Indiana Beach Crow

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You're also forgetting Philip Sheridan, Nathanael Greene, John Pershing (depending on if you consider Missouri "Southern"), George Meade, Joshua Chamberlain, Winfield Hancock, Omar Bradley, Maxwell Taylor and many more besides

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I suspected that Rommel being trained and serving in another army than the German one, would result in a very different Rommel. Just as I'm sure a Patton emigrating to Germany as a child and serving in the German would be quite different from OTL Patton.
 
My version of this was Rommels father immigrates to Benton County Indiana to join a cousin there. This may have some basis as there was a strong cluster of Swabians who settled there, including a family named Rommel. The town of Oxford has a town park named after the family due to their past contributions.

I suspected that Rommel being trained and serving in another army than the German one, would result in a very different Rommel. ...

Ya, I keep thinking that, he has a obscure career in the National Guard, with service in the Great War, and again as a Col or maybe Major General in WWII. Retires to the family farm along the Ade Way between Oxford and the county seat of Fowler. Active in the DAV due to his wounds from 1918 and in the American Legion. Sits on the board of directors of the State Bank of Oxford, and does a stint or two as a County Commissioner. Dies in the early 1960s & is occasionally remembered by a few older men in the county and his grandchildren
 

SsgtC

Banned
My version of this was Rommels father immigrates to Benton County Indiana to join a cousin there. This may have some basis as there was a strong cluster of Swabians who settled there, including a family named Rommel. The town of Oxford has a town park named after the family due to their past contributions.



Ya, I keep thinking that, he has a obscure career in the National Guard, with service in the Great War, and again as a Col or maybe Major General in WWII. Retires to the family farm along the Ade Way between Oxford and the county seat of Fowler. Active in the DAV due to his wounds from 1918 and in the American Legion. Sits on the board of directors of the State Bank of Oxford, and does a stint or two as a County Commissioner. Dies in the early 1960s & is occasionally remembered by a few older men in the county and his grandchildren
Unless he attends West Point. Then you might see Rommel leading 3rd Army instead of Patton. Or possibly even Supreme Commander Allied Forces?
 

Deleted member 94680

Unless he attends West Point. Then you might see Rommel leading 3rd Army instead of Patton. Or possibly even Supreme Commander Allied Forces?

That's quite a leap.

One - Why would Rommel emigrate when he never even considered it OTL? He remained in the Heer throughout the inter-war period (which also meant he was 'retained' as well, given the post-Versailles restructuring) this implies a pretty strong affinity to the idea of German statehood.
Two - It's a very specific set of circumstances that got Rommel to where he was OTL. Do we somehow get alt-Rommel to be friends with FDR to be promoted over other more senior officers?
 

SsgtC

Banned
That's quite a leap.

One - Why would Rommel emigrate when he never even considered it OTL? He remained in the Heer throughout the inter-war period (which also meant he was 'retained' as well, given the post-Versailles restructuring) this implies a pretty strong affinity to the idea of German statehood.
Two - It's a very specific set of circumstances that got Rommel to where he was OTL. Do we somehow get alt-Rommel to be friends with FDR to be promoted over other more senior officers?
Sorry, I don't mean if he immigrated during the Interwar years. I mean if his parents had immigrated either just prior to our immediate after his birth so that he grew up in the US and still decided on a Military Career
 
AN Australian Rommel might be a better bet... I mean, after all, our big WW1 general, Si John Monash came from a rather unconventional background (Jewish of German descent, civil engineer by trade...), so more space for an outside to worm their way in than in Yank-land...
 

Deleted member 94680

Sorry, I don't mean if he immigrated during the Interwar years. I mean if his parents had immigrated either just prior to our immediate after his birth so that he grew up in the US and still decided on a Military Career

Then there would be so many butterflies in alt-Rommel's life (schooling, childhood experiences, life pre-military, military career (doubt the American military would have a mountain division in *WWI) and further military career) that alt-Rommel would resemble OTL-Rommel in any meaningful way.

Unless you're contending military skill is innate as opposed to a product of experience and teaching...
 
Here is an interesting scenario:
The Rommel family emigrated to America. Young Erwin eventually goes to West Point or gets a commission in some state's National Guard and later goes active duty. He serves under fellow German emigrant Walter Kreuger! Kreuger mentors Rommel and Rommel ends up serving under Kreuger in the Pacific as a division commander.
 
I'd say that the biggest effect might be that the Afrika Corps does better.

*ducks thrown vegetable matter*

Hear me out, here, okay? Rommel was an audacious and skilled commander, but he criminally neglected force health protection. At any given moment damned near half of his forces in Africa were combat ineffective from various diseases, in an age and location where that should not have been the case. A different commander who didn't neglect such "trivial matters" might have had an effective fighting force twice as large. Hard to imagine an actual win, mind you, but better, maybe.
 
He achieves nothing of note.

For reasons that defy explanation, all of the most daring generals in American history have possessed a very strict set of traits:

They are all Southerners

They are all of Anglo-Saxon descent

They are all devout Protestants

They all have massive, horribly volatile temperaments that are either so tightly kept under control as to appear statue-like, or constantly scaring the living s*** out of anyone near them.

They generally have at least one other psychological problem on top of their temper, though this is not absolute.

They have also usually snapped at or near the field of battle and physically started beating their men.

Their subordinates usually alternate between praising them as geniuses and whispering out of earshot that they are insane...




Based on that, the sober, levelheaded, Catholic, Swabian Rommel has no chance of being that bold tank commander he was for the Germans. Most likely, he winds up being like Bradley forced to keep Patton on a tight leash in more ways than one. The closest he would ever come to his OTL job is if Patton got shot by someone in the middle of his ranting and raving about him clearly being the reincarnation of Harold Hadradda, and he had to fill in.

Ike may have been born in Denison, TX but was raised largely in Abilene, KS. Moreover, he didn't join a church until he became president. That's two that don't fit the profile.
 
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