During the Second World War, the Nazi German army attacked France, the British and French allied forces collapsed for thousands of miles, the British army had to carry out the largest retreat in history at that time - the Dunkirk evacuation, the German famous Rommel soldiers made a dangerous move to break through the French defense line, chased behind the British and French allied butts, can be described as unstoppable, sweeping Through France.
Rommel
It is a famous general and a love saint
Rommel was known as the "Eagle of the Empire", "The Fox of the Desert", and was known as the three famous generals of the German Army during World War II, and was one of the best generals under Hitler, and because he served the Nazi regime to launch wars of aggression, he was also known as "World War II arsonists".
Born on November 15, 1891, Rommel was born in southern Germany to an intellectual family, his and his grandfather were both teachers, Rommel's young desire was to become an engineer, but his father wanted him to join the army, Rommel defied his father's will and chose to obey. At first, his father wanted Rommel to go to the artillery unit, but Rommel was weak and the artillery unit was reluctant to accept it, so his father managed to write a letter of recommendation for Rommel, in which he said that Rommel was a "physically strong athlete", which allowed Rommel to enter the infantry and start a military career.
In March 1911, Rommel was sent to the Royal Danzig School of Officers' Cadets for eight months, where Rommel earned his rank of lieutenant and a love affair with a white head and an old man. In his youth, Rommel was a strong and introverted personality, not smoking or drinking, not close to women, living a strict life of abstinence, even if the coastal city where the school was located was full of lights and green scenery at night, Rommel did not experience it. At that time, Danzig often held officers' balls, young students including Rommel and the daughters of local celebrities were invited to attend, and at a summer ball, Rommel met a girl who impressed him.
Rommel and Lucy
The girl's name was Lucy Maureen, 17 years old, with a small face and slightly tough face, Latin ancestry and black hair, dancing was particularly outstanding, came to Danzig to learn the language, Rommel was captured as soon as he saw her, and began a crazy pursuit of Lucy. At first, however, Lucy was not interested in Rommel, she felt that Rommel was too serious and out of proportion to her lively and outgoing personality, but Rommel's dullness swept away in front of Lucy, who wore unilateral glasses to imitate the Prussian officer, and the appearance of the beautiful Xiao made Lucy laugh, and the two quickly fell in love.
Rommel was extremely fond of Lucy, and the words often hung on his lips were "Dearest Lucy, if you have any requests, just say it", during the military school, in addition to studying and training, Rommel spent almost all his time writing love letters to Lucy, even if he later went to the battlefield, Rommel still took time to write letters to Lucy in the tense war. One of the things worth mentioning about Rommel's unconditional preference for Lucy is that in 1944, Lucy had some verbal altercations with Gauss's wife, and Rommel, believing that Lucy had been wronged, threw Gauss out without mercy.
Because Rommel showed too much courage in World War II, the soldiers admired him, and even many people in the British army regarded him as an idol, in order to break the "Rommel myth", the British media once broke the news that Rommel actually had an illegitimate daughter, hoping to reduce Rommel's status in the minds of British soldiers. The matter was not replied to by the German and Rommel sides, and Rommel was notoriously affectionate with his wife Lucy and had adhered to the Spartan style all his life, so not many people believed that Rommel had an illegitimate daughter.
During World War I, Rommel was found on the battlefields of France, Romania and Italy, who fought bravely and skillfully, leading 3 German troops to defeat more than 20 French attacks in his first battle. In a battle in the Carpathian Mountains, Rommel led his troops along a hidden mountain road for 50 hours, giving the enemy a surprise blow, successfully capturing more than 5,000 people and capturing 30 artillery pieces. Germany surrendered in November 1918, ended World War I, and returned to the Infantry Regiment as commander.
Rommel met Hitler in Gothra in 1934, but at this time he did not think that he would stir up world peace with Hitler in the future; in early 1937, Rommel published the book "Infantry Attack", which was appreciated by Hitler; in September 1936 Rommel became the commander of Hitler's guard unit; in August 1939 Germany planned the annexation of Austria, Rommel was in charge of the Führer's wartime command; in February 1940 Rommel became the commander of the German 7th Panzer Division. In the Battle of France, which was invincible and invincible, and was known as the "Devil's Division", Rommel ushered in his own golden age of military affairs.
Rommel's military moves
Speaking of Rommel's wonderful performance in the French campaign, it has to be mentioned that he led the tank troops through the Ardennes Forest, Nazi Germany began to attack Western Europe on May 10, 1940, when Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg had a total of 147 divisions, totaling more than 3 million soldiers, comparable to the German troops, but the French strategy was rigid, pinning its hopes on the Maginot Line, declaring no war on Nazi Germany, and only shooting on a small scale on the German-French border area. The absence of large-scale fighting is a notorious "strange war" in history. What the French did not expect was that the Germans did not attack the Maginot Line as they expected, but went around.
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line was built by France after World War I to avoid Germany from launching another attack across the border, the defense line is composed of bunkers, bunkers, tunnels and other fortifications, all made of reinforced concrete, and can also be connected to each other by underground trams, and the internal gun positions, trenches, power stations, hospitals, kitchens, factories and other facilities are readily available, which can be described as an iron wall. But there was another problem, that is, when France built the Maginot Line, the Belgian kingdom in the north was so resolutely neutral that the defense line was only 150 kilometers, and the Ardennes Forest, hills and meuse river in the north were not covered by a defensive line. When the Nazi Germans attacked, the French army believed that the German armored forces were difficult to pass through the Ardennes Forest, the hills and the Meuse River, so they did not set up heavy defenses in these places, and they did not expect that the Germans just drove the armored troops into the Ardennes Forest.
