I recently took up reading about Erwin Rommel, the German Field Marshall nicknamed: The Dessert Fox. He was arguably the best military tactician who ever lived. It seems that just about anyone who faced him in combat, quickly gained a healthy respect for his abilities. The book I am now reading, is a sort of “lessons-learned,” critique of his own exploits during WWI. In reading this, I am gaining an appreciation of just how he learned his art.
The book is a dispassionate account of his first battles as a young officer with the 124th infantry regiment, during WWI. Though what he was describing represented the most desperate of circumstances, you do not get that feeling from his words. The most harrowing of circumstances are set fourth in succinct, dispassionate terms, which belie the seriousness of what he must be experiencing. However, what he lacks in emotion, he makes up for in terms of clarity… he imparts only the pertinent information, critiques his performance and then summarizes the important lessons that he learned. This style would not work for a lesser man than he… it is only because of who he is, and the absolute intensity of what he is describing that I find it enjoyable. I want to know what he knows: but first, I must understand the man and how he came into being. His writing accomplishes this effectively.
In the end, regardless of all that he accomplished… he lost. His forces were eventually routed from North Africa. His defense of France did not stop the allied invasion. His half-hearted support of the plot to assassinate Hitler resulted in Hitler’s continued reign and Rommel’s coerced suicide. In his defense, he was given impossible tasks against an overwhelming force with a madman at the helm of state. He fought harder and more skillfully than most could have in his place and there are few who disagree… least of all, those who battled against him.
