Was Erwin Rommel the best German general of WWII

Was Rommel the best German general of WWII?

  • Yes

    Votes: 21 12.0%

  • No

    Votes: 154 88.0%
  • Total voters
    175

hasdrubal barca

Here's my question, was Erwin Rommel that good of a general? Was he the best German general of WWII? Everyone seems to make him out to be the best I tend to place Model, Manstein and Heinrici higher than Rommel, am i wrong?

So really i want to basically to know the pros and cons to Rommel as a commander. I added a poll on, just to get a feeling of what people think. Add in comments who you believe was the best.

Thanks
 

mudhead

No for me - I think Kesselring better as an overall commander, and Heinrici was probably the most successful - in the circumstances - operational leader in the last two years of the war.

Rommel didn't seem to grasp logistics, and if you can't do that, you shouldn't have a theatre command.
 

idontlikesand

Manstein just for his brilliance. Just look at how he stabilized the front at the 3rd battle of kharkhov oh and there is that other thing with the sickle that got france on its knees
 
Cymraeg

Cymraeg

Good grief, no. He was a good tactician and he was not a man tainted with war crimes. But he was not a man for logistics at all. Best German general? Manstein. Or Heinrici.
 

The Red

Beedok said:
Morally? I think that's the one place I've seen for it to be arguable.
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Even then that was probably more out of circumstance than anything else, had he been on the Eastern Front I can't see him being any less willing to allow the Einzatsgruppen to massacre civilians.
 

Trotsky

The Red said:
Even then that was probably more out of circumstance than anything else, had he been on the Eastern Front I can't see him being any less willing to allow the Einzatsgruppen to massacre civilians.
Click to expand...

He already had plans to work with Einsatzgruppen assigned to the Middle East.
 

UncleDynamite

I don't think so. A great tactician and easily the least morally horrible of the big players in Nazi Germany, and a very good general, but not the best general. Not even the best in his field, IMO, Guderian was a better tank commander.
 

Kaiser K

No, he was a good General in many ways of course, and one of my favorites, but Manstein, Guderian, and others were overall better.
 

NoOneFamous

hasdrubal barca said:
Here's my question, was Erwin Rommel that good of a general? Was he the best German general of WWII? Everyone seems to make him out to be the best I tend to place Model, Manstein and Heinrici higher than Rommel, am i wrong?

So really i want to basically to know the pros and cons to Rommel as a commander. I added a poll on, just to get a feeling of what people think. Add in comments who you believe was the best.

Thanks
Click to expand...

He was good and lucky, but he was not the best.
 

Zombie Player

No, Not the best overall... however Rommel was in both the First and Second World War's one of the best at small unit tactics and useing speed and surpise to defeat his enemies.
 

jmc247

Trotsky said:
He already had plans to work with Einsatzgruppen assigned to the Middle East.
Click to expand...

He booted Walter Rauff from his command tent as well as his area of operations when Rauff asked to allow SS troops into his area of operations. That was why the Tunisian Jews end up suffering from forced labor as they were under French control at the time and the 100K Jews in Libya and Western Egypt which were under the Panzer Army Africa's control were off limits.

Ruff2.png~original


Modern bullshit German documentaries to the contrary Rommel had no plans to work with the SS to purge Palestine of Jews. Hell, in all of his maps for what he intended to do if he reached the Middle East, he intended to completely bypass Palestine and go on a straight line for the Port of Basra to cut off a large portion of the American LL supplies to Russia and then to head straight through Iraq to the oil fields in the Caucasuses.

As for Rommel in terms of being a general. He was an excellent motivator of men, he was tactically slightly overrated, but in terms of his strategic mind for seeing the big picture he is a fair bit under rated.
 
Last edited:

ObssesedNuker

jmc247 said:
Hell, in all of his maps for what he intended to do if he reached the Middle East, he intended to completely bypass Palestine and go on a straight line for the Port of Basra to cut off a large portion of the American LL supplies to Russia and then to head straight through Iraq to the oil fields in the Caucasuses.

As for Rommel in terms of being a general. He was an excellent motivator of men, he was tactically slightly overrated, but in terms of his strategic mind for seeing the big picture he is a fair bit under rated.
Click to expand...

*Looks at the first quoted paragraph*
*Looks at the italics*
*Looks at the first quoted paragraph again*

Given what was available to him and given what Germany could make available to him, that does not represent anything remotely like a person with a sound strategic mind would do. In fact, I would rate it as utterly delusional...
 

sharlin

Banned
No.

"Logistics...we don't need no stinking logistics!"

*weeks later*

"Sir we're out of fuel!"

"WTF WHY!? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR LOGISTICS!"

"....*facepalms before turning it into a Sieg Heil*
 

Saphroneth

Banned
sharlin said:
No.

"Logistics...we don't need no stinking logistics!"

*weeks later*

"Sir we're out of fuel!"

"WTF WHY!? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR LOGISTICS!"

"....*facepalms before turning it into a Sieg Heil*
Click to expand...

As I said over in the Sealion thread... "No, Rommel, you only think you have superpowers."
 

hasdrubal barca

Alright, for anyone, your in charge of the Afrika Korps what do you do differently, than Rommel?

What do you set as your goal? Taking Egypt? Protecting Libya? Driving to the Caucuses!? Fleeing to Italy?
 

sharlin

Banned
First i'd protect Libya whilst building up adequate supplies, let the italians get re-organised, rested and re-supplied before I thought about doing anything.
 

MattII

Rommel was a good tactical leader, and an excellent officer, but simply didn't have the strategic (see, logistical) know-how to really be a worthwhile general.
 
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