Customer Reviews

Rommel: The Trail of the Fox (Wordsworth Military Library)

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Irving cut right to the bone with his book on Rommel. While some people would have you think that Rommel was the best military genius/strategist in history, Irving paints the man for who he really was. Being in no way disrespectful to Rommel's memory, Irving show's the mans strengths and weaknesses in a way that most military leaders of today would do well to learn about from reading this book.

Rommel was loved by his troops (but not his officers) and the German public, but ego-mania and micro-management were two of his most glaring flaws. Irving shows these flaws and how the affected Rommel's fighting force and his command climate though the observations of the DAK and Pz Armee Afrika staff officers and troop unit commanders, as well as Rommels own recorded actions from both military and personal accounts. Rommel's love of attention is shown clearly thoughout the book, but again, Irving uses it to show that Rommel was human and had downfalls like everyone else on the planet.

Particular attention is paid to Rommel's early military career, and most importantly to his WW1 exploits, and his rivalry with fellow Field Marshal, Ferdinand Schoerner, both of whom were infantry platoon leaders during Germany's campaign in Italy, and both of whom were awarded the Pour le Merite for two consecutive battles. This rivalry directly influenced his actions after WW1, and during WW2, and cannot be overlooked when looking at Rommel as a military leader.

This book needs to be read by all who desire to gain an insight on this charasmatic leader. I've read most of the books printed on Rommel (Desmond Young; "Rommel: In his Own Words"; Liddell Hart "The Rommel Papers"; Hans von Luck's book "Panzer Commander"; von Mellenthin's "Panzer Battles"; "Knight's Cross"; Ruge's "W/ Rommel in Normandy"; etc...) and have found this one to be the most informative and in-depth of them all. It also has provided me with enormous insight as to why the first battle of Tobruk failed and the real reasons behind the DAK's lack of supplies, which wasn't the Italian High Command failing to follow through, but Tripoli's inability to cope with large amounts of inbound shipping.

If you have a very narrow minded view of Rommel and the DAK, then DON'T READ THIS BOOK. It WILL disappoint you since it doesn't conform to the "Rommel is a God of War" theme that most authors have put forth, and attacks him mildly, from time to time, for his percieved inability to cope with situations that didn't follow his plans.

As a military officer myself, I've found wonderful tidbits of knowledge that transcend all levels of leadership. It's really made me think about the military and my career, as well has history on many differnet levels. If you can deal with someone else's view on a subject, even when it's different from your own, then by all means READ THIS BOOK! IT'S EXCELLENT!!!

The author of this fascinating, illuminating and utterly engrossing biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel have created a real true to life page turner that would make Tom Clancy proud. Drawing from copious research and rare documents, Irving works wonders humanizing one of the truly mythic characters to rise out of the ashes of the Second World War. Rommel was always dubiously viewed by the allied press and his Allied foes as a "Good German". Irving works extremely hard (and therefore, courts controversy) at painting Rommel as a brilliant soldier, philosopher and engineer who, had he surived the war, could have very easily played a critical peacetime role in the restructuring of Europe. This book belongs on the shelf of every person possessing even a casual interest in the history of the second world war. Guaranteed not to disappoint.

Excellent and moving. I include it with Antony Beevor'sStalingrad and John Toland's biography of Hitler as one of the bestworks I have ever read about World War II. As to its ultimate completeness and accuracy, I can't say, but I was surprised by just how good this book was, considering the organized attempts to trash Irving's reputation. Irving does not take a "pop approach" (whatever that means) here, nor does he at any point deny the Holocaust... I have to repeat this: Irving DOES NOT deny the Holocaust in this book! This fact alone makes me suspicious of the other claims being made against him. This is the first of Irving's books I've read - so many nasty things were being said about him that I got curious. ...Maybe there's something here after all? ...I will find Irving's other books (if they haven't been burned yet), read them, and make up my own mind about what he has to say. Meanwhile, I highly recommend Rommel to anyone interested in WWII, particularly the Africa campaign and Normandy. END

This is by far the best Rommel biography yet written. Irving avoids all the hero-worshipping of other writers and comes as close to the truth of the "real" Rommel as we are liable to get. Also, Irving's grasp of logistics and how it affects strategy is brilliant. He leaves no stone unturned. The best picture is of Rommel with his pet fox in WWI.

I've read this book twice, the last time in the mid-'80's, but I constantly find myself re-opening parts of it for sheer reading plaeasure. Irving employs a lively theatrical writing style that nicely enhances the real drama of Rommel's career. As a result, this is a livelier and more enjoyable bio than the more recent "Knight's Cross."

