Erwin Rommel

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944), popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a famous German Field Marshal of World War II. He was a highly decorated officer in World War I, awarded the Pour le Mérite for his exploits on the Italian front. In World War II, he further distinguished himself as the commander of the Ghost Division during the 1940 invasion of France. However, it was his leadership of German and Italian forces in the North African campaign that established the legend of the Desert Fox. He is considered to have been one of the most skilled commanders of desert warfare in the war. He later commanded the German forces opposing the Allied cross-channel invasion in Normandy. Rommel is regarded as a chivalrous and humane officer because his Afrikakorps was never accused of any war crimes. Soldiers captured during his Africa campaign were reported to have been treated humanely; furthermore, he ignored orders to kill captured Jewish soldiers and civilians in all theaters of his command. Late in the war, Rommel was convicted of joining the conspiracy against Adolf Hitler, but he opposed the failed 20 July Plot of 1944 to kill the dictator. Because of his great prestige, Hitler allowed him to commit suicide rather than be tried and executed. He was buried with full military honors; the reason for Rommel's death only emerged at the Nuremberg Trials.