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  Lonnie Walker IV

  Manstein, Rommel and Guderian are known as the three great generals of Nazi Germany during World War II. From a political perspective, they were absolutely fascist accomplices who committed unforgivable war crimes against other countries and were Hitler's henchmen who wreaked havoc on the world. However, from a military perspective, their outstanding military qualities, excellent military command art, and significant influence on world military history are indeed worth studying by later generations. Compared to those Nazi German politicians and SS leaders who manufactured massacres, they, as excellent generals of the regular German army, were relatively clean. They planned and commanded in Hitler's war but opposed the Nazi policy of massacre and extermination, and did not participate in the atrocities. Perhaps it was because of this that, combined with their astonishing military talents, they won the respect of enemy countries and the objective evaluation of historians and military scholars.

  Romel was the most famous German general in World War II, and anyone who has a slight understanding of world military history will know his famous nickname - "Desert Fox". Due to his stunning performance on the North African desert battlefield and the crazy propaganda by German media and Allied media, he became a legendary soldier and an idol worshipped by Germans during his lifetime.

  Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) participated in World War I. In November 1918, during the German bourgeois revolution, he served as commander of a guard company. From 1919 onwards, he held various positions including company commander, tactics instructor at the Dresden Infantry School, commander of the Goslar J?ger Battalion, instructor at the Potsdam Military Academy, commandant of the Wiener Neustadt Military Academy, and commander of Hitler's headquarters guard. In February 1940, he was appointed commander of the 7th Panzer Division and participated in the war against France. During World War II, he kept a detailed diary of his military campaigns and preserved a large amount of documentary materials, providing valuable resources for later research on World War II.

  Ludwig Beck was born in Biebrich, Hesse-Nassau, into a family of school principals. After graduating from secondary school in 1910, he joined the army and attended the Royal Military Academy in Danzig. During World War I, he served as a company commander and received three Iron Crosses.

  After the outbreak of World War II, Rommel, as one of the commanders of the German High Command, was highly valued by Hitler. In February 1940, Hitler appointed him commander of the 7th Panzer Division and gave him a copy of "Mein Kampf". Between May and June, during the German Blitzkrieg invasion of Western Europe, Rommel led the 7th Panzer Division at the forefront, first capturing Belgium, then Arras and Somme, and finally advancing to the west coast of France, earning the nickname "The Ghost Division" from the French.

  In February 1941, Hitler again appointed Rommel as the commander of the "German Africa Corps", going to North Africa to rescue the defeated Italian army. After arriving at the front line in Libya, he immediately conducted a reconnaissance flight and concluded that "the best defense is offense". He then changed the order to "hold the defensive line" and commanded his armored troops to bravely advance through the desert storm, advancing at full speed. The British army was caught off guard and retreated step by step. The German army directly threatened Alexandria and Suez. Rommel thus gained a great reputation, earned the nickname "Desert Fox", and was promoted to Field Marshal. Later, the main force of the German army was tied up on the Soviet-German battlefield, Hitler refused to withdraw troops to support the North African front line, forcing Rommel to stop attacking and defend at El Alamein.

  In November 1942, Rommel with his only 50,000 troops and 550 tanks fought against Montgomery's 195,000 troops and 1,029 tanks in the Alamein area, but was defeated due to being outnumbered. In March 1943, Rommel was summoned back to the German headquarters. In July of the same year, he was appointed as the commander of the "B" Army Group stationed in northern Italy. From December 1943 to July 1944, he led the "B" Army Group in organizing defenses in France and commanding resistance against the Normandy landing campaign. After that, Germany experienced an assassination attempt on Hitler, and Rommel was implicated. On October 14, 1944, due to Hitler's coercion, he took poison in a small car, while the publicly announced message was "Field Marshal Rommel died of a stroke on the way".

  Go to the front line to command

  On May 10, 1940, Hitler finally launched the long-prepared war of aggression. On the Western Front, the German army adopted a blitzkrieg tactic and crossed the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg in just over a dozen days, and then invaded France. In the attack on France, Rommel served as the commander of the 7th Panzer Division of the 4th Army Corps, responsible for breaking through the Meuse River to invade Cherbourg.

  After crossing the French border, Rommel's vanguard continued to pursue the retreating French 1st and 4th Cavalry Divisions, reaching the Meuse River on the afternoon of May 12. At this time, two bridges located in Dinant and Houx had been destroyed by the French army, blocking Rommel's armored division from crossing the river.

  On the morning of May 13, Rommel came to the shore despite the French artillery fire, understood the enemy situation, and looked for a crossing position. He found that the French army occupied a favorable hidden terrain on the west bank, sealed off the Meuse River with heavy artillery, making it difficult for the German army to find their accurate position; almost all the crossing tools here were destroyed by the French army, and as long as the Germans appeared, there was a danger of being annihilated. After on-site reconnaissance, Rommel believed that only by using strong firepower to suppress all suspected enemy hiding areas on the west bank could the German army cross the Meuse River.

  Then Rommel brought up artillery and ordered the houses along the shore to be set on fire as a smoke screen before crossing the river. Then, under the cover of fierce artillery fire, the forced crossing began. During the forced crossing, Rommel was in command of the first batch of ships. After establishing a foothold on the west bank, Rommel immediately returned to the east bank and arrived at the crossing point of the 2nd Infantry Regiment. The 2nd Infantry Regiment had a company of engineers building an eight-ton floating raft, and he ordered it to be replaced with a sixteen-ton one. Rommel's purpose in giving this order was to get some tanks across the river as soon as possible, otherwise the infantry that had already reached the west bank would be attacked by French tanks and artillery. As expected, the floating rafts carrying tanks had not yet arrived at the shore when the French launched a counterattack. On the morning of the second day, the first batch of 15 tanks landed on the west bank. Rommel immediately ordered the German troops on the west bank to attack the French army hiding in the forest, covering the subsequent units crossing the river.

  The German army broke through the Meuse River defense line, posing a serious threat to the French army, and the French army abandoned the Meuse River defense line and retreated.

  Strike first

  Rommel led the vanguard in hot pursuit of the French army retreating from the Meuse River, with tank regiments as the vanguard and artillery cover, advancing rapidly, leaving neighboring troops far behind. Starting on May 5th, Rommel's armored division had begun to attack south of the Somme River from the north bank. The highway bridge over the Somme River was destroyed by the French during their retreat, leaving only two railway bridges and two dry bridges intact. Before launching an attack on the southern bank of the Somme River, Rommel first used strong artillery fire to seal off these bridges, and after occupying the four bridges, he ordered tanks, other vehicles, and infantry to quickly cross over. By the morning of June 6th, Rommel's armored division had already advanced south of the Somme River in a dispersed combat formation, advancing across the fields. The armored cars led the way, fighting as they moved forward at a pace that allowed the infantry to keep up. On this day, the German army advanced twelve miles, and thirty miles the next day. Rommel's armored division attacked Cherbourg on June 20th, defeating the French army.

  In six weeks of fighting, Rommel's armored divisions lost only 2,000 men, while capturing nearly 97,000 enemy soldiers. As a result of this victory, Rommel was awarded the Pour le Mérite...