Is he overrated? He's been praised as an outstanding general, but desu I don't see anything that would justify such praise
>most of the battles he won were against badly led British in desert who let themselves get constantly outflanked in the desert
>complete lack of any strategic or logistical sense, sending his troops constantly ahead of his supply lines thus they end up being overextended and destroyed in a counterattack
>disobeyed his orders to hold the line in pursue of glory but got away with it because Hitler liked him for some reason
it seems that the only reason why he is revered so highly is because the british wanted everyone to think that they lost to some German ubermensch general, hiding their incompetence, and the Germans used him just the same
Is he overrated? He's been praised as an outstanding general...
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Rommel's legend was created in order to justify the re-arming of West Germany (part of the 'clean/elite Wehrmacht myth) and also to produce black propaganda to make excuses for British incompetence. He was also liked by Hitler because Rommel wasn't a typical Prussian aristocrat, who made up much of the Wehrmacht's officer corps.
Because he turned the war around in North Africa with only 3 German divisions, he knew he was never going to get to Suez but he figured he was tying down a lot of British forces in Africa
He was a national hero before he died, it's not a post war myth. Fuck off contrarians
> 'contrarian'
> national hero
> what is propaganda
> what is black propaganda
It's entirely a myth. Rommel never faced the Soviets and crumbled when faced with competent opposition. His task was to defend a front that for the Germans, had very little strategic value.
> tying down a lot of British forces
Yeah because they've sure got a lot of other places to go.
When he arrived in Africa Sea Lion was being planned, keeping those forces out of Britain was considered pretty important
> Sea Lion
> Even vaguely possible
Sea Lion would've been one of the biggest disasters in German military history, no matter how many British troops you 'tie down' in Africa. Britain had a massive number of troops on the mainland (not even counting the vast number of auxiliaries, it's navy, etc.) that would've easily held off any canal boat led massacre.
> When he arrived
Had Greece not occurred Rommel would've been overwhelmed within a month or two of his arrival.
>1941 Spring
>Sealion was being planned
wut
While you can say he did stupid things on the strategic or operational level, at the tactical level there's no questioning his brilliance.
But, one of the reasons he was as successful as he was is that the British couldn't actually focus the entire Middle-East Command down his throat. When he pushed all the way to El Alamein, they could, which is why he was outnumbered nearly 2:1 in that battle. He wasn't tying down shit.
You might want to look at a deployment chart sometime. They had entire corps in Britian, the island was hardly undefended.
39-45.org
>Had Greece not occurred Rommel would've been overwhelmed within a month or two of his arrival.
This part probably isn't correct. The same logistical problems that gave Rommel such trouble work in reverse, and it's also very difficult for the 1941 British to cross the desert in any sort of meaningful force.
One corps is not very much
>he was outnumbered nearly 2:1 in that battle. He wasn't tying down shit.
Sounds like he was tying down twice as many troops as he had
First off, a "Corps" is an non-uniform organziational setup. Second, there were two full "Corps" in the UK. Nonetheless, if you actually trace it down, you've got
26 infantry divisions
13 independent infantry brigades
1 armored division
3 independent armored brigades.
Now look up battles in North Africa, something like Sonnenblume, which was months after September 1940, had 1 real division and 4 brigades (one armored). The forces fighting in North Africa were tiny next to what they were keeping at home. It's more accurate to say that the threat of Sealion kept the British from reinforcing North Africa, not the other way around.
He was a mixed bag. He was indeed as chivalric as a Wehrmacht officer could be. He treated his prisoners rather cordially and did often lead by example with his troops. His campaign in North Africa was very successful initially.
His emphasis on maneuver warfare was novel and is worthy of note given how many times, and for how long he was able to defeat the British and Commonwealth forces. Though his command style did have serious logistical problems, which is what likley led to his defeat in Tunisia. After 1943 I think Rommel lost some of his appeal when he was sidelined in Italy. Also I feel that his role the defense of the French coast in 1944, while he did what he could, was doomed to fail. Though Rommel did possess a perspective on the status of Allied military power in 1944 that was much more realistic than his contemporaries .
His relation with the Nazi party and Hitler are where it gets fuzzy. People parrot all the time that Rommel was part of a plan to assassinate Hitler. While this was true, he knew of the plan, but he was not really active in the plot. He opposed killing Hitler at first, but he never reported the plan. Early on, before the war, and up until 1944 Hitler and Rommel where very close. Rommel had even commanded Hitlers protection detail in 1939. Rommel's attitude with Hitler probably soured in 1943 when Rommel's plan for the defense of Rome was dropped. By 1944 Rommel had probably had it with Hitler's delusion of victory, and that is likely the reason he never reported the assassination plan. Though he probably didn't take an active role because he felt as if he would be responsible for the death of an old friend.
