Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

Isn't it the job of the army to follow orders? if bush would have a secret camp where he shot/killed/gassed/tortured irabic (muslims) would you expect the miliairy to say "sorry commander in chief, we cant obey your orders since you murder!" yes it would be a noble thing to do but its not only almsot im possible to dismiss the entire army but the army also has to follow the orders of the commander in chief. The generals con not say "sorry mr bush we wont go to war no matter what, fire us and the entire army" . The army is ment to follow heir CiC even when they know tha it is wrong. Rommel knew it was wrong what hitler did but he had to obey his CiC (hitler). Also note that most of the generals had a prusian background and the people there had this unwritten rule that "befehls ist befehl!" (order are orders!) meaning that orders had to be carried out wether one agree with them or not. The only way to stop the army from fighing was to remove hitler, and that they tried several times (all failed, so did the latest atempt with the briefcase bomb attack in the highcommand room in the wolfsschanze/wolfslair).

Rommel knew of this plan to kill hitler, this time he disobeyed orders (one ofcourse had to tell hitler of this planned attack on his life, rommel did not however). When hitler found out that rommel knew of the plot he was furious, for this high-treason there was only one punishment: death. And so came it that rommel had to option of either ending his life by taking a cyanide pill or him, his family and staff being shot. Rommel decide to spare the lifes of the others and ended his life by taking the cyanide pill.

Its far too simple to just say "they should not have listened to yhis madman, they should have killed them on the spot" not only where lots of people obsesed with hitler but it was also not part of the culture to disobey orders and even then it would be near impossible to dismiss dismiss the entire army and send all soldiers home. Like i said above the only way to stop this war was to either remove hitler (and put somebody of the army in charge) or to get defeated by the allies. Unfortunatly the war ended with this later solution which claimed far more victems on all sides : civilians, "untermenschen" and both axis and allied soldiers. War is a horrible and complicated thing :( . Bless the souls of all those who have fallen

Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

How would he be a bad guy if he was only serving his nation?

Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

i'm going to have to agree with the person you quoted, Mihail. Rommel, due to his position must have known about the Holocaust.

serving 'masters' capable of such things makes one just as bad. he should have, in fact, all who served in the German Armed Forces, should have refused to fight.

Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

Ahem. There is no justification for killing whether you are a good or [/i]bad[/i] guy.

Rommel supported "fair play" in war, and his actions in North Africa bring up great examples. There is plenty of information from books to know this. For example, Hans von Luck's Panzer Commander goes into great detail on how british and german forces had actual respect for each other.

It is a shame wars aren't fought as such nowadays. It's already worse enough that humans kill each other for fleeting causes.

Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

He was?


I hope you are just making an exaggerated remark in an attempt of comedy :uhm:

Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

The allies(Britian and France) were the ones who declared war on Germany after Poland refused to give over 'rightful' German land known as the Danzig corridor.

The same allies whom didn't declare war on USSR on 17 September.

Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

Did he do any War crimes like the SS and Hitler? If not then he would have been spared the trials and then we could have had the interviews and stuff. Odd though why the nazies killed him. Maybe so they could fight on? Or he had sensetive info that they did not want to fall into the british?

Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

Ahem, that's why he was killed if you are forgetting, he was in on a plot to knock off hitler. I doubt rommel was in on the plot because he thought hitler was too nice, or too smart, I even doubt it was because rommel wanted to take his place.

it was exaggerated, but not far from the truth, countless times rommel was the only person stopping the americans and british from advancing into italy and france.

Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

yeah, i know. they declared in Defence of Poland. what were they to do? sit back and let Hitler steam roller across Europe?

Re: Rommel - 1891-1944
 

The Danzig corridor was taken from Germany as part of a larger punishment for their role in World War I, and given to Poland. Germany signed an agreement, complying with all the terms in the Treaty of Versailles, so that land was 'righfully' Polish.