Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderball
The loss of Rommel was a huge one... the Afrika Korps were a feared division and his tactics were amazing. From what I saw and read, he was disgusted by the genocides and felt that this war was meant to assert German dominance, reclaim lost territories ("anschluss") and make amends for Versailles. He then helped plot Hitler's assasination, and failed in the attempt.
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I agree... I think a huge mistake for the Germans was, after El Alamein, Hitler's reassignment of the "defeatist" Rommel... Instead of reassigning him to the East, where he would have been most effective as a military tactician and commander, he instead was assigned to the Atlantic wall strategic defense project on the western front.
Now, as brilliant a military tactician as Rommel was, a great defensive strategist he was not. He sacrificed the training of new recruits in order to plant an almost medieval arsenal of obstacles along the beach: millions of mines on land and underwater, "Rommel asparagus" (antiaircraft stakes), flame-throwers, etc.
He bickered with von Rundstedt and Sodenstern about where to place Panzer divisions to best defend the attack, with Rommel being so obsessed with Allied air superiority he wanted to place them right up against the beach, where they would be vulnerable to both sea and air attacks, and the others wanting them further inland.
Because of this, Hitler tried to appease both camps and split the 7 Panzer divs, 3 at the beach, 4 inland, and we all know how that turned out.