Riley

__ Erwin Rommel __ Erwin Rommel was born on November 15, 1891. His dad was always interested in war tactics but wasn’t part of the military. Erwin’s father was a school teacher and his mother was the daughter of a former president of Wurttemberg. Growing up Erwin Rommel really wanted to study engineering, but once he got to the decision of college or military, his dad made him go into the military. This is where his career in the military began. He first was part of the army when he joined the 124 Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet. He then served on the Italian front and in France on the Romanian Front. Erwin Rommel met Lucie Maria Mollin in Danzig and they married in 1916. The next year on Christmas Eve, they had a child. Rommel was very respected by Hitler most of the time. Their were times that Rommel told Hitler to back off but Hitler still would never listen to anybody else. An example is when Rommel was in charge of the men in the Afrika Corps. Rommel knew that he and his troops were doomed. Rommel fled to tell Hitler that he and his troops needed to back out. Hitler didn’t listen to Rommel. He told him to fight until his last man was dead. Rommel had more respect than this for his men so he surrendered. Rommel respected most men, even his enemies. The British really respected him for this. Rommel believed that all prisoners of war should be well looked after and in no way abused. This is one thing that Hitler didn’t like about him. Rommel was successful on his attack on Western Europe in 1940. This led Hitler to appoint him to command troops in the Afrika Corps. Here he got the nickname “Desert Fox”. He got this name because of his skillful and brilliant maneuvers in the desert. Rommel always showed bravery. Because of this he was awarded with the Iron Cross Class 1. He got this award after returning to the frontlines in the Argonne area in January of 1915. It was amazing that he returned because he ran out of ammo with a broken leg, and then decided to charge three Frenchmen with his bayonet. This was what earned him that award. Erwin Rommel died on October 14, 1944 by being forced to eat a poison pill. He was suspected to have been part of the bomb attack on Hitler. Because of this Hitler ordered his men to go pick Rommel up and give him two choices. His choices were 1. Poison himself at that moment or 2. He would get a show process in Volksgerichtshof and all of his merits would disappear. He chose to be poisoned. Erwin Rommel was a great German General and made a great impact on their military.