'ERWIN ROMMEL: A SOLDIER IN THE SUN'

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Book Review

Erwin Rommel: A Soldier in the Sun 

Manav Guha says Rommel Papers
provides a remarkable insight to a
man who was unfortunate enough to be
a military commander under the Third
Reich 

The Pioneer
Sunday, November 30, 2003

There was a dusty haze on the
battlefield. Tanks, armoured cars and
the infantry were now fighting
pitched battles everywhere. The
sturdy British Troops were for once
pitched against the tough German
Landser, a very different prospect
from the battles that they had
engaged against the Italians with
gusto just about a year ago. There
was a strange resistance that they
faced from these newly arrived German
troops. They seemed rather confident
of their abilities in the sandy
deserts and their morale seemed very
high.

As the battle raged on however, the
British seemed to be getting the
better of their German counterparts
despite the fierce resistance being
put up by the Germans and slowly the
tide seemed to be flowing in favour
of the British. Suddenly, from afar,
there was a concerted move by the
German infantry and armoured forces
to withdraw from the battlefield.
Sensing that victory was near, the
British made a last ditch effort to
pursue the Germans as they seemingly
retreated. By now the noon sun had
passed and the hot Saharan sun was
behind the German frontlines shining
glaringly into the pursuing British
eyes.

As the Germans retreated further, the
British exhilaration grew. They were
getting the better of the enemy. As
the slow motion battle continued, the
Germans fell back, stopping now and
then to fight. To the British unit
commanders, the battle seemed to be
won and already the congratulatory
telegrams were being prepared to be
transmitted to Tobruk and then onto
Alexandria and Cairo.

At precisely this moment, on a small
sand dune not far away from the
battleground, wrapped in a leather
overcoat, surrounded by a few
officers dressed in the distinctive
uniform of the Afrika Korps, a stocky
man strained his eyes through his
binoculars. He gazed hard at the
battlefield, occasionally looking to
his rear and then back again at the
littered battlefield in front of him.
Lowering his binoculars, he wiped a
grimy hand over his face and set his
hat firmly on his head. Then with a
broad smile, he looked towards his
ADC and softly articulated his clear
commands, which were immediately sent
down the line.

To the British whose eyes were
hurting from the blinding sun, the
sky seemed to get brighter for a
brief moment and then to their utter
surprise, with a blinding flash, a
series of muzzle flashes appeared
from just over the horizon followed
by the characteristic crump of field
guns being fired. Moments later the
sand under their feet and tank tracks
seemed to erupt in anger. Where were
these barrages coming from? The
British troops and their commanders
stood still in stupefaction. Was it
their own artillery firing with the
incorrect range-tables? The rolling
barrage began to come frighteningly
closer and before they could react it
was on them like a murderous storm.
Shrapnel ripped through the ranks of
the British troops and direct hits on
the British tanks and armoured cars
instantly turned them into burning
shells. Panic gripped the British
ranks and they began to give way in
the face of this well directed
artillery barrage. Stunned and
shattered the British troops began to
retreat. The first steps back were
orderly. As they emerged out of the
sand that had been so suddenly
churned up, they looked to the south
and saw what they took for a
sandstorm brewing. The battle-
hardened battalion commanders of the
infantry and mobile troops began
their retreat towards it. Suddenly,
they found themselves staring down
the barrels of German Panzers that
had seemingly appeared out of
nowhere. Ignoring the now panicking
British forward troops the Panzers
swept in a wide circle behind them
and made for the rear lines of the
British. Back at the British HQ the
staff were just bringing out the
whiskey and were beginning to count
the wounded lists. The Panzers did
not allow them the pleasure. Moving
rapidly, the German Panzers drove
straight into the tank park and began
disgorging lightly armed German
infantry amongst them. Taken by
surprise the British had no time to
react. They began surrendering by the
droves.

-From the sandy hillock, the stocky
German officer raced down to his
command vehicle, which he had named
Mamut. Aboard with his ADC and his
Chief of Staff, he ordered the driver
to drive straight through the now
silent battlefield towards the
British field HQ. The vehicle only
stopped at the Division Commander's
tent, which had by now surrendered to
the lightly armed German infantry.
Jumping out of his vehicle, the
stocky officer stalked towards the
German tank officer. Major
Rothenberg, who had led the abrupt
tactical offensive. He had a broad
smile on his face as he smartly
saluted the stocky figure and
immediately led him to a small group
of British officers who were sitting
on the sand behind the tent under
armed guard. Stopping in front of
them, the stocky officer allowed
himself a grim smile. He then strode
up to a British Major General and
introduced himself. It was not the
first time that the British had heard
his name and it wouldn't be the last.
To those who sat at the edge of the
prisoners' circle, they could only
hear his name - the name that would
adorn the pages of future history
books, that would evoke a strange
admiration for an enemy commander
from a person no less than Churchill,
that would be tragic in its last
moments of existence and would
eventually become a legend in its own
right - Erwin Rommel, Field Marshal,
Afrika Korps.