The Ardennes forest was full of trees, tanks were advancing in the forest, and once the British and French allies knew that sending planes to bomb, then the German tanks would inevitably be destroyed, and Hitler also knew that this was a dangerous step, but he was willing to gamble. The 7th Panzer Division led by Rommel was the pioneer, leading the way through several French lines of defense, all the way to the Wind thief Thorn Forest, where the terrain was not conducive to the German army, not to mention, there was a heavy French garrison, if it took too long here, the surrounding French troops gathered, and the tank troops behind them were difficult to break through.
Rommel in an armored vehicle
Rommel played centripetal assault tactics, armored troops lightning attack, after breaking through a French defensive line will not love to fight, the back of the matter is handed over to the infantry, in order to break through the front of the line of defense, Rommel soldiers dangerously played a hand ming xiu boardwalk darkness Chen Cang. Rommel gave a strange order, and everyone except the driver sat on the tank lid, took out the white shirt and white gloves as long as they were white, and then shook these things and shouted, shouting that it didn't matter. The German soldiers were confused and did not understand what Rommel meant, but it was the duty of the soldiers to obey orders, so the Germans sat on the tanks and began to shout.
As for what they shouted, Rommel said that they could shout casually, and they naturally played at will, and various voices came from the German ranks, "I like Dortmund", "I like to drink beer", "I like to eat grilled sausages"... The French troops on the other side were confused at first glance, not sure what the Germans meant, waving white clothes to surrender? The French officer told his soldiers not to shoot at the Germans, that would be inhumane. So the German tanks swung closer and closer, and when they passed by the French soldiers, the French army also greeted the Germans, and Rommel's 7th Panzer Division passed through the French line and continued to chase after the British and French troops.
Since Rommel's advance was so fast that the rest of the Germans were far behind, including the troops transporting supplies, Rommel planned to drive his tanks back to meet them. When he reached a valley, Rommel found a French army, and at this time Rommel had only one light tank by his side, plus a total of 5 soldiers including himself, and the adjutant, seeing that the situation was not good, immediately told Rommel that we should withdraw quickly, and Rommel refused. The French army came to Rommel, and when the leader inquired, he found that the German officer opposite was the famous Rommel, and he chose to surrender without even thinking about it. After this incident, Rommel became synonymous with legend in the German army, and Rommel was even more unstoppable, seeing that he was about to return to Dunkirk, Hitler ordered the troops to stop attacking, because the armored troops did not have enough ammunition and gasoline.
On May 21, 1940, the Germans approached the English Channel, and nearly 400,000 Anglo-French troops were shrunk in a small area of northern France, only the small port of Dunkirk could be used as a sea retreat, but Dunkirk was vulnerable to German attacks, and if the Germans sent bombers and artillery during the retreat of the Anglo-French forces, then the casualties of the Anglo-French coalition forces could not be imagined. In order to rescue the army as much as possible, the British launched the Dunkirk evacuation, the British government and navy in an extremely dangerous situation, a large number of crew and navy in a week or so to rescue more than 336,000 people, for the later counter-offensive to preserve the strength.
On June 22, 1940, France announced its surrender, Germany captured 97,000 people and captured 585 tanks throughout the French campaign, while it only suffered more than 2,000 casualties, and Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, as the vanguard, lost only 42 tanks. After that, the 7th Panzer Division was stationed near the English Channel, and there was nothing else to do but train, so Rommel had a leisure time, hitler was very satisfied with Rommel's achievements, and even had the whim to make a movie to publicize the Victory of the German Army on the Western Front.
Hitler and Rommel
The filming was given to the Propaganda Minister, Gmbel, who had a good relationship with Rommel and came to Rommel's station to tell him about it, and Rommel said that he was very interested in making movies, and if Gurber trusted it, he would leave it to himself. Gurber relayed Rommel's idea to Hitler, and Hitler immediately slapped the table and agreed, so Rommel became a director, found the French soldiers in the prisoner-of-war camp, and made a movie with them with empty bombs. Later, Rommel's film was also released in Germany, called "Victory on the Western Front", and it is said that it also broke the Box Office record in Germany at that time.
Rommel committed suicide
On June 6, 1944, when the Allies invaded France and Nazi Germany was crumbling, Rommel wanted to free the Western Front and end the war against Hitler's wishes. Rommel was not directly involved in the assassination of Hitler, and 3 days before the assassination, Rommel inspected the front line in an open-top vehicle, but was unfortunately seriously injured by the British Spitfire raid, with a ruptured head, a broken cheekbone, and a left eye that could no longer be opened. When Rommel learned from his hospital bed that the assassination of Hitler had failed, he had a dirty face, and if this action of Rommel had come true, he would have saved at least millions of lives, but unfortunately, he had failed and would have given his life.
Rommel and Hitler
As early as November 1943, when Rommel was ordered to strengthen the defenses along the French coast to prevent the Allies from landing, he had already seen that Germany's defeat was decided, but he completed the task with enthusiasm and seriousness, even if his estimation of the form of reality and loyalty to Hitler deeply tormented him. Rommel's rebellion was unacceptable to Hitler, but if he publicly announced that a well-known general had betrayed him, it would obviously disturb the hearts and minds of the army and the people, so Hitler chose to let Rommel commit suicide by poisoning himself, and announced that he had died of a stroke.
Tomb of Rommel
At 12 o'clock on October 14, 1944, Rommel ended his life after taking potassium cyanide.
Until the last moments, Rommel hoped to persuade Hitler to step down and end the war as soon as possible, and he took a memorandum listing Hitler's wrong decisions with him until the day he was forced to die of poisoning.