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Rommel ' Desert Fox '

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Rommel aka “Desert Fox” The man best known as the Desert Fox was born 15 November 1891 to parents Erwin Rommel Senior and Helen von Lutz who named their son Erwin Johannes Eugene Rommel. Rommel’s family was not a military one, his father like his father before him were teachers while his mother was the daughter of a high ranking government official. (Kurowski 2010) It is not known why a man with no military family connections would be led to join the army but I believe that he was influenced by the growing Nationalism in Germany at the time. He became an officer cadet in 1910 with the124th Wurttemberg Infantry Regiment where he was commissioned a Leutnant in 1911. After his commission he would go on to marry Lucia Mollin on 27 November 1916, they would later have a son whom they named Manfred Rommel. It is rumored that he had a daughter born in 1913 named Gertrud Stemmler from a relationship with Walburga Stemmer which was before his marriage. (History.com n.d.) Who could have guessed that 33 years later he would hold the rank of Generalfeldmarschall and be one of the most famous battlefield leaders of the Second World War. One can only wonder about the path that led a son of a teacher from the world of academia to the battlefields of World War I. His first unit that he fought with in WWI was the 6th Wurttemberg Regiment but soon transferred into the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion of the elite Alpenkorp which was known for its adaptability which enabled the unit to meet the

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