While this account is fictional in
its essence, it was by and large true
of the exploits of Erwin Rommel, who
after the fall of Tobruk became the
youngest field marshal in the German
Wehrmacht. For a period of about a
year, Rommel proved to be a thorn in
the side of the Allies. Had the
German Military High Command
exploited his achievements on the
deserts of Cyrenaica, one could have
speculated the destruction of the
Allied Middle East Command. Whether
this would have brought the Allies to
their knees is suspect, but the fact
that cannot be denied is that it
would have struck a fearful blow to
the Allied war effort as a whole.

For an infantry commander to have
achieved what he did with armoured
formations, Erwin Rommel was a
singularity. His reputation, however,
rested on more than his martial
achievements. Known through his ranks
and that of the British as a
chivalrous general, Rommel epitomises
the last of the knights, a dying
breed of men who fight valiantly and
treat their enemies with care and
respect. In the context of the
Germany that Rommel was fighting for,
with all the baggage of racial and
ideological supremacy, Rommel was a
misnomer.

The book Rommel Papers provides a
remarkable insight to a man who was
unfortunate to be a military
commander under the Third Reich, yet
it did not tarnish his reputation. He
was known as the man who could
seemingly conjure up victories when
others conceded defeat. Always
operating with lesser than the full
complement of troops, burdened by a
slack Ally in the Italians and
hampered by an unsympathetic High
Command, Rommel's achievements seem,
in retrospect, to be larger than life
and so they were.

Surprise, rapid decision-making,
tactical dexterity and an innate
understanding of the capabilities of
his soldiers marked his 'art of war'.
Other commanders, notably Patton and
Montgomery, had their share of the
limelight, but never seemed to
possess the élan that Rommel did. In
the recent past some commentators
have attempted to darken the pages of
Rommel's exploits. Allegations that
he was a Nazi have been levied
against him. Some considered him to
be an opportunist, while others have
cited his close relations to Hitler
as Rommel's negative points. Except
for the allegation that he was a
Nazi, some of the comments made
against Rommel are worth considering.
For example, there was no doubt that
he was one of Hitler's favourite
marshals. But one asks, why not? For
any Head of State, a victorious
General will always be a favourite,
especially in a totalitarian regime
where favours can be explicitly
conferred without any questions being
asked. Yet, one finds that even
before Operation Overlord, Rommel had
realised the full implications of
Hitler's objectives and was against
them. While in general he agreed with
Hitler's offensive against the Soviet
Union, he remained sceptical of
Hitler's radical racial policies. How
much he knew of Hitler's
extermination plans remains unknown,
but Rommel's personal conduct on the
battlefield seems to indicate that he
played fair and did not discriminate
against combatants.

Rommel also fell foul of Hitler when
he received, for the first time in
his career, an order from Hitler to
stand and fight to the last man and
bullet. It was also the first time
that Rommel received a shock at the
absurdity of Hitler's military
judgment. It is significant to note
that Rommel ignored this and many
other orders like this, which under
the Nazi regime was a dangerous thing
to do. Rommel's appreciation of the
total war effort has often been
criticised as being tactical and not
strategic in orientation. Yet a close
reading of the Rommel Papers shows
that this is patently untrue. His
appreciation of the 'command of the
air', his understanding of the
recklessness of keeping the mobile
formations far behind the Normandy
beaches, his advocacy for pushing the
war to its fullest extent in the
Egyptian deserts and the necessity of
capturing and neutralising Cairo and
commanding the Suez Canal, his
defensive postures adopted at
Normandy and his suggestions to hold
the Soviet armies in the East using
defensive weapon-platforms show his
understanding of the strategic
element of warfare. He was one of the
first of the German generals to
realise the implications of Operation
Torch, the Allied landing in North
Africa and the military weight of the
newest entrant in the World War - the
United States of America.

