Knight's cross : a life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel Hardback - 1993

HarperCollins, 1993. Hardback. Very Good/Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. In any numbering of the great captains of history, the name of Erwin Rommel must stand in the first rank. He was the outstanding Axis field commander of the Second World War, and was respected, even admired, as well as feared by his opponents. Here was a supremely professional solder: chivalrous, de cent, untainted by the crimes of the Nazi regime, carrying out his duty wit h often dazzling success. David Fraser's book--surely the definitive study--brings to Rommel's career not only the perceptions of an acclaimed biographer, but those of a distin guished soldier too: his insights into Rommel's mind and methods carry the authority of experience. He shows how inspiringly spontaneous and superfici ally haphazard Rommel's style of leadership could be. His hallmarks were bo ldness of manoeuvre, ferocity in attack, and tenacity in pursuit. These wer e the qualities he displayed in his great battles in the North African dese rt; they were evident from his earliest battles in the First World War to h is last, defending Fortress Europe from the Allied invasion of 1944. This is, first and foremost, a biography of a soldier. But Rommel reached a position in which he almost inevitably became embroiled in politics. When he realized that the Allied invasion was going to succeed, he realized also that the only way to save Germany was somehow to negotiate a peace settlement. He tried to present Hitler--to whom he had always been devoted, and who had always shown him a particular respect and affectio.