Rommel the Desert Fox [Import] [Paperback]

Desmond Young (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1969

ROMMEL,The DESSERT FOX8th printing 1969

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Books; jan 1969 8th printing edition (1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006119107
• ISBN-13: 978-0006119104
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,654,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Generally accurate account of one of the few German military leaders to capture the Allied interest, October 27, 2010

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

Of all the German military leaders in World War II, General (later Field Marshal) Erwin Rommel was one of the few to capture the imagination of the west. Before he arrived in North Africa, the Italian armies there were being crushed by inferior British forces. Once he arrived, the war in Libya and Egypt was one of dramatic movements, extreme victories and defeats and the British had a genuine fear that Rommel would conquer Egypt and take the vital Suez canal. In his memoirs of the war, Winston Churchill states that the loss of Suez would have been a crippling blow to the Allied war effort. The Allied interest in Rommel was also helped by the fact that there were few civilian casualties in the war in Africa. While other commanders were ordering the destruction of civilian areas, Rommel never had to consider such a decision.
Young was a general in the British army fighting in North Africa, was captured by Rommel and remained a POW until the war ended. Rommel was a chivalrous commander, treating his prisoners with respect as fellow combatants. Therefore, Young is able to provide some valuable insights into the character of Rommel and how he planned his battles.
If there is a downside to the book, it is due to Young's closeness to Rommel and the fact that the book was written shortly after the war ended. Both facts mean that there is a lack of reflective perspective to the accounts. While Rommel was a true soldier in the Prussian tradition, he did have his faults and weaknesses and those are largely ignored. Nevertheless, this is a good book about a man that was so highly respected in Germany that the opposition to Hitler considered him to be the best candidate to replace him. This admiration cost him his life when the assassination attempt against Hitler failed.