ROMMEL-THE MAN WE HAVE TO BEAT

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 8, 24 April 1944, Page 7

ROMMEL-THE MAN WE HAVE TO BEAT

Favourite of Hitler and a political soldier, his task is to turn back the Allied tide of invasion.

By

former Austrian journalist and diplomat, London, in the

New York Times Magazine, February 6, 1944.

Field marshal General Erwin Eugen Johannes Rommel used to be called “ Rommel Africanus ”

by the German press and German people. Although associations with Africa have now no pleasant ring in German ears, Nazi propaganda has been careful to preserve the fame and reputation of the man whom Hitler has chosen to perfect the defences of Europe against invasion.

Rommel has remained the “ glamour boy ” of the Wehrmacht, and defeat in Africa has hardly affected his personal popularity among his own people and the

flattering judgment which his leading enemies in Britain and America have pronounced on his abilities. Defeat, indeed, has qualified him for his present position of In-spector-General for the defence of Europe. This appointment, typical of German Army practice, follows the precedents

of General Heinz Guderian, InspectorGeneral for the Panzers, and Luftwaffe General Galland, Inspector-General for Fighters.

The German General Staff argues that the earlier German successes against the Allies in France, Norway, Greece, and Crete were achieved against a half-baked and inadequately equipped British Army, the commanders of which had little experience of modern warfare, of the integration of air and land power, of tank technique and the general idea of total war. Rommel, in defeat, has learned more about the final qualities of the Allied armies at the peak of their power than all his victorious fellow-

Generals together. Prime Minister Churchill paid him high tribute, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower has said that, though he is no superman, he is a great general.

That “ great general ” has now completed his tour of inspection through Italy and the Balkans, through Norway, Denmark, Holland, France, and Belgium He has toured all the coastal areas

which could feasibly become objectives of a “ second front ” and has communicated his own experiences and his views on Anglo-Amer-ican strategy to the local commanders — Kurt Gerd von Runstedt, Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, and Hermann von Hannecken. His new job makes the defence of Europe virtually his sole responsibility. The qualifications which he brings to it are not as great as Hitler would want the world to believe. But he is no mean

When I met Rommel in Vienna way back in 1935 there was little to distinguish him from the typically Prussian officers in whose company he travelled. He was young for his rank, a little livelier and noisier, perhaps, than his proverbially silent and tight-lipped seniors. There was already the appearance of the cocksure egotist who likes to stick his chin out and to throw his head back like a colt which has just won the Derby. But as soon as he put on his monocle he just looked the picture of the scholarly soldier which is the pattern of most members of the German officer class.

It turned out later that he was on his

wav to Cairo, which he visited again in 1937 i n obvious preparation for his future tasks. His nonchalant, unconventional manner, his verbosity, his loud but cynical laughter, cleverly disguised his deeper qualities — the effect on his personality of years of study and of a turbulent career.

Rommel is a political soldier who has battled his way up with the help of party intrigues and personal-power politics. He could never boast the crimson stripe down his trouser legs which only staff officers—members of the famous German General Staff Corps— entitled to wear. He cannot attach to his name the aristocratic “ von,” which was the most important pass for entry into the higher ranks of the German Army. His family had no military tradition to pave his way to promotion.

Born in November, 1891, in Heidenheim, in Wuerttemberg, his character still shows the more flexible traits of the south German temperament. But his father belonged to the German bourgeoisie, which is often more militaristic than the professional soldiers. He handed down to young Rommel some of the mathematical and technical talents which made the father an outstanding lecturer at Munich University.

Rommel joined the ranks of the German Army in 1910. When the first World War broke out he was a lieutenant. . This is what he wrote about his war service, using the egocentric phraseology which still characterizes him : ‘‘l was privileged to serve, with a short interruption through injury, as platoon commander in northern France and Belgium during the war of movement and later in the Argonne. I was further privileged to belong to an elite corps of the German Army, the Wuerttemberg Alpine Regiment, the achievements of which are particularly great. I commanded mixed units up to the strength of sixteen companies in the extreme front line .

Although Rommel received the order Pour Je Merite, the highest decoration in the last war, his achievements turned into bitter memory when he returned home after the defeat of Germany. There was no iob for him, no place in the

corps of 4,000 crack officers who had been taken over by the new German Republican Army and who remain the backbone of the Wehrmacht to this day. He studied technology in Heidenheim and Munich,

where, at the time, Adolf Hitler and his small Nazi party catered to ex-army officers and students who, like Rommel, were deeply disappointed and wanted

rearmament as a means to new army jobs, to promotion, revenge, war, and glory. He soon became a friend of Hitler and a member of the party. Rommel, in fact, is one of the few German Generals who ever raised his hand in a Nazi salute.

