Day: 22 September 2005

Erwin Rommel entered the army in 1910 and rose slowly through the
ranks. In 1939, Adolf Hitler made him a general. Rommel brilliantly
commanded an armored division in the attack (1940) on France. In Feb.,
1941, he took the specially trained tank corps, the Afrika Korps, into
Libya. For his successes there he was made field marshal and earned the
name ?the desert fox.? In 1942 he pressed almost to Alexandria, Egypt,
but was stalled by fierce British resistance and lack of supplies. A
British offensive overwhelmed (Oct.-Nov., 1942) the German forces at
Alamein (see North Africa, campaigns in ). Rommel was recalled to
Germany before the Afrika Korps’s final defeat. He was a commander in
North France when the Allies invaded Normandy in June, 1944. Allied
success led Rommel, who had lost his respect for Hitler, to agree to a
plot to remove Hitler from office. Wounded in an air raid in July, he
had just recovered when he was forced to take poison because of his
part in the attempt on Hitler’s life in July, 1944.

Other leaders like yourself include Patton and MacArthur.