against the Axis powers and served as a proving ground for several top Allied commanders. This study fills an important gap in the history of the war, reevaluating the development of Allied airpower and the role of Italy in the campaign. Allied success in interdiction was a critical factor in the greatest Allied victory in the Mediterranean campaign, a victory which left the enemy so weakened that it could not stop the subsequent invasion of Europe from the south. Despite initial disorganization and early disappointments, the British waged one of only two successful submarine campaigns ever fought. This study describes some of the war's most amazing air battles, notably Operation Flax against the enemy's air transport fleet, and attacks on convoys, all interwoven with the events of the ground war in the desert and comparisons with the Pacific effort. It details the struggle to reorganize and improve the Allied effort, the belated success of sea sweeps against enemy ships, and the final victory in the spring of 1943, in which an air blockade was clamped on the sea and sky approaches to Tunisia.
Author: Daniel Allen Butler
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612002986
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 942
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Book Description
A biography of the WWII military genius known as the Desert Fox—and his complex, ultimately fatal relationship with Hitler from a New York Times–bestselling author. Born leader, brilliant soldier, devoted husband and father—Erwin Rommel was intelligent, brave, and compassionate, while at the same time vain, egotistical, and arrogant. In France in 1940, then for two years in North Africa, then at Normandy in 1944, he proved himself a master of armored warfare, running rings around a succession of Allied generals who never got his measure and could only resort to overwhelming numbers to defeat him. Yet for all his genius, Rommel was also naive, a man who could admire Adolf Hitler at the same time that he despised the Nazis, dazzled by a Führer whose successes blinded him to the true nature of the Third Reich. Above all, he was the quintessential German patriot, who ultimately would refuse to abandon his moral compass—so that on one pivotal day in June 1944, he came to understand that he had mistakenly served an evil man and evil cause. He would still fight for Germany, even as he abandoned his oath of allegiance to the Führer, when he came to realize that Hitler had morphed into nothing more than an agent of death and destruction. In the end, Erwin Rommel was forced to die by his own hand, not because, as some would claim, he had dabbled in a tyrannicidal conspiracy, but because he had committed a far greater crime—he dared to tell Adolf Hitler the truth. In Field Marshal, New York Times–bestselling historian Daniel Allen Butler describes the swirling, innovative campaigns in which Rommel won his military reputation, and assesses the temper of the man who finally fought only for his country and no dark depths beyond.
Author: Samuel W. Mitcham
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780891417309
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Erwin Rommel's distinction of being an admired Nazi is owed in part to his brilliance as an old-fashioned soldier and in part to his turning against Hitler late in the war.
