206. Battleground '44 - Erwin Rommel, The Desert Fox
Battleground
Goalhanger
4.5 • 820 Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2024
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Battleground '44 Saul and Patrick explore the story of Nazi Germany's most famous General - Erwin Rommel. Nicknamed the Desert Fox due to his successful exploits in North Africa, he soon became a favourite of Hitler. But by October 1944, all that had changed with the fallout from the failed bomb plot to kill Hitler placing Rommel under suspicion of treason.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Battleground 44 with me, Patrick Bishop. |
| 0:17.9 | Our subject today is Field Marshal Johannes Erwin Romel, who died by his own hand |
| 0:23.6 | 80 years ago, forced to take cyanide after being implicated in the July 20 plot to kill Hitler. |
| 0:30.6 | Rommel, of course, was famous as the Wiston Fuchs, the Desert Fox, a hero in Germany, |
| 0:36.6 | who seemed to be held in almost equal esteem by those he was fighting. |
| 0:41.1 | The British general, Claude Alkinleg, who was bested by Rommel in North Africa in the summer of 1942, |
| 0:47.1 | called him a Superman with supernatural powers. |
| 0:50.9 | Rommel also came to be regarded as the acceptable face of the Vermect, who in North Africa |
| 0:56.4 | fought what he himself called a war without hate. So he was supposedly a good German, |
| 1:03.1 | whose chivalrous conduct stood in sharp contrast to the savagery of the Nazis. Well, |
| 1:09.5 | how good a general was Romelel and was he really a good German |
| 1:13.6 | of legend? With me to talk about the desert fox today is none other than Saul David, who's been |
| 1:19.5 | studying him for decades and who is just completing a book on the Tunis campaign, Tunis grader's |
| 1:25.0 | called, in which Romel features prominently. Hello again, Saul. Hi, Patrick. It's been a few days since we last spoke. Here we are again. But tell me, Saul, I mean, you've been, you know, you've done a lot down the years on Romwell, but you really got to look at him close up to doing Tunis grad, your book, which is about to appear. When was it coming out next year? |
| 1:44.7 | Is it early next year? Next September. It was originally next May. They put it back a few months. They seem to think you'll have had this debate yourself, Patrick. I'm sure with publishers that autumn is the best time with Christmas coming up. So a few months later to wait for it, but it will be next year, late next year. |
| 2:00.7 | Yeah, and it'll be worth of wait for sure. |
| 2:02.7 | Just tell me this. |
| 2:03.4 | Did you think more or less? A few months later to wait for it, but it will be next year, late next year. Yeah, and it'll be worth of wait for sure. |
| 2:02.7 | Just tell me this. |
| 2:03.4 | Did you think more or less of Romel after you completed your research? |
| 2:09.0 | What I'm trying to say is, you know, you went into the research with a view of Romul. |
| 2:13.8 | How much did that change as a result of your kind of deep dive into his generalship |
... |
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