The Trail of the Fox

Product Description Field Marshal Rommel has been described as one of the ten greatest military commanders of all time. This is the first biography of this charismatic leader to rely almost entirely on the original records of the period. David Irving's exhaustive research led him to a dusty personnel file on the young Rommel - applying and being turned down - for army commissions; the long lost Rommel Diaries, dictated day by day to an army corporal and covering the two momentous years of his triumphs and defeats in North Africa, and numerous other private papers. From them emerges the picture of both the outstanding soldier and the military commander, who tactical genius, brilliance on the battlefield, and extraordinary exploits captured the world, and of the private man - Rommel as a husband and father. Review The most thrilling war book I have ever read. It yanks Rommel out of the hazy aureole of legend and flings him down before his Hungering for medals, escaping unscathed while a shell blows his comrade's back off, restaging whole battles for propagandists. I culd no more stop reading this book than the French could stop Rommel's panzers. --David Kahn, Author of THE CODEBREAKERS A fascinating study of the brilliant Rommel. It enables the reader to experience the emortions of a warrior in battle. --General Mark W. Clark Suberb narrative history, rendered with an intimacy that transcends print. The central character is drawn with a skill no novelist would disdain... Mr. Irving has pictured Rommel in a harsh light, but he has combined his qualities, strengths, weaknesses, and vanities in such a way that he breathes life on every page. --Thomas Lask, The NEW YORK TIMES Irving's "Trail of the Fox" is not your typical biography. It is a fast-paced, almost novelistic read that moves swiftly through the career of this legendary soldier, trying to give the reader a taste of the man rather than an exhaustive list of his doings and accomplishments. Using his close relationships with ex-Afrika Korps officers as well as Manfred and Luci Rommel and their papers and photographs, Irving achieves what he sets out to do in a fast-paced, if somewhat terse read. The image we get of Rommel as a youth is a blurry watercolor sketch that periodically comes into sharp focus: a puny and somewhat sickly lad from an uninspired civil-service family who literally willed himself into an excellent officer cadet and later during the First World War, into a superb tactician. He showed his form early as a young lieutenant of mountain troops, driving his men forward without regard for fear or fatigue, but always with concern for their well-being, and always from the front. His accomplishments -- Iron Crosses first and second class, wound badges and the famous "Blue Max" -- were matched only by his ambition. In the quest for Prussia's highest award for valor Rommel showed a frightening self-obsession that he was often to show as an older man: a hunger for award, praise, and recognition. He also showed his capacity to alienate other officers, a habit he kept up his entire career and which may have cost him his life, and some personal pettiness, using every opportunity to exact vengeance on his rivals. The interwar years saw Rommel serve as an instructor at a military school and pen "Infantry Attacks" a best-selling and seminal book on small-unit tactics that not only brought him to the attention of Adolf Hitler, but remains in the library at West Point to this day. As CO of Hitler's Poland HQ, Rommel again captured Hitler's attention with his fearless treatment of Nazi bigwigs, and landed command of the 7th Panzer Division for the attack on France. It was here that the Rommel legend was born again, as the "Spook Division" blazed a reckless path across to the English Channel. Rommel's conduct here typified his adult personality: he was utterly fearless, physically inexhaustable, indifferent to logistical problems, and unwilling to subordin