![]() Rommel himself mentioned, “I’ve taken a lot of photographs” in a letter to his wife written on May 27. Manfred Rommel, his son, wrote, “… he planned to write on the Second World War … took literally thousands … including a large number in color.” Rommel intended to use the photos in the book he planned to write to follow up his popular Infantry Attacks. Goebbels gave Rommel, an avid amateur photographer, a Leica camera to chronicle the campaign. Hitler’s decision apparently raised more than a few eyebrows in the senior military hierarchy because, in a letter to his wife Lucie dated February 17, Rommel wrote, “Jodl was flabbergasted at my new posting.” The 7th Panzer Division Was a “Propaganda Division”įrom the start it was clear the 7th Panzer Division would be receiving high-level political attention and preference. By February 1940 he was a major general in command of one of the 10 panzer divisions that would spearhead the campaign in the West. Rommel had begun the month of November 1938 as a major who occasionally commanded an escort battalion. The appointment capped a truly rapid ascent through the ranks. Rommel desired command of a panzer division, and he received it, the objections of the Army personnel branch being overruled quite possibly by Hitler himself. Rommel was neither a member of the Junker class of Prussian aristocrats nor a product of the General Staff (who denied him entry), both of which were essential prerequisites for military advancement prior to the rise of Hitler. As headquarters commandant during the Polish campaign, he traveled on Hitler’s special train, named Amerika, and often shared the same car or light plane.īy 1940 the two had developed a liking for each other, sharing both humble origins and a deep dislike for the snobbery and elitism of the old German aristocracy. He was promoted to major general on August 22 (backdated to June 1). In August he was the obvious choice to perform the same duties during the invasion of Poland. He was picked to command Hitler’s escort battalion, the Führerbegleitbataillon (FBB), during the occupation of the Sudetenland in October 1938, and he repeated the task again twice in March 1939 during the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia and the Baltic port of Memel. Rommel was given a three-year appointment as instructor at the War Academy in Potsdam in October 1935, his teaching duties interrupted to perform security arrangements, such as at the summer 1936 Nuremburg rally, and acting as the War Ministry’s liaison officer to the Hitler Youth beginning in February 1937. He made a favorable impression and would henceforth enjoy his patronage. It was at this meeting in Goslar that Rommel also met the Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels. Rommel and Hitler first met briefly in Goslar at a Reichsbaurentag, a traditional fair for farmers and landowners that the Nazis had elevated to a political event. What Rommel did have was regular, personal access to Adolf Hitler. So why, in the early hours of the morning on May 10, 1940, was he leading a panzer division into the forests of the Belgian Ardennes? Erwin Rommel’s Swift Rise Through the Ranks Before becoming known as the Desert Fox, General Irwin Rommel proved his prowess on the battlefield. The chief of Army personnel had recommended that Rommel be given command of a mountain division, based on his experience in the Alpine Corps during World War I. He had not even commanded a combat unit during the invasion. Neither did he have any direct experience with the new blitzkrieg operations that had made their debut during the conquest of Poland in September and October 1939. ![]() Rommel had no prior experience commanding a division. ![]() For the invasion of France, code-named Fall Gelb (Plan Yellow), Germany had assembled roughly 135 divisions, but only 10 of these were panzer divisions. At the time, however, nothing could have been further from the truth. The appointment of Erwin Rommel as commander of the 7th Panzer Division (nicknamed the “Ghost Division”) in February 1940 seems, in the light of his many triumphs in France and North Africa, an unremarkable and perfectly natural choice. ![]()
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