What has been the lasting impact of Erwin Rommel?
His lasting impact is as a symbol and a legend. Perhaps his story is also a neat encapsulation of the wider experience of the German military’s institutional experience of the Hitler years. The British built up a legend around Rommel during the Western Desert campaign. Rommel was excellent at self-promotion and his 1930s book, ‘Infantry Attacks’, was widely read within the German military in the years before the war. Rommel commanded the unit that protected Hitler when Hitler visited troops during the Poland campaign (one of the few times Hitler visited troops), and from this he secured the command of a Panzer Division for the attack on France- a key command of a unit that was sure to bring him fame. Sent to Africa and ordered to defend, he attacked audaciously. Rommel would often attack when only half-supplied, led from the very front, and the ‘chivalrous’ nature of the desert war, with few civilians to get in the way and none of the murder and genocide of Russia and the Japanese batt
