Customer Reviews

Killing Rommel (Wheeler Hardcover)

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4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

The short line on Steven Pressfield's new book: the best. It almost hurts to write that because I've hung to Gates of Fire for a decade at the top of my best books ever list, a list that includes books from a wide genre, Victor Hugo to Stephen King, Tom Clancy to Par Lagerkvist, Mark Helprin to Howard Fast and everywhere in between. Pressfield's characters captured me from the first pages, and this tale of honor among men refused to let me put the book down. If you are a Pressfield fan, this book will not disappoint you on any level. If you are new to Mr. Pressfield, this book will encourage you to read his others.

I am particularly fond of historical novels because I consider them a painless way to learn history. Mr. Pressfield has never failed to teach his readers all the details within the historical context in which he writes, in this case, about the little known Long Range Desert Group, the LRDG, the predecessor to Special Forces as we know them in the modern era.

The story is simple: the memoir of a LRDG lieutenant who is part of a mission to kill Field Marshall Rommel and thereby disrupt the Axis control of North Africa and its hold on oil assets in the Middle East during World War II. The characters are noteworthy: average men with simple vocations who rise above their commonality in extraordinary circumstances by committing themselves to a mission simply because it was their job. The prose is crisp and fast and the story moves quickly and with intensity.

That is the short of it: great story with great characters that is impossible to put down until you've finished the final page. Scrupulously researched like all Pressfield books and packed with the type of action that would draw viewers to the big screen in droves. Hollywood cannot let this one pass. That's the short of it. If you need more, please continue .....

Steven Pressfield is a literary risk-taker: he started with a mystical golf journey, moved into the realm of ancient Greek history and now finds himself in the blistering deserts of North Africa surrounded by Rommel's Africa Corp. The common thread: ordinary men are capable of uncommon deeds when their purpose is fixed and their hearts are committed. Pressfield has told his stories as a fictional character, as a mythical woman, as a real historical character and now as Everyman in the guise of Lt. Chapman, "Chap" who finds himself in the middle of an unthinkable mission to cut off the head of the snake, to kill arguably the most dynamic military mind of modern warfare, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.

As I journeyed through Mr. Pressfield's ancient histories, I was always very comfortable with his prose. It immersed me into a world, ancient and distant from my own. His prose is part of his genius as it captures the flavor of his historical era. Killing Rommel is his best writing yet. Mr. Pressfield has even elected to use the `s' in place of the `z' as is common in the King's English, "civilisation," for example instead of "civilization;" "tire" becomes "tyre." The choice of words and sentence structure help set the mood of the book by thrusting the reader into the 1940's. The reader becomes a part of the story.

From start to finish, our narrator emphasizes the character of Rommel, chivalrous and honorable. Despite Rommel's admirable personal qualities, the Allies are convinced that without him, the Axis struggle in North Africa will collapse, hence Churchill's directive to kill Rommel. I will not reveal any of the many twists that Mr. Pressfield has crafted, but when I finished the book, I held the same respect for the Desert Fox that was shared by Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery and the members of the LRDG, heroes all. Within hours after finishing the book, I found myself contemplating how the German Republic could have produced two, such diverse characters at each end of the proverbial spectrum as Erwin Rommel and Adolf Hitler. How could one wage war with regret and honor while the other directed the murder of millions of innocent people? Intentionally or not, Mr. Pressfield elicited these questions from me as I read this book. While there is no answer, the future requires us to ask ourselves such questions as we reflect on our past.

You probably already know that Rommel was not killed by the LRDG or any other group of Allies. The pursuit and the encounter however will make this harrowing journey through the desert more than worthwhile.

I am a slow reader. A solid 80% of the books I read are novels. Only once in my life have I ever sat and read a book from cover to cover with no breaks. One Friday evening in 1971 while in pilot training in Georgia, I opened The Exorcist and didn't put it down until early the next morning, scared witless I might add. Thirty-seven years later, older and wiser, I did the same thing with Killing Rommel; I devoured it in a single night. This time when I put the book down, I felt pride to be able to call myself a true brother-in-arms to soldiers past, present and future.