Giving military training to the S.A. (Storm Troops) and later to the S.S. (Elite Guards) was his early party service. Then a niche was found for him in the German police force, on which the regular army relied as a reservoir for future officers. Even before Hitler came into power Rommel’s ambition was realized and he became instructor for infantry tactics in German military academies.

Few Germans outside the army as yet knew his name. But thousands of young German officer-aspirants had faced in him an exacting teacher, a harsh disciplinarian, an ironical instructor, and an enthusiastic apostle of Nazi principles. They called his book “ The Rommel.” He has taught them to regard that book as their Bible.

Captured German newsreels prove that he has retained most of bis earlier qualities. They show him boastfully addressing an overawed crowd of German and neutral reporters after his African success. They reveal the warm look in Hitler’s eye when he greets Rommel, who has often been called “ the friend of the Fuehrer.”

It was at the outbreak of the war that the seal was put on this friendship. Rommel was commander of a mixed S.S. and Death’s Head division which guarded Hitler’s field headquarters in Poland. Together with Secretary Brueckner

and Aide-de-Camp Schaub of Hitler’s entourage, he belonged to the small, intimate circle which gathered around the Fuehrer.

Rommel’s unquestionable loyalty to Hitler induced Goebbels to turn the spotlight of Nazi propaganda on him. A Rommel myth developed. Rommel rumours spread. They seized on every small incident of his career, made capital even out of defeat. They presented him as a dashing, stream-line super-modern, death-defying, and elusive General to whom luck was always faithful. The Germans even capitalized on the daring British commando raid on his African headquarters in November, 1942, in which young Colonel Geoffrey Keyes lost his life deep behind the German lines. Rommel in danger, but Rommel escaped !

Propaganda also is responsible for the circulation of scores of Rommel anecdotes, like the one which described him repairing his own command tank in a pair of dirty dungarees. Another credits him with greeting a new young personal aide-de-camp with the words : ‘‘l congratulate you on your appointment. Your four predecessors were killed in action.” The purpose of these anecdotes was to present Rommel as an expert engineer—• which he isas a ruthless boss, which he also is ; to instil respect and admiration for him among friends and enemies. Rommel assists the German propagandists. He is the perfect poseur whenever the camera lens is focused on him.

Promotion came rapidly to Rommel. He was a Captain when the last war ended and a Colonel when he became instructor in 1932. At the outbreak of the present war he was already a MajorGeneral. In June, 1942, when he had driven the British back into Egypt, Hitler handed him a Field Marshal’s baton. German Generals do not like such unorthodox careers, and there is evidence that they don’t like Rommel’s rapid rise. He is known to have quarrelled with Luftwaffe Marshal Albert Kesselring, who collaborated with him in Africa and

Italy. But his intransigeance and autocratic moods were most violently displayed in his relations with Italian

Generals, who later told us they could never work with him. Rommel detests and despises the Italians, and the curt, rude way in which he publicly denied the rumour that he had been a prisoner of the Italians in the last war was a fair example of his general attitude towards his former allies.

How Hitler worries about Rommel’s well-being was demonstrated when the failure of the Axis African campaign became inevitable. The German High Command announced that “ Field Marshal Rommel had been taken ill and Hitler had personally ordered him to return to Germany to rest and recuperate.” Undoubtedly Hitler’s order was genuine.

Rommel and his reputation, anyway, had to be saved for the final battle, which is now approaching. His greatest asset is his influence on Hitler, who will take Rommel’s advice, even in preference to his own intuition. To modern tank warfare Rommel has contributed “ naval strategy,” which he successfully employed in the vast desert spaces. He is an advocate of defence in depth, but it remains to be seen whether his theories are practicable under continental conditions, which have little in common with the strategic problems in the desert.

Rommel has certainly earned his nickname of “ Master of Retreat.” However far he was hurled back in Africa, he always saved the bulk of his men and armour. There is much fascination in his predilection for the unexpected, in his strategic flexibility, in his ability to withdraw and thrust forward quickly again with surprise attacks. But the British are convinced that their more solid preparations for attack, their persistence in the face of opposition and, above all, their thorough knowledge of Rommel’s tactics, will again prove superior if less spectacular. They do not forget, however, that Rommel has the confidence of the crack S.S. units with whom he has now manned the key defence posts along the coast of Europe ; that, though he may again quarrel with his conservative colleagues in the High Command, he has Hitler’s authority behind him. They realize that, like Hitler, he will fight to the finish.