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

David Fraser

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060182229 ISBN 13: 9780060182229

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1994

Synopsis

In any numbering of the great captains of history, the name of Erwin Rommel must stand in the first rank. He was the outstanding Axis field commander of the Second World War, and was respected, even admired, as well as feared by his opponents. Here was a supremely professional solder: chivalrous, decent, untainted by the crimes of the Nazi regime, carrying out his duty with often dazzling success.

David Fraser's book--surely the definitive study--brings to Rommel's career not only the perceptions of an acclaimed biographer, but those of a distinguished soldier too: his insights into Rommel's mind and methods carry the authority of experience. He shows how inspiringly spontaneous and superficially haphazard Rommel's style of leadership could be. His hallmarks were boldness of manoeuvre, ferocity in attack, and tenacity in pursuit. These were the qualities he displayed in his great battles in the North African desert; they were evident from his earliest battles in the First World War to his last, defending Fortress Europe from the Allied invasion of 1944.

This is, first and foremost, a biography of a soldier. But Rommel reached a position in which he almost inevitably became embroiled in politics. When he realized that the Allied invasion was going to succeed, he realized also that the only way to save Germany was somehow to negotiate a peace settlement. He tried to present Hitler--to whom he had always been devoted, and who had always shown him a particular respect and affection--with the military realities: he was branded a defeatist and ignored. But his opinions, and his apparent links with the Stauffenberg plotters of July 1944--one of them, under interrogation, mentioned Rommel as a possible head of post-Hitlerian Germany--condemned him in the eyes of the Führer he had served so loyally. He was offered the choice of trial by a People's Court--a sham of course--or suicide, a state funeral and protection for his family. He chose the latter.

About this title

About the Author:

As a member of the Grenadier Guards for many years General Sir David Fraser has used his personal knowledge to write a fascinating account of their history from 1656.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A judicious appraisal of Germany's best-known WW II soldier, from a retired British general whose published works include a well-regarded 1982 biography of Lord Alanbrook. Drawing on archival and secondary sources, as well as on the assistance of Rommel's son, Fraser offers a nuanced portrait of the so-called Desert Fox. The son of a Swabian schoolmaster, Rommel decided to make arms his profession at an early age. Commissioned less than three years before the outbreak of WW I, he led small units in combat on several fronts, earning the highest awards for bravery. Rommel's organizational gifts attracted Hitler's attention after their initial 1934 meeting, and the officer was given command of the 7th Panzer Division, which spearheaded the Wehrmacht's 1940 conquest of France. Posted to the North African theater early in 1941, he made a world-class name for himself as a master of battlefield maneuver by keeping better-equipped, numerically superior enemy forces at bay for over two years in campaigns from Cyrenaica to the Kasserine Pass. Back in Europe in mid-1943, Rommel oversaw strengthening of Axis defenses against an anticipated invasion by the Allies. Anglo-American troops nonetheless gained a secure foothold in Normandy, which marked the beginning of the Third Reich's end. Meanwhile, Rommel (who'd been implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler) chose to commit suicide in return for a promise that his family would not be harmed. In addition to authoritative critiques of Rommel's military career, Fraser probes the content of his character and provides perceptive takes on the geopolitical as well as socioeconomic events that made him an originally enthusiastic instrument of an abhorrent movement he never formally joined. A tellingly detailed account that manages to put Rommel into a human context. (Sixteen pages of b&w photos and 20 helpful maps) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0060182229
• ISBN 13: 9780060182229
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 601