ColinWright
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Joined: 10/13/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: SweArmy quote:
ORIGINAL: TOCarroll I HAVE read "Panzer Battles", as well as "Lost Victories", "The German Genarals Talk (and talk, and talk...)", Von Luck's Memoriors, and darn near every book written by an influental German WW2 Tank General that is available in english. "Leading from the front" (a la Rommel) certainly had its disadvantages, including being out of communications with Operations, making bad decisions based on incomplete information (from being out of communications with operations ), and just plain bad decisions with no one to advise you (see: Dash To The Wire). Certainly Rommels method was not perfect, but it worked well (in general). Nowdays, with improved comms, GPS, computers and the like, it would be outmoded. In WW2, I would use the analogy of an expert quarterback calling audibles. He is "on the field" and Rommel certainly had an intuitative feel for both the battlefield, his opponents, and their weaknesses. Rommel had his weaknesses. He could be arrogant, delusional (capturing the oilfields), he passed the buck on many mistakes (firing officers for his mistakes), and tended to ignore logistics. However, he adopted a style of command that played to his strengths. His elnisted men adored him, his troops were trained to a razor sharp edge, and he had an astonishingly quick, intuitative grasp of a very fluid situation. Particularly since he lacked General Staff training, and had to pick up armor tactics and command skills on the fly, I would certainly rate him at least #2 (behind Guderian) in command of an Armored Division, or (small) Corps. Hmm these are some interesting comments ! Regarding Rommels abilities as a "Panzer general" and the perfomance of command at the front he was nothing special in the German army of those days... Oh I think this under-rates Rommel's achievements. He really was quite incredible -- from his first action as a second lieutenant in 1914 to the way he hustled a vastly superior British force out of Mersa Matruh in 1942. Aside from everything else, he had an uncanny ability to anticipate how the enemy would perceive his actions -- and so drive objectively far more powerful forces from the field simply by playing on their fears and assumptions. If he wasn't able to win World War two solely with smoke and mirrors, that's hardly surprising -- what is amazing is just how much he managed to accomplish with the means at his disposal. A fairly good example of Rommel's style -- and one that suggests the root of his ability -- was what happened in course of Crusader when he suddenly found he'd driven right into the middle of a British field hospital. He just acted as if he owned the place. The British had been captured, he was inspecting, and he was graciously giving the staff permission to continue tending the patients. Then he quickly got back into his car and drove off... Now, the career of ninety nine generals out of a hundred would have come to an end right there.
< Message edited by ColinWright -- 8/17/2008 6:33:24 AM >
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I am not Charlie Hebdo
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