Born on November 15, 1891, Erwin
Rommel was destined to be one of the
most popular generals in the Second
World War - both within his country
and among his enemies. Yet, by 1944,
he met a tragic end. After being
seriously wounded in France, he was
caught up in the whirlwind of the
July 1944 Plot to assassinate Hitler.
Whether he knew of the Plot and
whether he was directly involved
remains unknown, though according to
his last Chief of Staff, General Hans
Speidal, he was committed to bring a
change in the leadership of the
Reich. What is sure however is that
coupled with his acute understanding
of Germany's disastrous military
situation and his appreciation of the
defeat that was looming in the
distance for Germany, he wanted to
bring an end to the war. His name was
reputedly mentioned in connection
with the July Plot and he was
implicated for being a party to the
assassination attempt. Hitler, for
political and probably personal
reasons, gave Rommel an option that
was not available to any other
officer. While other implicated
officers were executed after being
tried by a sham military court,
Rommel was given a deathly choice -
he could either face the People's
Court and defend himself - a rather
unlikely prospect - or he could
commit suicide and his death would be
announced as the result of his
battlefield injuries. To tilt the
decision in favour of the latter
option, his family's safety was
guaranteed. Rommel chose to commit
suicide. It was a tragic end to a
brilliant career.

Rommel, though not the originator of
the rapid and ubiquitous Blitzkrieg-
style of warfare, was however one of
its best exponents. His natural flare
for movement and his understanding of
desert warfare (he once noted with
remarkable insight the similarity
between desert warfare and naval
warfare) made him one of the few
battlefield commanders who displayed
a firm grasp of both tactical and
strategic movements. His penchant for
speed, surprise and concentrated
firepower always stood him in good
stead and his methods have been, with
few alterations, adopted by most
armoured formations the world over.
But, Rommel did have his drawbacks.
Brought up in the traditions of the
formidable German General Staff who
prided themselves on the central role
of logistics management, Rommel was
often at acrimonious variance with
his staff officers. Instinctually
given to lead from the front, he was
often far away from his base camps.
This created problems in the chain of
decision-making for his staff
officers. More importantly, this also
led to supply and logistics problems.
However, one can understand Rommel's
perspective. He understood the
importance of delegating authority
and required his staff officers to
keep abreast of the fluidity of the
battlefield. Further, he was of the
opinion that a commander's position
lay well up front with his troops and
his staff officers were tasked with
ensuring that they kept a finger on
the pulse of the dynamics of the
battle and provided supply-chains to
support the battle-efforts of the
fighting troops. Not all who served
under him however were enamoured by
his methods, which were, to say the
least, a departure from the planned
and meticulous preparatory methods
that the German General Staff were
rooted in. Rommel thrived on chance
and took risks - his staff and more
importantly, his High Command, were
not very appreciative of the fog of
war', a situation which Rommel felt
could be exploited to extract the
maximum advantage from the
battlefield.

The Indian Army has much to learn
from Rommel. It has had two
opportunities to display its prowess
in desert warfare, albeit under
limited conditions. Both the times
the results were stunted not due to
the capabilities of the frontline
troops, but due to the inflexible
attitudes of the Higher Command
Structure. The Indian Armoured
Formations were not able to strike
decisive victories in the desert and
even if they were capable of doing
so, the Higher Command Structure,
including the political leadership
showed little appreciation of what
lightening attacks on the enemy force
and value centres could yield. From
Rommel we can learn the importance of
delegating authority to the
battlefield commanders; we can learn
the importance of having theatre
commanders who having been given
tactical objectives, are left
relative free of control in order to
enable them to achieve them; we have
to learn that our field commanders
must be encouraged to take calculated
risks; we have to learn how political
decision-making can benefit
enormously from qualified military
personnel giving advice on not only
matters pertaining to the
battlefield, but also on matters
pertaining to national security in
general. The Indian Army can also
learn that while logistics management
is an integral part of any kind of
warfare, a certain degree of
uncertainty always exists under
battle conditions and it is the field
commander's job to be able to exploit
the situation to his advantage.
Further, the Army can learn how the
relations between a commander and his
troops are often the deciding factor
for the Army under his command. The
Army can also appreciate the
importance of speed and surprise in
military operations.

There is much to learn from Field
Marshal Rommel and a close study of
this book will enable us to
appreciate the genius of the German
Field Marshal who, by virtue of his
legendary exploits in the deserts of
North Africa and in Normandy, has
earned himself a place in the annals
of history as the Desert Fox.

(The reviewer is a Mumbai-based
military analyst)

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