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Outcry in Germany over homage to Nazi general [Rommel]
AFP ^ | October 17, 2018 | Staff

Posted on 10/17/2018 10:54:48 AM PDT by C19fan

A senior official at Germany's defence ministry has sparked an uproar with a tweet commemorating the death of Erwin Rommel, a favourite general of Adolf Hitler who was later involved in a plot to kill the Führer. "Erwin Rommel, who was forced to commit suicide by the Nazis, died 74 years ago today," wrote Peter Tauber, a former close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, on Twitter.

(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: germany; nazis; rommel
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To: ScottinVA
Actually, Rommel was a Nazi and a supporter of Hitler until very late in the war -- after he had failed to convince Hitler that the war was lost. Rommel was most likely not even in on the July 20th plot.

Why the admiration for Rommel? Much of it was wartime mythologizing by the British, building up Rommel's reputation so as to explain why they kept losing to him for so long in North Africa. Those who knew Rommel best -- the German general staff -- saw him as a Nazi and a loyal Hitler favorite lacking an appreciation of logistics and of the limited strategic importance of his North African campaign.

Yet Rommel deserves credit for avoiding wartime atrocities and for eventually seeing that the war was lost and confronting Hitler over it. On balance, Rommel was ultimately less a Nazi and more a German patriot and a military professional. Had Rommel not been suicided on Hitler's orders, he might have served honorably in the post-war Germany military or in the German government. Rommel's son had a worthy career after the war as a conservative German political figure.

21 posted on 10/17/2018 11:27:05 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: C19fan

Yep. Any student of WWII would probably view Rommel as a great general. Not all Germans were war criminals.


22 posted on 10/17/2018 11:27:28 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: C19fan

I used to love playing battlefield board games, like “Afrika Korps”.


23 posted on 10/17/2018 11:37:17 AM PDT by rfp1234 (I have already previewed this composition.)
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To: Flash Bazbeaux

I don’t understand what you were trying to say.

I’ve read three of Patton’s biographies. What is striking is the notion of fighting the last war, and how pernicious it is/was.

There was a flying General that was court-martialed over dive bombing and its effectiveness. Of all things I saw this in an airport museum. There was an interpretive display in a room. I want to say it was Doolittle, but I may be wrong.


24 posted on 10/17/2018 11:37:48 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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To: RinaseaofDs

Col. Billy Mitchell


25 posted on 10/17/2018 11:38:31 AM PDT by Covenantor (Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. " Chesterton)
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To: RinaseaofDs
You may be thinking of Billy Mitchell.
26 posted on 10/17/2018 11:40:26 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: cuban leaf
There was one general in the closing days of the war who defied Hitler's orders to join in the defense of Berlin and, instead, opted to protect civilians fleeing the Russians advancing from the northeast of the metropolis.

I don't remember the guy's name but he was a bonafide hero with a strategic grasp of what was important.

27 posted on 10/17/2018 11:43:10 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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To: C19fan

Rommel, fought a gentleman’s war in Afrika. No SS units, he refused them. The Afrika Corps prisoners were the best behaved in our stateside PW camps. When he was assigned to the West front defenses, he was doing his job, as any other General would have done. He was admired by his adversaries because he was honorable. There is a story out there about a field hospital in Northern Africa that had both German and English doctors operating at the front together. The best German Generals weren’t the Nazi Perfumed Princes. Even ole man Von Rundtsted when asked by Hitler late in the war what should he do, the answer was; “Make peace you fool!” They were more patriots than Nazis. If we ever go Socialist here, what part of the military will be Patriots? LOL! Then we have CW statues being offensive to generations who had no lineal connection to it. So much to read out there covering the Nazis, but not much about the Commies who were just as bad.


28 posted on 10/17/2018 11:43:14 AM PDT by Bringbackthedraft (What is earned is treasured, what is free is worth what you paid for it.)
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To: Billthedrill; Covenantor

Thank you both!!

Billy Mitchell. These guys took huge risks to revolutionize defense. For as fast as the world seems to be adapting new tech, we really aren’t. Incredible how formidable inertia in thinking is.


29 posted on 10/17/2018 11:46:14 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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To: C19fan

Funny how things work out. Hitler prevented Rommel from fighting the definitive battle that would have changed the course of history. If the German army had continued its offensive and surrounded the British army that was mauled and retreating to Dunkirk, the Germans would have taken over 300,000 British prisoners and that would have taken England out of the war. Instead they were not attacked on the ground and were successfully evacuated by sea to Britain. British morale soared, they fought on and the rest is history.


30 posted on 10/17/2018 11:48:00 AM PDT by allendale (.)
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To: C19fan

These are the same cast of folks who on this side of the pond hate Robert E Lee and company.


31 posted on 10/17/2018 11:51:09 AM PDT by Midwesterner53
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To: wbill

The western allies would have never let Germany turn its attention to Russia because Roosevelt was in Stalin’s pocket and the American government riddled with Stalin’s spies.


32 posted on 10/17/2018 11:52:44 AM PDT by Midwesterner53
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To: RinaseaofDs

You said “Calvary”.

Cavalry = Horses

Calvary - the hill, also known as Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified.

I noticed this because it’s a mistake I made once long ago.

Patton was an observant Christian.

The guy who was court martialed was, as someone else stated, Billy Mitchell.

Doolittle was never in any conflict with the brass as far as I know. He received the first Ph.D in aeronautics issued by MIT in 1925. He was born in Alameda, CA, although raised in Alaska. When he left for the Tokyo raid from the Alameda NAS he was about four or five miles, maybe less, from the house where he was born.

My dad met him in the late 60s or early 70s.


33 posted on 10/17/2018 11:55:40 AM PDT by Flash Bazbeaux
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To: Flash Bazbeaux

Ah. My bad.

That must have been something. I wonder if we still have it in us as a country - that grit.

We look back, and we know how the war ends.

They didn’t know how it was going to end, or if it would end.

Patton saw ‘carts’ in his dreams. Carriages. The Germans were using horse drawn carts to haul things in and out of battle. That was a sign for him they might be winning.


34 posted on 10/17/2018 12:03:37 PM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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To: Rockingham

With regard to atrocities, Rommel had the advantage of not being on the Eastern front.

With regard to armored warfare development, many other soldiers contributed such a Guderian.


35 posted on 10/17/2018 12:08:42 PM PDT by alternatives? (Why have an army if there are no borders?)
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To: FLT-bird
It was never proven that Rommel was an active member of the plot. When first approached with the idea he refused, believing such a thing was beneath the honor of a German officer. His name was blurted out by one of the generals in the plot was was being tortured by the SS.
36 posted on 10/17/2018 12:19:25 PM PDT by jmacusa (Made it Ma, top of the world!'')
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To: rfp1234

Try it on a computer. The Operational Art of War IV. There are several Youtube videos about how to play the game.


37 posted on 10/17/2018 12:23:15 PM PDT by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?)
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To: RinaseaofDs

By the end of 1942, the Axis were all playing defense. We were going to win. Nothing was going to stop that.


38 posted on 10/17/2018 12:27:04 PM PDT by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?)
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To: C19fan

He was utterly non-political.

It says a lot about the author that Rommel is tarred as a nazi.


39 posted on 10/17/2018 12:29:41 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: ifinnegan

It’s never been possible for a person to look at their current situation through the lens of hindsight.


40 posted on 10/17/2018 12:30:00 PM PDT by Rebelbase (..)
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