Four decades ago while still a senior in college, I read Armageddon by Leon Uris. That is the only novel I have ever used a magic marker on. Within the last month, I had that old 1963 copy out and found exactly the passages I was looking for thanks to that blue marker. Last week, once again, I broke out a marker and wielded it for the first time in 40 years while I read Killing Rommel. I sensed early on that this is a special book. I was right. In what is certainly a profound, autobiographical conviction, Mr. Pressfield has Chap's 'dear friend and brother-in-law' include these words in Chap's eulogy, "Literature was his religion. He believed in the written word, in the soul-to-soul communion between writer and reader that takes place in the silence between the covers of a book."

American historian and philosopher Will Durant once said, "We Americans are the best informed people on earth as to the events of the last twenty-four hours; we are the not the best informed as to the events of the last sixty centuries." For a decade now, Steven Pressfield has given us a very entertaining way to play catch up. We need to thank him and exploit his efforts. Mr. Pressfield believes in the written word.

I struggled for awhile with Steven Pressfield's Killing Rommel, but came to appreciate it more the deeper I delved into its compelling story. The difficulty I had was in finding motivation for the characters among the almost overwhelmingly detailed descriptions of the theater of war, the weapons, the military organizations, politics, and combat operations. Once I allowed the voices of the characters to come through, however, I discovered that they were driven by a simple but powerful force: honor.

The authoritative chronicle of military history is Pressfield's forte. In this book, he brings his considerable research and facile presentation style to the story of an unsung secret unit of the British Army, the Long Range Desert Group, whose mission is simple: find and kill the legendary commander of the German Afrika Korps, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. The story takes place in 1942, when Rommel and his Panzers have defeated the British Eighth Army and stand ready to capture Egypt, Suez, and the oilfields of Arabia.

The LRDG is sent to decapitate the Afrika Korps by killing its leader, a desperate bid to turn the tide of the war. The story is based on actual ops, but told from the point of view of a young Lieutenant, "Chap" Chapman, who has recently married his sweetheart before shipping out for the desert. His attempts to communicate with her and meet their new-born child provide welcome human interest relief from the unending tales of desert warfare.

Pressfield goes to great length to show the reader what combat is like, with extensive descriptions of tactics, weapons, and the skills necessary to survive in the brutal desert environment. He also plumbs the feelings of his characters, their doubts and fears, their blind spots and their visions in both the heat of battle and the long slogs of ennui between. It's a realistic description of warfare, both modern and ancient, and the way it plays on the men and women involved.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

Killing Rommel, a novel written by Stephen Pressfield, is a fictional memoir of a World War II British officer named Chapman who serves in the North Africa Campaign. It is also an awesome story of men at war.

In Killing Rommel, the reader follows the fictional Chapman through his early life at a British public school, Oxford, the incredible seesaw fight in North Africa between the British 8th Army and Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, and then an ultimately doomed raid with the famous Long Range Desert Task Force to assassinate the German commander who was called, deservedly, the Desert Fox. Along the way the reader gets a feeling for what it was like to participate in one of the oddest campaigns in military history, atypical to most wars of the 20th Century, certainly on World War II.

Chapman, a tank commander, is attached to the Long Range Desert Task Force in a mission designed to kill that man of honor and brilliance. But first they have to find their target, a story that occupies most of the last third of the novel. What follows is an epic of men at war, it's horror and glory, as compelling as anything Stephen Pressfield has written before, in his novels set in Ancient Greece.

In "Killing Rommel" veteran author Steven Pressfield has written yet another vivid and exciting novel detailing the matter-of-fact heroics and actions by the warriors who fight and too-often die.

Set in North Africa during the British fight against Gen Erwin Rommel in 1942, Pressfield takes the exploits of the British Army's little-known Long Range Desert Group, and presents the reader with yet another well-researched and exciting story of men at war.

