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 ...
Hmmmmmm yep lol
Seriously?
I will have to look for evidence of that. If this is true, that they’d capture enough supplies to make it work.
How crazy is that? The allied supply lines were way longer than the German ones I have to believe.
After Normandy, you’d think they would have done everything possible to make operating out of Normandy hell.
More monday morning quarterbacking, but its still interesting.
Thanks for the interesting post!
The western allies could have never fired another shot after December of 1944 and the Germans still would have lost. All that would have happened is that the Russians would have taken more of Germany before linking up with the Americans and British.
While we mythologize the Western Front, at the end of the day it was almost a sideshow as far as the war went. Three quarters of the German Army was fighting on the Eastern Front, and that's where the war was decided.
Concur. In the 1970s and 1980s, I read almost any book or article about Rommel. Though I do not remember where I read it, I do remember that I saw it in several places, that during WWII, the British had a contest to vote "your favorite general." The British govt had to change the winner, because Gen Rommel received the most votes. His treatment of prisoners of war were recognized as being top notch. He was always focused on "the battle." He did not want atrocities to occur and wanted to minimize death and destruction to the civilian population. He did not mind killing piles of the "enemy," but he always sought to have the opposing force surrender.
Awesome quotes. Rommel battled his superiors, and Patton battled his too. The rain fell on both alike.
In the end, Eisenhower used Patton as chess piece. It was good that Eisenhower saw Patton through the eyes of the Germans.
Patton may not have been happy about it, but I think had he the luxury of 10 to 20 years, he would have appreciated it.
I don’t know if Patton won the Medal of Honor. I will have to look that up.
Thanks for that. I’ll be reading up on it.
I knew Rommel was against the assassination but favored arrest and replacement of Hitler.
I didn’t know about Strolin.
I imagine many people were singing like birds trying to save their families.
Good article about the Battle of the Bulge supply situation here.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/the-battle-of-the-bulge-an-allied-logistic-victory/
Oh, they did. The Germans had a strategy of holding on to the ports as long as possible. Lorient, Saint Nazaire, La Rochelle, and Dunkirk in France held out until the German surrender in May 1945. And when ports were taken, like Cherbourg, German demolitions squads were very, very good at making sure they would be unusable for a long time, sinking ships, blowing up piers, booby trapping everything, and so on. One American called Cherbourg "A masterful job, beyond a doubt the most complete, intensive, and best planned demolition in history." It took until November to get the port fully restored, but even then it could barely support the Allied armies.
'Rommel undoubtedly planned the attack, if defeat Rommel's plan you have defeated Rommel.'
I just read the article.
It wasn’t that the Germans discounted logistics. The allies had done an excellent job of destroying Axis logistics.
They were out of materiel, period.
So it really became a race to Berlin ahead of the Russians. Ike and everyone else knew the Russians were going to be trouble?
Rommel was never a member of the Nazi party, although there is much confusion about that because Goebbels' propaganda machine put out a mostly fictional bio saying he was.
Rommel was for a time an officer in Hitler's personal bodyguard and became one of his favorite generals. That helped him get an early promotion to General and a plum assignment to command one of the Panzer Divisions in the invasion of France, which he could see was the Next Big Thing. Rommel was known for daring infantry tactics and took well to panzer tactics.
The idea to invade France through the Ardennes was Manstein's but Rommel's execution was outstanding.
Rommel's relations with Hitler turned icy during the Battle of Normandy when he and Rundstedt repeatedly requested permission to use active defense tactics, strategic withdrawals and counterattacks. Hitler refused to allow any retreat, forcing them into the war of attrition that ultimately broke their army.
Rommel was not part of the generals' plot. He was, however, friendly with some who were disaffected with Hitler and with some of the conspirators. That was enough for Hitler, who allowed his favorite general to commit suicide and have a hero's funeral, rather than the piano wire hangings he meted out to the conspirators.
Rommel's son became an officer in the Bundeswehr, was pro-Western and an ardent small-d democrat.
I had a copy of that. I had intended to set up a multi-user campaign, but the sheer tedium and the challenge of getting a bunch of people to commit to it pretty much killed that off.
I was more of a 'Squad Leader' and 'Panzerblitz' guy. When SSI released 'Steel Panthers' for the computer, I left boardgaming and never looked back.
Rommel may or may not have planned the attack. There are no records of his operation plan and his replacement was brought in with sufficient time to have altered it. The execution is where Rommel proved his genius.
I still have Steel Panthers, but, enjoy the fun of playing Face to face with a friend.
Squad Leader is still around. I have a copy of Panzer Leader and Panzer Blitz sitting at my feet as I type.
Shrapnel Games has Steel Panthers now- both the World War 2 and modern versions and it’s available as a (legit) free download. They get updated (including new scenarios and campaigns) every year and is still very much a going thing.
Berlin was off the table for the Americans. It had already been decided that we were going to stop along the Elbe. And frankly, given that the Russians lost over 80,000 dead taking the city, it’s just as well.
Rommel’s book was titled “Infantry Attacks.” It was about his actions on the Italian front during WWI.
Available online at: https://archive.org/stream/Attacks_Erwin_Rommel/Attacks_Erwin_Rommel_djvu.txt
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