Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

by David Fraser (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $5.03

  In any numbering of the great captains of history, the name Erwin Rommel must stand in the first rank. He was an outstanding field commander of World War II, and the only one respected, as well as feared, by his opponents. This study looks at Rommel's career, showing how inspiringly wild and superficially undisciplined Rommel's style of leadership could be, how he believed in boldness of manoeuvre, ferocity in attack and tenacity in pursuit. These qualities, the hallmarks of his career, he displayed in his great battles in North Africa. The book also discusses Rommel's inevitable entanglement in politics when he realized the Allied invasion was going to succeed. He believed the only way to save Germany was to negotiate a peace settlement so he tried to present Hitler - to whom he had always been devoted and who had always shown him respect - with military realities. The result being he was branded a defeatist and ignored. When he was implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler he was offered the choice of trial by a People's Court (rigged) or suicide, a state funeral and protection for his family. He chose the latter.