As is Pressfield's style, he tells the story from the viewpoint of one of the participants. Lt. Lawrence Chapman is one of Pressfield's proverbial citizen-soldiers, a young man thrust into a war for which his middle-class collegiate upbringing has not at all prepared him. While normally in Pressfield's books it's the enlisted men who are the narrators and telling the story from the boots-on-the-ground perspective, it's a unique change in approach as Lt. Chapman brings an officer's point of view to the fight.

The war in 1942 in North Africa was going badly for the Allies. Gen Rommel's strategy and tactics overwhelmed Gen Montgomery's British troops, and the initial American Army reinforcements were routed at the Kasserine Pass. If Rommel could successfully capture Cairo, then the Germans would control the middle-eastern oil fields, the Suez Canal, and quick access to India and the Pacific, all of which would have horrific repercussions on the Allied war effort.

The British had previously formed the Long Range Desert Group as a desert recon force, which they now tasked to kill Rommel, and Pressfield uses Lt. Chapman to narrate the war in the desert.

Historically accurate, "Killing Rommel" describes a war that most in Americans might only know through the old television show "Rat Patrol." Driving old Chevrolet trucks that they up-armor themselves, often short on petrol, rations, water, and ammunition, Lt Chapman depicts the fight in North Africa between the beleaguered Brits and Rommel's Afrika Corps as he learns to command as he learns to fight.

Those who have fought, and especially those Marines who have fought at An-Nasiriyah, Fallujah, Haditha, and Anbar Province, will understand the pictures Pressfield paints of the thirst, heat, sand, and boredom - interrupted by intense combat - in the desert. He draws the reader into the action with Chapman and his men as they drive -often by stars and dead reckoning - to their rendezvous points and multiple missions.

As Pressfield's books are so famously noted, the characters in "Killing Rommel" possess a quiet courage and grow into a maturity far beyond their years. Similar to Xeo in "Gates of Fire," and Matthais in "The Afghan Campaign," the deep story here is how Chapman and his fellow Tommies are thrown into some extraordinarily ugly situations, and then respond. It's the story of these citizen-soldiers and how they react to the carnage around them that makes "Killing Rommel" one of Pressfield's best books.

By the autumn of 1942, France has fallen to Hitler's legions, the Soviet Union is reeling on the eastern front, and Britain is beleaguered. In North Africa, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (`The Desert Fox') and his Panzers have routed the Eighth Army and, seemingly invincible, threaten the vital oilfields of the Middle East.

Out of desperation, the British plan to send a small, heavily armed mobile force behind enemy lines to strike a blow that will stop the Afrika Korps in its tracks. This force: the Long Range Desert Group, together with the SAS and Popski's Private Army, will become legendary.

This novel brings to life the ingenuity and daring of this unit. In doing so, it pays tribute to all of this who were part of this struggle. Told through the eyes of a young lieutenant (Chapman), this novel is both an uplifting tale of great courage, bravery and ingenuity as well as a sobering reminder that while governments declare wars, it is people who fight them. For those of us who are unfamiliar with the detail of this particular theatre of World War II, this novel provides a wonderful starting point. I want to know more about the actual events and characters depicted - especially Rommel.

Mr Pressfield has written a novel which is consistent with historical fact and acknowledges the contributions of the historical participants. It is also a tribute to the power of the imagination as expressed through the written word to bring events to life.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Killing Rommel is the latest effort from the noted historical fiction author, Steven Pressfield. This fast paced book is different than most of Pressfield's titles which normally focus on ancient warfare. As the title suggests, this story is set during World War II. The story is treated as a first hand account of a British officer, Lt. Chapman, who is attached to the British Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) who along with the Special Air Service have been given a mission to assassinate Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

Upon first hearing about the book, two things concerned me. First was the mission, assassinating Rommel, second was Rose, Chapman's wife.
I was aware, as are many people familiar with the desert war, that the British had indeed planned a mission to capture or kill Rommel but the mission came to naught. As the book was a work of fiction, I could accept that the LRDG would assist in such a mission.

Rose is Chapman's wife. I was worried that somehow Pressfield was going to have this signal expert be part of the patrol. If this thought has crossed your mind, you can breathe easy. Rose is simply the wife of the protagonist and is stationed in Egypt. This actually happened with some regularity during World War II. While Rose, is central to the development of Chapman's character she is not central to the mission. Her character is used to advance the story, principally through Chapman writing to and thinking about her.

