Rommel: The Desert Fox
Desmond Young | |
Country | United Kingdom |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Biography |
Publisher | William Collins, Sons |
Publication date | 1950 |
Media type |
Rommel: The Desert Fox is a 1950 biography of
Background
Young had served in
Reception
The Desert Fox met with enthusiastic reception in Britain, going through eight editions in a year.[4] Following publication, Rommel's former British opponents described Rommel as a brilliant commander and a resistance fighter, with one senior military figure comparing Rommel to legendary commander Belisarius. (The praise led Brian Horrocks, Montgomery's former deputy, to publish an April 1950 article, "The Rommel Myth Debunked", in which he argued that the 8th Army beat Rommel's Afrika Korps "fair and square".)[5]
The book was not without its detractors. A review in
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, under the title "Rommel: A Flattering and Unconvincing Portrait", the conservative journalist Malcolm Muggeridge wrote that the 1951 movie based on the book represented "a tendency towards collective schizophrenia whereas (...) 'chivalry' towards a captured brigadier is in no wise incompatible with a foreign policy of perfidy and the brutal disregard for all the elementary decencies of civilised behaviour". Richard Crossman, a Labour MP, objected to the portrayal of Rommel as an anti-Nazi, writing:[7]
As a nation, we deceive ourselves into believing that there are two sorts of Germans—the Good German and the Bad German. The "Bad Germans" are Nazis, militarists, anti-democratic, and perpetrators of atrocities. The "Good Germans" are peace-loving democrats and real gentlemen. Ergo, since Rommel was a clean fighter, he must have been anti-Nazi, and men like him would make good allies of democracy against the Russians.
The historian Hugh Trevor-Roper commented that "the danger now is not that 'our friend Rommel' is becoming not a magician or a bogy-man, but too much of a hero". He pointed out Rommel's early proximity to Hitler and described Rommel as representative of the Wehrmacht officer corps' support for "Hitler's politics and Hitler's war".[8]
The Desert Fox film
The 1951 movie The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, based on Young's biography, portrayed Rommel sympathetically, as a loyal, humane soldier and a firm opponent to Hitler's policies.[1] The movie exaggerated Rommel's disputed role in the conspiracy against Hitler, while omitting Rommel's early association with the dictator.[9][1] Critical and public reception in the US was muted, but the movie was a success in Britain, along with a less-known 1953 movie The Desert Rats, in which Mason reprised his portrayal of Rommel.[1]
Patrick Major argues that the desert war indeed helped effect the former enemies' reconciliation. The British popular history focused on the fighting in that theatre, almost to the exclusion of all others. He states that The Desert Fox had a "catalytic effect" in creating an image of the German military that would be acceptable to the British public.[4] The film received nearly universally positive reviews in Britain, while protests at the cinemas broke out in Vienna and Milan. Liddell Hart watched the movie with a group of high-ranking British officers and reported being "pleasantly surprised".[10][n 1]
Role in Rommel myth
The Rommel myth refers to a view that Rommel was an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of
Following the war, the Western Allies, particularly the British, depicted Rommel as the "good German" and "our friend Rommel". His reputation for conducting a clean war was used to advance
Young's book was uncritical and laudatory, "bordering on hagiography", according to historian Patrick Major.[3][n 2][n 3] It was another step in the development of the Rommel myth, with Rommel emerging as an active, if not a leading, member of the 20 July plot. Starting in the early 1950s, Speidel contributed as well by highlighting his and Rommel's roles in the plot, thus boosting Speidel's suitability for the Federal Republic's Bundeswehr and NATO.[15]
According to historian
Notes
- ^ Patrick Major writes, quoting Liddell Hart: "'went to see it in a very critical frame of mind, from past experience of "Hollywood" handling of history', but 'was pleasantly surprised'."[10]
- ^ Major: "Young had relied extensively on interviews with the Field Marshal's surviving widow, son and former comrades so that the positive picture that emerged is perhaps hardly surprising. Yet the overall effect bordered on hagiography".[3]
- ^ Martin Kitchen: "Early biographies, such as that by Desmond Young, were positively adulatory."[14]
- ^ Kitchen: "The North African campaign has usually been seen, as in the title of Rommel's account, as 'War without Hate', and thus as further proof that the German army was not involved in any sordid butchering, which was left to Himmler's SS. While it was perfectly true that the German troops in North Africa fought with great distinction and gallantry, (...) it was fortunate for their subsequent reputation that the SS murderers that followed in their wake did not have an opportunity to get to work." Kitchen further explains that the sparsely populated desert areas did not lend themselves to ethnic cleansing; that the German forces never reached Egypt and Palestine, which had large Jewish populations; and that, in the urban areas of Tunisia and Tripolitania, the Italian government constrained German efforts to discriminate against Italian Jews.[18]
References
- ^ a b c d Caddick-Adams 2012, pp. 480–481.
- ^ Searle 2014, pp. 9.
- ^ a b c Major 2008, p. 522.
- ^ a b Major 2008, p. 521.
- ^ Major 2008, p. 523.
- ^ Time 1951.
- ^ Major 2008, p. 524.
- ^ Major 2008, pp. 524–525.
- ^ Chambers 2012.
- ^ a b Major 2008, p. 525.
- ^ Watson 1999, pp. 166−167.
- ^ Reuth 2005, pp. 141−143.
- ^ Major 2008.
- ^ Kitchen 2009, p. 9.
- ^ Caddick-Adams 2012, p. 474.
- ^ Connelly 2014, pp. 163–163.
- ^ Caddick-Adams 2012, p. 483.
- ^ Kitchen 2009, p. 10.
Sources
- Beckett, Ian (2014). "Introduction". In I. F. W. Beckett (ed.). Rommel Reconsidered. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0811714624.
- ISBN 978-1590207253.
- Chambers, Madeline (2012). "The Devil's General? German film seeks to debunk Rommel myth". Reuters. OCLC 36119607. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
- ISBN 978-0700615315.
- ISBN 978-0811714624.
- Friedmann, Jan (23 May 2007). "World War II: New Research Taints Image of Desert Fox Rommel". OCLC 769589578. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
- Hart, Russel A. (2014). "Rommel and the 20th July Bomb Plot". In Beckett, F. W. (ed.). Rommel Reconsidered. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0811714624.
- ISBN 978-0521509718.
- Lieb, Peter (2014). "Rommel in Normandy". In I. F. W. Beckett (ed.). Rommel Reconsidered. Mechanicsburg, PA: ISBN 978-0811714624.
- ISSN 1477-089X.
- ISBN 3548603858.
- ISBN 978-1904950202.
- Searle, Alaric (2014). "Rommel and the rise of the Nazis". In I. F. W. Beckett (ed.). Rommel Reconsidered. Mechanicsburg, PA: ISBN 978-0811714624.
- ISBN 978-0521833653.
- "Armored Knight". ISSN 0040-781X.
- Watson, Bruce Allen (1999). Exit Rommel: The Tunisian Campaign, 1942–43. Westport, Conn.: ISBN 978-0275959234.
- ISBN 978-0674025776.
- OCLC 60622316.
- Zabecki, David T. (2016b). "March 2016 Readers' Letters". HistoryNet. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
External links
- Citino, Robert (2012). "Rommel's Afrika Korps". HistoryNet. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
- "Defeating the Desert Fox": Video on YouTube, via the official channel of The National WWII Museum; session by Nigel Hamiltonat the 2012 International Conference on World War II