Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox, he served in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, as well as serving in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, and the army of Imperial Germany.
The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the formation fought on in Africa, under various appellations, from March 1941 until its surrender in May 1943. The unit's best known commander was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
Generalfeldmarschall was a rank in the armies of several German states and the Holy Roman Empire (Reichsgeneralfeldmarschall); in the Habsburg monarchy, the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, the rank Feldmarschall was used. The rank was the equivalent to Großadmiral in the Kaiserliche Marine and Kriegsmarine, a five-star rank, comparable to OF-10 in today's NATO naval forces.
During World War II, Operation Gaff was the parachuting of a six-man patrol of Special Air Service commandos into German-occupied France on Tuesday 25 July 1944, with the aim of killing or kidnapping German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
Hans Speidel was a German general, who was one of the major military leaders of West Germany during the early Cold War. The first full General in West Germany, he was a principal founder of the Bundeswehr and a major figure in German rearmament, integration into NATO and international negotiations on European and Western defence cooperation in the 1950s. He served as Commander of the Allied Land Forces Central Europe (COMLANDCENT) from 1957 to 1963 and then as President of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs from 1964.
Wolfgang Preiss was a German theatre, film and television actor.
The Desert Fox is a 1951 American biographical war film from 20th Century Fox about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in the later stages of World War II. It stars James Mason in the title role, was directed by Henry Hathaway, and was based on the book Rommel: The Desert Fox by Brigadier Desmond Young, who served in the British Indian Army in North Africa.
Five Graves to Cairo is a 1943 war film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter. Set in World War II, it is one of a number of films based on Lajos Bíró's 1917 play Hotel Imperial: Színmű négy felvonásban, including the 1927 film Hotel Imperial. Erich von Stroheim portrays Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in a supporting performance.
The Desert Rats is a 1953 American black-and-white war film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Robert L. Jacks, directed by Robert Wise, that stars Richard Burton, James Mason, and Robert Newton. The film's storyline concerns the Siege of Tobruk in North Africa during World War II.
Sieg im Westen is a 1941 Nazi propaganda film.
XIII Corps was a corps-sized formation of the British Army that fought on the Western Front during the First World War and was reformed for service during the Second World War, serving in the Mediterranean and Middle East throughout its service.
Raid on Rommel is an American B movie in Technicolor from 1971, directed by Henry Hathaway and set in North Africa during the Second World War. It stars Richard Burton as a British commando attempting to destroy German gun emplacements in Tobruk. Much of the action footage was reused from the 1967 film Tobruk, and the storyline is also largely the same.
Foxhole in Cairo is a 1960 British war film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and based on a novel by Leonard Mosley itself based upon the real-life Operation Salaam. It starred James Robertson Justice, Adrian Hoven, Fenella Fielding and Henry Oscar. Future star Michael Caine makes a brief appearance as a German soldier, in one of his earlier screen roles.
Desert War is an Australian two-part documentary series screened in 2013 portraying segments of the North African Campaign in World War II. The first episode covers the Siege of Tobruk from 10 April to September 1941, when the 9th Australian Division provided the backbone of the defence against attacks by Italian and German forces under Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel. The second episode covers the preparations for the major Allied counter-attack and victory under Bernard Montgomery in the Second Battle of El Alamein. It is demonstrated that extensive and accurate military intelligence, which greatly empowered Rommel for a long period, was gained through the copying of a burgled code book and regular indiscreet radio transmissions from the American embassy in Cairo. When these transmissions were terminated, advantage shifted overwhelmingly to the Allies. The series combines docudrama footage shot in a desert landscape in Western Australia with retouched archive film and interviews with British and Australian veterans of the campaign.
The Battle of El Alamein is a 1969 war film directed in 1969 by Giorgio Ferroni. It was an international co-production between Italy and France. The film depicts the Second Battle of El Alamein.
Pincer on Axis Europe is a 20-minute 1943 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada as part of the wartime Canada Carries On series. The film describes the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942 during the Second World War.
The Rommel myth, or the Rommel legend, is a phrase used by a number of historians for the common depictions of German field marshal Erwin Rommel as an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of Nazi Germany due to his presumed participation in the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler, which led to Rommel's forced suicide in 1944. According to these historians, who take a critical view of Rommel, such depictions are not accurate.
Rommel: The Desert Fox is a 1950 biography of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel by Desmond Young. The book was the first biography of Rommel and enjoyed immense popularity, especially in Britain. The book led the Western Allies, particularly the British, to depict Rommel as the "good German" and "our friend Rommel", contributing to the formation of the Rommel myth.
Alfred-Ingemar Berndt was a German Nazi journalist, writer and close collaborator of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
