I recently bought a book called The History Buff's Guide to World War II by Thomas R. Flagel. Its kind of a general book that gives top ten rankings of different things in World War Two such as best generals, important battles, etc. Its kind of general but it has a lot of interesting facts. One particular list caught my eye. It was titled Top Ten Worst Military Commanders. It gave commanders that deserved to be put there such as Hermann Goering, Toyada Soemu, etc. But what shocked me was that at #7 was Erwin Rommel. I will put some info below. The author describes him as someone who frequently disobeyed orders, whose "maverick, reckless exploits were lethally out of place." It also says that he displayed "a contempt if not ignorance of logistics," and refused to cooperate with other officers. The author also implies that the only reason why he was victorious in most cases was because he only faced inexperienced troops, and how he left his men in Africa to escape to the more quieter western theater where he "wasted time and resources on the tactically futile Atlantic Wall," and that he "augmented," his already "inflated status." He basically criticizes Rommel for everything that he had done. I personally believe that Rommel was a genius and brilliant tactitian and general but he had some flaws. But the author seemed to go all Open Season on everything wrong with Rommel.
Funny, I have read many book on military commanders throughout history and a common theme for the most famous, and those with victories under their belt is many of the same flaws quoted. Temper, a tendency to interpret their orders, to act independently of colleagues seem all too commonplace in the great captain's of history. He who dares, wins.
Almost every high ranking commander of any note has some reputation for tempers. Often they are for show as much for actual anger. Most commanders realize that the margin for victory can be very small or dependent on acting in a narrow window of time.
if you were rumored to have been romantically linked with coco chanel, you couldn't have been all grumpy and obnoxious.
Oh, when was this mac_bolan00? I knew Rommel fathered an illegitimate child before he married Luci but never heard about this. Please elucidate!
His "victories" weren't lasting and the Führer pulled him from Africa to save reputation of his favorite propaganda general from a catastrophic defeat. Without the Führer's intervention, Rommel could have been "Paulus" of North Africa. Myths are just fine but have nothing in common with the reality.
This was discussed twice earlier I think. Here´s one of the threads: http://www.ww2f.com/topic/4809-rommel´s-second-family/
Thanks for the heads up. This is why I don't buy books entitled "the history buffs guide to..." Who is Thomas R Flagel? Is he a respected historian or a hack commentator offering superficial opinions in a populist style for Christmas? ? Thinking about it Maybe its the kind of book to leave around to raise the blood pressure of the less commercially successful historical authors. A copy or two left at the GAGm of the Beritish Commission for Military History might thin the ranks of the old and bold.
I think personally that often to make a book sell you have to have something "new" in the book. For instance a Finnish historian made a book on that we could have survived ourselves the massive Red Army summer attack of 1944. No, we did not need the Kuhlmey Stukas, the 5,000 Panzerfausts, their Stug´s or German 122nd infantry division... I do believe you, yes...