[Powerbits]

By 1942, Rommel’s Afrika Corps has been pushed back to Tunisia and the new US tank force lands in North Africa. This is the story of the final North African battles as two of history’s most famed tank commanders – Patton and Rommel – go head to head. War Stories is your one stop shop for all things military history. From Waterloo to Verdun, we’ll be bringing you only the best documentaries and stories from history’s most engaging and dramatic conflicts.

 

[Anonymous]

Just some thoughts on Rommel & Patton as historical figures:

I would be careful about judging historical figures like Rommel. They are often mystified. What is it supposed to mean that Rommel was a particularly capable general given the historical circumstances? When Rommel was detached to Africa, the balance of power in the world had already developed in favor of the Allies: At that point, the war was virtually lost for the Axis powers at Stalingrad. In Italy, it was the first Allied landing in Western Europe. For the Germans and Italians, it was already a defensive war. Here the Allies, who had comparatively little experience of war, tested on a small scale what later became D-Day. From here on, it was only a matter of time how long the people of Europe would suffer and die under the tyranny of the Axis powers. All the worse that “the desert fox” Rommel delayed the liberation of Europe, if you ask me. Here in Germany, where I live, you can find stories about Wehrmacht heroes like Rommel in cheap trash magazines like “Landser,” little dime novels. Rommel as well as most Germans were simply Nazis at that time (resistance unfortunately was not really a thing to mention during that time and please don’t tell me the myth about the “clean Wehrmacht”; in Italy, for example, the Germans massacred civilians.). I wouldn’t even drink a single beer in a pub with such people today. By the way, the vast majority of today’s Germans don’t see people from that time as their heroes (only neonazis would do so). The cause the Axis powers fought for was a terrible one. When Rommel served his country, his country did very terrible things. I probably wouldn’t have a beer with Patton either. He was described as not a very pleasant contemporary and was replaced in the later Italian campaign because he no longer seemed competent…. So I would be rather critical of these historical figures. I apologize for being political.

 

cheers.

[Powerbits]

I agree that the Nazi regime used propaganda to blow up Rommel’s reputation but Rommel was not a fan of Hitler at the end it seems:

 

With the Nazis gaining power in Germany, Rommel gradually came to accept the new regime, with historians giving different accounts on the specific period and his motivations.[6] He was a supporter of Adolf Hitler, at least until near the end of the war, if not necessarily sympathetic to the party and the paramilitary forces associated with it.[7] In 1944, Rommel was implicated in the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler. Because of Rommel’s status as a national hero, Hitler desired to eliminate him quietly instead of immediately executing him, as many other plotters were. Rommel was given a choice between committing suicide, in return for assurances that his reputation would remain intact and that his family would not be persecuted following his death, or facing a trial that would result in his disgrace and execution; he chose the former and committed suicide using a cyanide pill.[8] Rommel was given a state funeral, and it was announced that he had succumbed to his injuries from the strafing of his staff car in Normandy.

 

As for Patton , he was punished for handling a few soldiers to hard:

 

In early August 1943, Lieutenant General George S. Patton slapped two United States Army soldiers under his command during the Sicily Campaign of World War II. Patton’s hard-driving personality and lack of belief in the medical condition of combat stress reaction, then known as “battle fatigue” or “shell shock”, led to the soldiers’ becoming the subject of his ire in incidents on 3 and 10 August, when Patton struck and berated them after discovering they were patients at evacuation hospitals away from the front lines without apparent physical injuries.

Word of the incidents spread, eventually reaching Patton’s superior, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who ordered him to apologize to the men. Patton’s actions were initially suppressed in the news until journalist Drew Pearson publicized them in the United States. While the reactions of the U.S. Congress and the general public were divided between support and disdain for Patton’s actions, Eisenhower and Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall opted not to fire Patton as a commander.

Seizing the opportunity the predicament presented, Eisenhower used Patton as a decoy in Operation Fortitude, sending faulty intelligence to German agents that Patton was leading the Invasion of Europe. While Patton eventually returned to combat command in the European Theater in mid-1944, the slapping incidents were seen by Eisenhower, Marshall, and other leaders to be examples of Patton’s brashness and impulsiveness.

 

Maybe both generals had a shitty character, but i do believe they were great tacticians on the battlefield.

[-Bullithol-NL]

Yea i agree partially Frank, but the part of where you mentioned Rommels involvement in the assassination attempt of the 20th july 1944 plot, doesnt make him a good Person either. As we all should know, neither one of these Assassins/Purgers, which were involved in the assassination attempt, were in any perspective an good Person/hero. I actually had to study for at least one year in my high school about the myth of the clean Wehrmacht and the political ideologies/plans of ‘von Stauffenberg’, especially the planning with the involvement of the purgers/assassins party of the 20th July 44. Every one of them was an true Nazi right out of the definition, even the attempt of the purge just contents the negotioations of an Peace-out with the western Allies, but an continuation of an war in the East, expanding the Lebensraum and still contains genocide on certain ethnic minorities. They even wanted support of the western Allies for the fight in the East against the communists. There was nothing noble with those myths about these people, and i really hate it, to get political, but the glorification of this assassination attempt still pisses me off to today. Like i said, sorry – dont want to get political, and have a good evening 🙂

[Author]

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