Irving clearly admires Rommel, calling him one of history's great commanders. That said, Irving doesn't hesitate to point out Rommel's flaws and mistakes, including galling stubborness and unwillingness to heed subordinates' advise at Torbruk in 1941. Irving even presents the argument that Rommel himself, through lack of the same hard resolve and boldness he had prveviously displayed, shares blame for the failure of his critical offensive against the British at Alam el Halfa in August 1942, thus setting the stage for epic defeat at El Alamein a couple of months later.

Rommel clearly comes across as a genuinely decent sort incapable of the types of atrocities carried out by the Nazis on a grand scale elsewhere. All the more touching is his devotion to his wife and son, whom he obviously cherished, so much so that he unhesitatingly accepts suicide to protect them from Hitler's wrath. (Thus on another level, this book is also a touching love story.) This is all the more tragic considering that Rommel, as Irving demonstrates, was not even part of the assassination plot against Hitler, although he possessed enough courage to openly question his leader's conduct of the war.

Finally, some readers may ignore this book because of Irving's indefensible position on the Holocaust. That is certainly understandable, but I think Irving was clearly in his element with this bio. It's a must read for World War II buffs or for anyone who enjoys well-written bios of historic figures on the world stage.

I bought THE TRAIL OF THE FOX when it first hit book store shelves in 1977. Back in those days, as a novice World War Two enthusiast, I was temporarily hooked on the war in the desert. My interest in the war in North Africa was stirred by reading Desmond Young's THE DESERT FOX. I started reading additional books about the North African campaign. In buying TRAIL OF THE FOX I broke new ground in that it was the first time that I went out of my way to splurge for the hard cover edition.

There is no denying that David Irving's volume is steeped in research. As reviewers of other Irving books have noted, David Irving delves deep into archives that are largely ignored. He also has the ability to charm his way into key participant homes and his hosts go so far as to offer him unpublished diaries and other documents. From this often untapped information pool the Rommel story evolves.

The book captures the Erwin Rommel as ambitious officer pursuing the covetted Pour Le Merit with a reckless abandon similar to that of the fictional World War One character Staechel in THE BLUE MAX. We find the military Rommel with flashes of brilliance, moments of self doubt and depression, awkward in civilian clothes, and as a demanding and often disappointed father.

Rommel was brilliant. He was also reckless. He was dynamic in leading from the front. However, his cavalier jaunts to the front lines frequently caused command crises in the rear. In one case Rommel's unpredictable dash to toward the sound of the guns coincidentally prevented his capture or death at the hands of British commandos. As Irving points out, dash and daring is fine when an army holds the initiative, but at the moment when the surge has reached its high tide the advantage goes to the army with superior logistics and planning. In this respect Panzer Armee Afrika faltered.

Rommel was quick to heap responsibility on Rome and Berlin for lack of supplies and diversion of combat power to the eastern front. What supplies did set out for Libya were heavily attrited by the Royal Navy and RAF. Rommel never quite understood that his army's mission was one of tying down Allied forces and keeping them from setting foot on the continent. As such, he was expected to work with what he had available. When the Germans and Italians hurled themselves at El Alamein, they put themselves in a position where they quickly consumed the resources that were designed to last for a longer and less intense delaying action.

Still the Italian navy and Luftwaffe were able to safeguard deliveries of troops and heavy equipment to Tunisia for the last stand of Panzer Armee Afrika. Here too there is some debate as to whether or not Rommel squandered his forces in counterattacks rather than settling down for a lengthy holding action.

At this point in THE TRAIL OF THE FOX, we are then presented with an Erwin Rommel who is no longer the darling of Wolf's Lair. Rommel's health deteriorates and speculation begins as to what constitutes a real illnes and what boughts were convenient exits from the battlefield. Rommel is treated as more of a has-been. He is shuttled around from commands in Italy to Greece more for his name than anything else. It is in France that Rommel, who originally disdained fixed fortifications, finds himself overseeing the construction of the Atlantic Wall. Realizing he does not have the mobile forces under his direct command to throw back an invasion -- as well as an almost total lack of Luftwaffe support -- Rommel adopts the fortified beaches as the sole hope of repelling the Allies.

The book also explores Rommel's involvement with the plot against Hitler. Unlike other books that paint Rommel as either an active or unwilling participant, Irving shows Rommel's association as one where he is torn between his loyalty to the regime and realities of the battlefield.

THE TRAIL OF THE FOX is an important work on Erwin Rommel, however as with any subject, it should be read in conjunction with other books on the subject.