The story itself is relayed to us through an unpublished memoir of a British officer (Chapman) who was attached ever so briefly to the LRDG in late 1942. If you are expecting a book similar to The Eagle as Landed, by Jack Higgins, you will be disappointed. Despite the title, the book`s central focus is not the mission to kill Rommel. Chapman and his fictional T3 patrol do not spend days or even weeks planning a mission down to the last detail. You will also be disappointed if you are expecting a technical manual on the weapons and equipment used by the LRDG.

What will not disappoint are the actual story and the writing style of Pressfield. The story moves quickly and smoothly form one chapter to the next. The story begins with the Chapman as a young man, shortly before entering college. As war is declared, he enlists and is commissioned in a Royal Tank Regiment. He is soon shipped to North Africa, where his tank regiment is engaged in combat with the newly arriving Afrika Korps commanded by Field Marshall Rommel. Chapman is no different that a thousand other officers in a tank regiment. Circumstances lead to Chapman's temporary assignment to the LRDG for the purpose of determining tank routes through uncharted deserts, an assignment not too uncommon for junior officers in the tank regiments.

Upon assignment, Chapman is introduced to many names familiar to people who are familiar with the LRDG. Pressfield uses this opportunity to introduce these same people to the reading audience, a common plot device that is often necessary to advance a story. Pressfield does this quite well and what could have been an annoyance to the already informed, flows smoothly.

As I mentioned before, Pressfield does not tire us with a mind numbing technical jargon about the LRDG equipment. This also keeps the story going. What we have in place of the jargon is what sounds like personal recollection of what patrols needed to do to keep the vehicles moving and keep weapons operational in the harsh Sahara. We get a feel for what it is like to drive up a sand dune. We understand the dread of German aircraft. We also get an understanding of ordinary soldiers who have taken on an extraordinary mission.

The book is not a history lesson. If you have a better than average knowledge of the LRDG, the story will not tell you anything new about their operations or equipment. If you have no knowledge of the LRDG, the book will give you a good understanding of the unit without overwhelming or boring you.

Why should you read this story? If for no other reason, any reader of World War II fiction should happily embrace this book because of the lack of good fiction about the desert war. While the desert war is well represented with memoirs, there is very little fiction set during this phase of the World War II, a phase which occupied a full half of the war for Britain. Most World War II fiction discusses North West Europe or the Russian Front and a smattering on the Italian front.

Furthermore there are few fictional accounts of actual commando type attacks. Most instead focus on the cloak and dagger type missions similar to Alistair MacLean's Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. Pressfield has forgone these super-hero stories and the age old concept of Private Armies and engages us with a story of an actual special force unit, performing a typical, if improbable mission, during the desert war.

He has woven his fictional characters into a patch work of actual persons and created a desert war that captures the actual memoirs of those who had fought in the war. With the story, you get the feeling of the brave lads who rushed to volunteer for the war, the reality of tank battles in the desert where your armor is no match for the enemy, the quiet confidence and determination of the LRDG and the common comradery of soldiers and the guilt and anguish associated with surviving it all.

The book is highly recommended for the LRDG enthusiast and anyone who enjoys World War II fiction.

Killing Rommel is the latest effort from the noted historical fiction author, Steven Pressfield. This fast paced book is different than most of Pressfield's titles which normally focus on ancient warfare. As the title suggests, this story is set during World War II. The story is treated as a first hand account of a British officer, Lt. Chapman, who is attached to the British Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) who along with the Special Air Service have been given a mission to assassinate Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

Upon first hearing about the book, two things concerned me. First was the mission, assassinating Rommel, second was Rose, Chapman's wife.

I was aware, as are many people familiar with the desert war, that the British had indeed planned a mission to capture or kill Rommel but the mission came to naught. As the book was a work of fiction, I could accept that the LRDG would assist in such a mission.

