Originally Posted by Rowan

"Give me two Australian divisions and I will conquer the world for you." ~ Erwin Rommel - German Field Marshall in Command of the Afrika Korps during the Siege of Tobruk 1941


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Aside from the national chest beating that seems to come from these posts I think it worth pointing out that just about every country involved in the conflict has claimed a similar Rommel compliment yet there is no hard and fast evidence that he ever said anything like what is being claimed.

For some reason the former allied nations have martyred Rommel since his death and I don't really understand why, we regurgitate over and over his "positives" to the point that he has almost reached sainthood yet we rarely hear his negatives and we completely overlook the consequences for the human race had the nation he represented won the war.

New Zealand and Australia suffered in the region of 12,000 casualties (dead and wounded) in the two battles at El Alamein fighting this guy so I see no reason to promote him any higher than what he was a competent enemy commander.

Everyone says this type of thing...

Russians love to say that US Special Forces general Tim Haake said he could "put the world on its knees" with a platoon of Russian Paratroopers

a platoon, note, not too divisions

Of course, when you ask for a English quote of that, it's always, well, it was back in the 90s, too long ago, nobody can ever find it now hehehehe

Napoleon said something similar, but about the prussian army.

I must say i have never heard this particular quote.

I have heard the one, supposedly from 'The Rommel Papers', that Rommel used the words "The finest Infantry Division I ever faced" when talking of the 9th Division, 2nd AIF.

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Originally Posted by MontyB

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For some reason the former allied nations have martyred Rommel since his death and I don't really understand why, we regurgitate over and over his "positives" to the point that he has almost reached sainthood yet we rarely hear his negatives and we completely overlook the consequences for the human race had the nation he represented won the war.

New Zealand and Australia suffered in the region of 12,000 casualties (dead and wounded) in the two battles at El Alamein fighting this guy so I see no reason to promote him any higher than what he was a competent enemy commander.

Marytering rommel hides the discrepancies in the eight armies performance and the orders issued from the top.When rommel went on 'recconisance' the eighth army was a shambles

That simple.

Rommel marytering the australians is a similar event. He should of took Tobruk, He would of made Cairo easily if he had. His men and equipment were fresh,so was his supply line (would been alot shorter) he knew that the australians could break out at any point and that stopped him concentrating his forces on the eight army with its backs against the wall.


Its true what he said, because the ninth division,with seventh division attachments, was a unit that wanted to fight, volunteer army. As the Waffen SS proved, they're worth 3 -1