Review - Knight's Cross - A life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

Knight's Cross - A life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
by David Fraser

This biography of the famed Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, 'the Desert Fox' is rather thick, and in some ways detailed. A lot of the information can be found in other books, such as David Irving or former Brigadier Desmond Young's biographies of Rommel, however the author, Mr Fraser, himself a retired British General, has put together all the large amount of existing material well and the book is thus rather well written and does not read like a dry unit history. Rommel's son helped him out with some of the research. However the research into the actual units and campaigns is very general and not many unit histories are used. What probably stands out in this book is Fraser's mostly unbiased assesment of Rommel's military leadership, personality and implication in the 20 July plot despite his admiration for Rommel. There are around 30 or so photographs but I have not seen several of them. Overall this would be a general and mainstream biography without details, but readable by both begginers and knowledgable readers.

K