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.
I mean, those numbers sound fairly absurd. Is the book edited by someone who can provide proof for such extraordinary exploits?
Other than the boasting, it does sound interesting, to be sure.
Infanterie Greift An (The Infantry Attacks), by Erwin Rommel
08/05/2012 04:05:45 PM
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I'm glad that I decided to check in today.
08/05/2012 07:01:48 PM
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Glad it interested you. I figured that only 1-2 people would be interested at most.
08/05/2012 09:03:58 PM
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Are you sure all those exploits are genuine?
08/05/2012 10:55:23 PM
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Wikipedia says 265,000 Italians surrendered in the offensive due to "exceedingly low morale"
09/05/2012 01:19:43 AM
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