Infanterie Greift An (The Infantry Attacks), by Erwin Rommel - Edit 1
Before modification by Tom at 08/05/2012 09:02:40 PM
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is a legend. He was a military genius who very nearly defeated a numerically superior British Army in North Africa in World War II, but more than that, he was a soldier who epitomized the notions of chivalry and fair play. As commander of the Deutsches Afrikakorps, he refused to follow directives to execute Jewish prisoners, treated all POWs with the utmost regard and was never implicated in any war crimes. He was supportive of the plot to kill Hitler, for which he was forced to kill himself. Even then, his popularity was so great that Hitler was forced to lie and say Rommel had died from injuries sustained following an RAF strafing of his staff car, and bury him with full military honors.
Anyone who has ever seen the movie Patton will know that the almost equally legendary American general is portrayed reading a book by Rommel called The Tank in Attack. Although Rommel planned to write such a book, he never did. It is only one of a long list of glaring errors in the movie (which includes having US Patton tanks, developed after Patton was dead, used in battle scenes to show the tanks for both US and German armies). However, Rommel did write a book that was translated into English as The Infantry in Attack (but which would more literally be translated The Infantry Attacks). It is a first-person narrative written by Rommel in the 1930s, published in 1937 and recounting Rommel's exploits in World War I.
The book was designed to help educate future soldiers and contains numerous instructions for the reader as to how to handle various combat situations, but it also makes for engaging reading for anyone who enjoys military history. I must admit that Infanterie Greift An is probably the best war memoir I have read, hands-down, from the perspective of explaining the battles in which the author fought. The style is brilliant, combining observations about the German soldier and his enemies with very detailed descriptions of the battlefield.
The book is augmented by dozens of sketches (most of them relief sketches) showing the actual dispositions of Rommel's unit and the enemy. Rommel spent the greater part of his World War I military career in the Württemberg Gebirgsbattalion (Mountain Battalion), and fought in the Carpathian Mountains and the Alps. As a result, we see side views of the mountains marked with arrows following various ascent routes. At no point in reading Rommel's book was I ever confused as to what was happening, what the terrain was like or where the various units were, which is nothing short of amazing for a military book of this sort.
Rommel's actual exploits were no less amazing. The reader, who may be familiar with Rommel's daring as "the Desert Fox", will enjoy reading how, through 52 hours of continuous fighting over an ascent in excess of 2400 meters over 18 kilometers of mountain terrain heavily defended with machine gun positions, barbed wire, fortified positions and a high ground advantage, Rommel's few hundred men captured 150 officers, 9000 soldiers and 81 field guns, at a cost of 6 dead (including one officer) and 30 wounded (including one officer) during the 12th Battle of the Isonzo (i.e., the last Battle of the Isonzo, as Rommel turned the front and pushed the Italians back to the Piave). Then, a few weeks later on the Piave, he takes an additional 10,000 men prisoner, along with 200 machine guns, 18 mountain guns, 2 cannons, 600 draft animals, 250 carts, 10 trucks and 2 ambulances, losing 6 dead, 2 badly wounded, 19 lightly wounded and one missing soldier. Rommel's contempt for the Italians is smoothed over in several lines where he states that under their "new" leadership at the time of his writing the book (i.e., Mussolini), the Italians had regained the glory that was rightfully theirs. I suspect that Rommel's editor added these lines for political reasons.
However, even if Rommel does not think highly of the Italian fighting capability, he still takes every opportunity to avoid bloodshed, trying to get surrounded groups of Italian soldiers to surrender rather than simply attacking them, and in one case he throws himself into a raging river to save a drowning Italian POW.
Rommel's memoir makes for great and exciting reading, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading military history or war memoirs. The only problem that I had with the book was that it seemed to end very abruptly and without any exposition talking about the end of the war. I would have been interested to hear Rommel's thoughts on the Treaty of Versailles, but considering that the Nazi authorities would have forced him to parrot the Party line without any nuance, perhaps it is better that it does end as it does, letting the German reader know that the memoir is intended to help those who may be called to sacrifice their lives for Germany in the future.
Anyone who has ever seen the movie Patton will know that the almost equally legendary American general is portrayed reading a book by Rommel called The Tank in Attack. Although Rommel planned to write such a book, he never did. It is only one of a long list of glaring errors in the movie (which includes having US Patton tanks, developed after Patton was dead, used in battle scenes to show the tanks for both US and German armies). However, Rommel did write a book that was translated into English as The Infantry in Attack (but which would more literally be translated The Infantry Attacks). It is a first-person narrative written by Rommel in the 1930s, published in 1937 and recounting Rommel's exploits in World War I.
The book was designed to help educate future soldiers and contains numerous instructions for the reader as to how to handle various combat situations, but it also makes for engaging reading for anyone who enjoys military history. I must admit that Infanterie Greift An is probably the best war memoir I have read, hands-down, from the perspective of explaining the battles in which the author fought. The style is brilliant, combining observations about the German soldier and his enemies with very detailed descriptions of the battlefield.
The book is augmented by dozens of sketches (most of them relief sketches) showing the actual dispositions of Rommel's unit and the enemy. Rommel spent the greater part of his World War I military career in the Württemberg Gebirgsbattalion (Mountain Battalion), and fought in the Carpathian Mountains and the Alps. As a result, we see side views of the mountains marked with arrows following various ascent routes. At no point in reading Rommel's book was I ever confused as to what was happening, what the terrain was like or where the various units were, which is nothing short of amazing for a military book of this sort.
Rommel's actual exploits were no less amazing. The reader, who may be familiar with Rommel's daring as "the Desert Fox", will enjoy reading how, through 52 hours of continuous fighting over an ascent in excess of 2400 meters over 18 kilometers of mountain terrain heavily defended with machine gun positions, barbed wire, fortified positions and a high ground advantage, Rommel's few hundred men captured 150 officers, 9000 soldiers and 81 field guns, at a cost of 6 dead (including one officer) and 30 wounded (including one officer) during the 12th Battle of the Isonzo (i.e., the last Battle of the Isonzo, as Rommel turned the front and pushed the Italians back to the Piave). Then, a few weeks later on the Piave, he takes an additional 10,000 men prisoner, along with 200 machine guns, 18 mountain guns, 2 cannons, 600 draft animals, 250 carts, 10 trucks and 2 ambulances, losing 6 dead, 2 badly wounded, 19 lightly wounded and one missing soldier. Rommel's contempt for the Italians is smoothed over in several lines where he states that under their "new" leadership at the time of his writing the book (i.e., Mussolini), the Italians had regained the glory that was rightfully theirs. I suspect that Rommel's editor added these lines for political reasons.
However, even if Rommel does not think highly of the Italian fighting capability, he still takes every opportunity to avoid bloodshed, trying to get surrounded groups of Italian soldiers to surrender rather than simply attacking them, and in one case he throws himself into a raging river to save a drowning Italian POW.
Rommel's memoir makes for great and exciting reading, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading military history or war memoirs. The only problem that I had with the book was that it seemed to end very abruptly and without any exposition talking about the end of the war. I would have been interested to hear Rommel's thoughts on the Treaty of Versailles, but considering that the Nazi authorities would have forced him to parrot the Party line without any nuance, perhaps it is better that it does end as it does, letting the German reader know that the memoir is intended to help those who may be called to sacrifice their lives for Germany in the future.