Rommel’s Desert Commanders: The Men Who Served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941-42

This work: offers a new perspective on the most famous campaign of the legendary Desert Fox; provides details on the contributions and animosities of Rommel’s subordinates; and, includes accounts of Tobruk, Gazala, El Alamein, and other battles. In Libya and Egypt in 1941 and 1942, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel achieved immortality as the Desert Fox, battling and usually defeating numerically superior enemies. Until now, historians have generally overlooked the talented cast of characters who supported Rommel during this campaign. Distinguished military historian Samuel Mitcham recounts the battles of the Afrika Korps through the men who served Rommel as staff officers and commanders of divisions, regiments, and battalions - soldiers like Ludwig Cruwell and Walter Nehring, two of World War II’s best Panzer commanders, and Ernst-Gunther Baade, who wore a kilt and carried a broadsword into battle.