Rommel was in his lifetime extraordinarily well known, not only by the German people, but also by his adversaries. Popular stories of his chivalry and tactical prowess earned him the respect of many opponents, including Claude Auchinleck, Winston Churchill, George S. Patton, and Bernard Montgomery. Rommel, for his part, was complimentary towards and respectful of his foes. Hitler considered Rommel among his favourite generals.
The Afrika Korps was never accused of any war crimes, and Rommel himself referred to the fighting in North Africa as Krieg ohne Hass—war without hate. Numerous examples exist of Rommel's chivalry towards Allied POWs, such as his defiance of Hitler's infamous Commando Order following the capture of Lt. Roy Woodridge and Lt. George Lane as part of Operation Fortitude, as well as his refusal to comply with an order from Hitler to execute Jewish POWs. Fritz Bayerlein, Rommel's friend and chief of staff in North Africa, was part-Jewish. During Rommel's time in France, Hitler ordered him to deport the Jews in France; Rommel disobeyed the order. Several times, he wrote letters protesting the treatment of the Jews. When British Major Geoffrey Keyes was killed during a failed Commando raid to kill or capture Rommel behind German lines, Rommel ordered him buried with full military honours. Also, during the construction of the Atlantic Wall, Rommel directed that French workers were not to be used as slaves, but were to be paid for their labour.
His military colleagues would also play their part in perpetuating his legend. His former subordinate Kircheim, though privately critical of Rommel's performance, nonetheless explained: "thanks to propaganda, first by Goebbels, then by Montgomery, and finally, after he was poisoned (sic), by all former enemy powers, he has become a symbol of the best military traditions. ....Any public criticism of this legendary personality would damage the esteem in which the German soldier is held" (in a letter to Johannes Streich, who also served under Rommel as the commander of the 5th Light Division in North Africa, and came to loathe Rommel).
After the war, when Rommel's alleged involvement in the plot to kill Hitler became known, his stature was enhanced greatly among the former Allied nations. Rommel was often cited in Western sources as a general who, though a loyal German, was willing to stand up to the evil that was Hitler. The release of the film The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) helped enhance his reputation as one of the most widely known and well-regarded leaders in the German Army. In 1970 a Lütjens-class destroyer was named the FGS Rommel in his honour.
Rommel was also the namesake of Operation Desert Fox, a United States military strike against alleged Iraqi nuclear weapons facilities, launched in December 1998. God bless him, Mussolini said something like better to live one day as a lion than a thousand as a sheep. BAA BAA BAA BAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
