[robowombat]

In the last few years leftist academics in FRG have launched a systematic campaign to denigrate Rommel and destroy the Rommel legend'. I suspect the reason is that Rommel is seen as a figure who embrace tradition cultural values and was willing , unlike virtually every other German general, to actually be willing to involve himself with those who were plotting to kill Hitler. Such a 'legend' of a hero who would really fight a tyrant state has to be destroyed.

[laplata]

Rommel wasn’t a Nazi.

[hinckley buzzard]

Yes. The German officer corps were the aristocracy of the nation and generally held Hitler in contempt. While they were unwilling to launch a coup to unseat Hitler in the wake of his stunning string of diplomatic successes prior to Poland, the majority loved their country and detested what Hitler was doing to it. As the war dragged on and the tide turned following DDay, many (not all) tacitly signed a "separate peace" and treated Allied (western) prisoners with decency.

[BobL]

Let me get this straight - the guy was smoking in his 20s and is now 95 years old. Hmmm.

[naturalman1975]

and there standing behind the desk was Field Marshall Rommel, so I gave him the courtesy of standing to attention.

Might have helped in this case - the courtesy of one officer and gentleman to another.

[2banana]

And PS - The US Army shot “saboteurs” not in uniform during WWII

[Larry Lucido]

After eating, he said “Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I ate your lunch!”

[Steely Tom]

There are at least a few other stories of gallant behavior on the part of German officers toward their enemies.

Here's one that's part of the story of a remarkable operation called The St Nazaire Raid. In a television documentary of this battle, beautifully done and narrated by Jeremy Clarkson, are the following words:

British Commando survivor: They were patting us on the back now, the Germans were. Amazing! I mean, they probably couldn't believe it, that anybody would venture up into a submarine base, heavily defended.

Jeremy Clarkson:Some of the stories of bravery were incredible. Out in the estuary one of the surviving NL's had gone head-to-head with a much more powerful German destroyer. The British gunner, a commando called Seargent Tom Darrent was asked to surrender on a number of occasions, but even though he'd been shot sixteen times, he kept on firing, until he was overcome by the loss of blood and passed out.

J.C. continues: But the story doesn't end there, because the captain of the German destroyer (the one Darrent was taking on pretty much single handed) was so impressed by Darrent's bravery that when he landed, he took the trouble to find the most senior British officer he could, and said "look, I don't know who was on that little ship, but whoever it was should get your Victoria Cross."

This documentary, here, on YouTube, has more than a million views, and is well worth the time to watch.

Of course, many of you will have heard the story of The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident, in which a badly shot-up B-17 and its American crew were escorted to safety by the pilot of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 because the pilot, German ace Franz Stigler, could not find it within himself to shoot down a barely flying aircraft with basically every crew member wounded.

[Sivad]

Too bad he didn’t get a selfie with Rommel. That would have scored big $ at the Antiques Road Show.

[Steely Tom]

Ah! Look at this! Here he is! I misspelled his name, an error I attempt to correct here.

Thomas Frank Durrant, former butcher's boy and builder's laborer, actually did receive the Victoria Cross, as recommended by his enemy!

Incredible.

"His award of the Victoria Cross was unique in that it is the only award given to a soldier in a naval action and it was on the recommendation of the enemy commander."

[gaijin]

The amazing thing is that his very early evaluations pegged him as only a slightly above-average military man —they weren’t crazy about him.

The same for the early flying career of the highest-scoring Luftwaffe ace, Rudel —he was almost kicked out for poor performance. He straightened up, later, and then everything took off for him once he strapped into a Stuka.

Something north of 400 tanks, one battleship (single-handed) and lots and lots of other stuff.

He was on the eastern front for a long time, and they more or less flew mission after mission after mission.

[keat]

I don’t know the whole story here but this write up makes it sound like a bunch of bull.