When I first heard about this book I heard about Rose, Chapman's wife. I was worried that somehow Pressfield was going to have this signal expert be part of the patrol. If this thought has crossed your mind, you can breathe easy. Rose is simply the wife of the protagonist and is stationed in Egypt. This actually happened with some regularity during World War II. While Rose, is central to the development of Chapman's character she is not central to the mission. Her character is used to advance the story, principally through Chapman writing to and thinking about her.

The story itself is relayed to us through an unpublished memoir of a British officer (Chapman) who was attached ever so briefly to the LRDG in late 1942. If you are expecting a book similar to The Eagle as Landed, by Jack Higgins, you will be disappointed. Despite the title, the book`s central focus is not the mission to kill Rommel. Chapman and his fictional T3 patrol do not spend days or even weeks planning a mission down to the last detail. You will also be disappointed if you are expecting a technical manual on the weapons and equipment used by the LRDG.

What will not disappoint are the actual story and the writing style of Pressfield. The story moves quickly and smoothly form one chapter to the next. The story begins with the Chapman as a young man, shortly before entering college. As war is declared, he enlists and is commissioned in a Royal Tank Regiment. He is soon shipped to North Africa, where his tank regiment is engaged in combat with the newly arriving Afrika Korps commanded by Field Marshall Rommel. Chapman is no different that a thousand other officers in a tank regiment. Circumstances lead to Chapman's temporary assignment to the LRDG for the purpose of determining tank routes through uncharted deserts, an assignment not too uncommon for junior officers in the tank regiments.

Upon assignment, Chapman is introduced to many names familiar to people who are familiar with the LRDG. Pressfield uses this opportunity to introduce these same people to the reading audience, a common plot device that is often necessary to advance a story. Pressfield does this quite well and what could have been an annoyance to the already informed, flows smoothly.

As I mentioned before, Pressfield does not tire us with a mind numbing technical jargon about the LRDG equipment. This also keeps the story going. What we have in place of the jargon is what sounds like personal recollection of what patrols needed to do to keep the vehicles moving and keep weapons operational in the harsh Sahara. We get a feel for what it is like to drive up a sand dune. We understand the dread of German aircraft. We also get an understanding of ordinary soldiers who have taken on an extraordinary mission.

The book is not a history lesson. If you have a better than average knowledge of the LRDG, the story will not tell you anything new about their operations or equipment. If you have no knowledge of the LRDG, the book will give you a good understanding of the unit without overwhelming or boring you.

Why should you read this story? If for no other reason, any reader of World War II fiction should happily embrace this book because of the lack of good fiction about the desert war. While the desert war is well represented with memoirs, there is very little fiction set during this phase of the World War II, a phase which occupied a full half of the war for Britain. Most World War II fiction discusses North West Europe or the Russian Front and a smattering on the Italian front.

Furthermore there are few fictional accounts of actual commando type attacks. Most instead focus on the cloak and dagger type missions similar to Alistair MacLean's Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. Pressfield has forgone these super-hero stories and the age old concept of Private Armies and engages us with a story of an actual special force unit, performing a typical, if improbable mission, during the desert war.

He has woven his fictional characters into a patch work of actual persons and created a desert war that captures the actual memoirs of those who had fought in the war. With the story, you get the feeling of the brave lads who rushed to volunteer for the war, the reality of tank battles in the desert where your armor is no match for the enemy, the quiet confidence and determination of the LRDG and the common comradery of soldiers and the guilt and anguish associated with surviving it all.

The book is highly recommended for the LRDG enthusiast and anyone who enjoys World War II fiction.