I think Rommel was a brilliant commander, but he wasn't some kind of superhuman who could do no wrong. He was friends with a crackpot dictator and didn't even have the guts to take a side when he knew of the plot to kill Hitler. He was a product of his time who happened to make a great posterboy for the Wehrmacht.
Try reading the rest of the incredibly long one line. You're only tying forces down if
A) They could actually move somewhere else
B) That somewhere else is a more valuable place to go.
The fact is, Gazala chewed up about 50,000 men, and even with that horrible loss, the British could deploy more troops for the next round of combat, without substantial reinforcement of men (they did have a lot of tanks and planes come in), because they couldn't actually bring their forces to bear from Egypt where they could supply them into the middle of the desert. The British weren't drawing out of some otherwise useful commitment to bring the hammer to El Alamein, they were drawing on troops who were literally sitting on their hands with no alternative ability to deploy.
>His emphasis on maneuver warfare was novel
What? It was hardly novel, and certainly while he executed it extremely well, it wasn't something he came up with. He was an infantry commander for most of his career.
>Though his command style did have serious logistical problems, which is what likley led to his defeat in Tunisia.
Please don't use words you don't know the meaning of. Tunisia was just about the only time in the North African campaign he wasn't facing logistical problems. He was well supplied and not moving very much. What cost him Tunisia was simply not having nearly enough force.
>Also I feel that his role the defense of the French coast in 1944, while he did what he could,
He recommended a plan of action that had already failed in Salerno. If that's the best he could do, his best is pretty shit.
> Rommel's honour myth
Rommel's men engaged in pogroms and major mistreatment of locals on a regular basis. Simply because Rommel was snatching wristwatches from the bodies of dead Jews himself doesn't make him chivalric. Rommel was also fully prepared to give assistance to the Einsatzgruppen if he ever reached Palestine.
*wasn't
ignore the anglo shills who want to shill Montgomery into "great general" status.
lmao
as if brits had ONE good WWII general
Obligatory
...
Rommell played the true gentleman officer while the British and Americans were figuring their sh*t out.
>sending his troops constantly ahead of his supply lines
ay someone got the concept of Blitzkrieg
>>>/reddit/
Nazi propaganda hyped him up because he was an outsider to the aristocratic military elite who could be useful to the distinctly unaristocratic Nazi regime.
They had Orde Wingate, he was pretty good
After reading pic related it's clear that the men serving under Rommel had an enourmous amount of respect for him, he must've done something right.
How would have on fared on the eastern front?
Didn't the OKW encourage their officers to live among and eat with their men in order to quell some of the problems with grunts and officers in WWI?
Only wehraboos make a god out of him. He was a decent field commander, and that's it, his greatest achievement wasn't even in Africa but in France on a brigade level. He had no idea how to act on a higher command structure, putting him in charge of an entire fucking corps was a mistake, not even talking about promoting him a Field Marshal. But Hitler preferred him for some reason.
Mediocre.
>the greatest German general
>ignoring OKW's complete inability to provide even a quarter of requested supplies
>ignoring the superior armour and guns of French vehicles
>Le Rommel is shit xD xD xD
>get BTFO by surrender monkeys while outnumbering them 15 to 1
>b-but it's not fair! everyone knows France is technologically superior to Germany!
>Bill Slim
>Not a great general
Come on now
>everyone knows France is technologically superior to Germany!
Only wehraboos think Panzer IIIs and IVs are better than Somuas
>to make excuses for British incompetence
100% this.
>Anglos get BTFO by a guy
>oh he must've been the greatest general to ever live, we can't admit that we just fucking sucked at war
>50,000 mines
>1,200 entrenchments
>what is a siege
What? Rommel wasn't even Prussian, He was a Swabian, from Wurttemberg.
Swabians have characteristic surname ending -el, it's easy to recognize their heritage. Angela Merkel's surname is Swabian too.
>Ignoring that the supply limitations were based on harbor space, something that was actually known to Rommel, and he just didn't give a damn.
>Ignoring that there were no railroads in Libya
>Ignoring that he was exceeding his own side's printed recommendations for distances of operations supplied by motor by almost 100%
Rommel's supply problems are entirely of his own fault. You can't blame OKW on this, as OKW recommended he not do stupid shit like go charging off to Egypt.