Of all the bios of Rommel that I have read, this is positively the best! Exhaustively researched, objectively written and not subject to any cliches on the subject this bio of Rommel has long been overlooked. The narrative has an immediacy that is seldom matched by others. He uses interviews of protagonists in a dynamic way to provide answers to the many enigmas surrounding the personality of this renowned historical figure. A classic!

Mr. Irving is certainly an unpopular character now, but I would agree with the distinguished historian Donald Keegan who once said, to the effect, that no matter what one thinks of Irving's politics he is without peer in his chosen field of study. Irving is a very good historian, and this is a very good book, written while Irving was still a young man, and perhaps not quite as clouded by his muddled feelings about Hitler. Irving's Rommel is a great commander, to a point. He has no grasp of logistics, but he is a "new" kind of commander, and therefore is more acceptable to Hitler than some of the more stuffy characters of the High Command. Rommel has an uncanny instinct for speed of movement, surprise, and terrain, as well as how to deal with the press. He is fully aware of his own legend, and the need Hitler has for an infallible German war-God. Unlike other German commanders (especially those on the Eastern front) Rommel is a scrupulously clean fighter. He does not massacre POWs or slaughter civilians. He ignores orders to execute all Jewish fighters and commandos. When white South African officers demand to be segregated from their black soldiers, Rommel denies them this request, the blacks fought and died wearing the uniform, and are soldiers like everyone else. Rommel comes to distrust Nazis like Himmler and others, who are involved in massacres, and, in the end, loses some faith in Hitler. Rommel wanted peace with the West and for the Western powers to turn with Germany against the Soviet Union. It was a naieve belief, certainly, but Rommel was no politician. Irving maintains Rommel was loyal to Hitler until the end, but the fact that a professional solider would offer an ultimatum to his Fuhrer, either you seek peace with the West or I will, shows that he had no illusions about Hitler's competence, or his methods of waging war. Irving makes a good case that Speidel, Rommel's chief of staff, himself a full-blooded anti-Hitler conspirator, threw Rommel to the dogs to save his own skin, and crafted Rommel's anti-Hitler pedigree after the war only to fully de-Nazify himself. Unlike what another review states, there is no mention of the "crime" of trying to assassinate Irving's "precious" Fuhrer, rather, Irving seems to feel dubiously about a man who was apparently so underhanded and sly (poor Rommel never stood a chance). At the very least, Rommel showed that in a brutal confilct without comparison in human history, a military commander could still fight honorably and with a humane concern for his men and nation.

Having finished this very interesting book, I think that Irving did a first rate job. He seems to have interviewed many of the principals involved on the German side and that in itself is very valuable for future analysis of both the Normandy and Afrika campaigns. Hopefully many of the unpublished diaries and letters (unpublished at least at the time of publication of this book) will eventually be published or otherwise made available to the general public. I was quite disappointed in the role of General Seidel in the demise of Rommel but it seems to me that Rommel's ideas of generalship would have resulted in his own demise on the battlefield eventually. I was also amazed at the degree of disorganisation of the German high command in France at the time of the D-Day invasion (including Rommel's own absence from the front). I believe that David Irving did excellent research, even though it painted a much different picture of Rommel than I had been led to believe. Rommel was indeed a great general, but his lack (at times) of comprehension of the some of the strategic aspects of the German war effort show that he had some flaws as all generals do. Rommel's suicide had the beneficial effect of probably accelerating the collapse of the German Western front in WWII, but Hitler's strategy was fatally flawed in any event. Some of Irving's conclusions are arguable in any event, but he has done an excellent job of presenting his conclusions in a clear and effective manner. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Allied effort in Europe in WWII.

David Irvings works are nothing short of exemplary, and this work is no different. History is written by the victors, but there are still a few to whom truth is more compelling than politics. David Irving is a great revealer of truth--pulling back the curtain of time for all of us to peer back into another era. This book is excellent. He does not re-hash the writings and opinions that already flood the bookshelves from this time period, he finds out for himself--from the original sources. Sometimes his findings are different from the popular ideas.

His chief critic (Barbara Lipscomb) is from the same university which recently had a historian villified in the press (Michael Bellesiles) for systematically fabricating an entire volume about the second amendment towards a particular political view. See Newsweek May 20 page 76 "Gunning for a bad book" article about M. Bellesiles' real deceptions. I really don't need to say any more. Irving reminds me of the philospher Bruno-who was burned at the stake by the inquisition for not espousing their views and promoting the idea of heliocentrism which was the truth. Irving is the best--a must read. The politically-correct are really going all-out to destroy his career. Don't let truth be thrown to the dogs, you will really be missing out if you pass up this one.