Tobias Gibson

Underwhelmed by "The Afghan Campaign", I thought that in "Killing Rommel" Pressfield had found his voice as a novelist. The early part of the book about the growing bond between Chapman and Stein and the approaching conflict felt like a novel: take some characters, give them strengths and weaknesses, endear the reader to them, and then put them in trying situations and see what they do.
But in this book, that was just early days and the good stuff ends before the real "story" begins. Pressfield has not written a novel about people, he's written one about machines and equipment first, tactics second, and people a distant third. Cardboard men are introduced for no purpose other than to experience virtually random acts of carnage. Some of them survive some of them don't, but who cares?
And the writing is not inspired either. Things happen "Suddenly" or "Miraculously" don't happen. Voices "crackle" over radios - or maybe not so much voices as clichés. After starting the book I checked out the Wikipedia entry on Rommel (from which I learned more than Pressfield's novel): an Honorable Warrior, an interesting man to be in the service of Hitler. Therefore it was not hard to foresee the storybook ending.
One assumes all the LRDG stuff is carefully researched and true, so you may like to read this book to find out about that - it is less dry (one imagines) than slogging through technical reports, but a good history can be much more captivating than a historical novel. There must be one done on this subject somewhere.

Looking for some recreational reading, I pulled out one of the review book I've gotten lately. The one I chose was Steven Pressfield's Killing Rommel. This is the first novel of Pressfield's that I've read, but I don't think it'll be the last. He does war novels grounded in historical facts, so the books have a real "first person account" feel (or at least Killing Rommel did). I thoroughly enjoyed this book set in the African desert campaigns of World War II...

The story is told in a manuscript written by R. Lawrence Chapman. Chapman, or "Chap" as he's known by, signed up in England to fight against the Nazis who were closing in on conquering Europe and Mother England. He ends up on assignment with the Long Range Desert Group, a real-life British special forces unit that is sent out on a primary mission... stay mobile, stay hidden, find Rommel, and kill him. This means that they are behind enemy lines, often with little to no support, almost always with equipment that's seen better days, and constantly in danger of being spotted and attacked by Panzer divisions. These days you expect that aerial recon and satellite communication would make coordination easy. But back then, radios involved major setup of antennas (with the associated risk of being spotted or heard), and maps of the terrain were non-existent. Chap and his unit endure horrid weather (both stifling hot and freezing cold), little sleep, and constant injuries following the ever-changing orders from central command. They spend more time fixing their trucks than they do driving them, and that driving usually has to be done at night in pitch dark conditions to avoid German patrols who know they are in the area. Through it all, Chap goes from a volunteer soldier who is unsure of his abilities to a solid leader who pulls his men through conditions that would have caused most men to give up. He also learns the honor and chivalry of combat, and ultimately has to make a choice over what's right and moral versus what's easy and safe.

Not having read any other of his books, I don't know if this one is indicative of the level of action you'd find in one of his novels. While he brings a sense of realism to the ugly side of war, the driving force of the story is Chap's transformation. I was impressed that he pulled off that amount of introspection without bogging down the action part of the story. Once I got started with Killing Rommel, it became the only book I was reading at lunch, on the bus, and in bed. It didn't last very long. :) I think I'll be hitting the library to check out his other books...

Killing Rommel begins with a very interesting preface. The main character of the preface and epilogue is not the main character of everything in between. The character of the preface and epilogue is almost an editor, someone who knew the author of the memoir that appears after the preface. Upon reading this preface, I was hooked.

The memoir portion of Killing Rommel tells the life story of a British tank lieutenant shortly prior to, during, and shortly after WWII. The lieutenant, after months of training and inactivity in tank division, is assigned to the long range desert group, which deploys small task forces throughout the deserts of North Africa to gather intelligence about German positions and to raid these positions. The story told focuses on the attempted assassination of Germany's Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.

The first 100 or so pages generally lack any details about direct combat, as these pages provide mostly background information about the war, the characters, and specifics of the long range desert group itself. The final 100 pages contain loads of action, and the book concludes with a timely irony that involves the target of the desert group, Field Marshall Rommel. It is a great story, easy to read, and fairly short.

This is the first book of Pressfield's that I have read, and after reading Killing Rommel, I intend to read Pressfield's other books. Comparing Pressfield's work to other historical fiction authors, such as the Shaara's, I found that Pressfield does not develop the character narratives as much as you find other authors doing. In a sense, I found Killing Rommel more historical than fiction. In reading Killing Rommel, I almost thought I was reading true fiction, just told through the memoir of someone who was actually there. Jeff Shaara is still my go to author in this genre, but I certainly like what I have read from Pressfield.