Armistice Day

[Rev. Rye]

There is no way anyone could value Rommel in the 2nd World War considering the monster he supported. But it does explain in part the rise of Nationalism in pre WW2 Germany. He was a master strategist in WW1.

Well, to be fair, besides being a master strategist, there was the fact that he had a very complicated relationship with Hitler and the Nazi Party that's ambiguous enough that it became plausible to treat him as less a committed Nazi and as much a victim of theirs as a puppet. I suppose that his consistent well-treatment of POWs (for a side that was infamous for its horrific human rights violations) and his being caught up in the 20 July 1944 plot on Hitler's life has quite a bit to do with it.

It's tempting to wonder what would have happened if Rommel defected to a more decent country, but, really, does defecting from one country's military to another's seem like a plausible thing to do? Especially if you expect to hold as high an office as Rommel?