Rommel Spoke English? Could Fly a Storch?

I have two questions about Erwin Rommel. First, could the Field Marshal speak other languages besides German? I ask because of his famous interview with a captured British Commando. I've seen no source that said that he spoke English, yet I also didn't find any source that said that a translator was present.

I have also read repeatedly that Rommel would show up in his Fieseler Fi-156 at unexpected times and in unexpected places. Did Rommel fly this airplane himself? Did he have a pilot?

lordish

 

Hello Lordish. As an educated man I am pretty sure that Rommel could speak English and probably some French too. He probably used translators for comfort and protocole, at least in English. I remember reading somewhere that he enjoyed English literature. This statement however needs confirmation. I don't know about the Storch. I would seem surprising that he would fly without an escort.

 

I'm sure one of the first thing he did in Africa was to go up in a He-111 to survey the battlefield. Would have been devastating if the DAF was up that day.

 

a great "what if" topic!

 

I've read that he often flew in an unescorted Storch, for recon or liaison purposes. But he was a passenger, Rommel was no pilot.

 

There is a good photo of the Storch, with pilot, taken by Rommel in 'The Rommel Papers'.

 

Ok fair enough, after all the man was used to taking risks. Maybe this was a way for him not to draw attention. How many people could fit in a Storch by the way, two or three?

 

I've been looking further through my Rommel books ; Lewin states that upon arrival in Africa Rommel immediately went on reconnaissance aboard a Heinkel He-III ( Joe was right...)

Subsequently he used the Fieseler Storch which carried three people ; the pilot, Rommel and one of his aides. More than once the aircraft was hit by small-arms fire.

There is no mention of Rommel actually piloting an aircraft although he had a lifelong interest in aviation and things mechanical. In 1906, he and a University friend built a glider ( which apparently never got off the ground...) This information can be found in Irving, 'The Trail Of The Fox'. )

 

Thanks Martin for these documented precisions.

 

I realize that this is an outlandish claim, but my great uncle Peter Hoffmann was Rommel's personal translator during the AfrikaKorps Campaigns, and shared great details and photos of his interaction with Rommel, and with his family after the Field Marshal's forced suicide. Uncle Peter spoke seven languages his entire adult life, and he died just a few years ago in Zweibrucken, Germany (but not before briefly connecting me with Erwin Rommel's son, Herr Obermeister [Lord Mayor] Manfried Rommel of Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany).

 

Farout, Rommel speaks English, Hitler could not at all.
I thought all the top nazi's only spoke german and french.
Very interesting!

 

I have a reference to this as well in a book I have too, so it must be right.

 

thats amazing, got any more details?

I knew Rommel thought nothing of flying to the front in his storch as he like most of the German commanders, led from the front. He spent more time at the front than most western commanders (except perhaps Patton) and only stopped short of actually participating in the battle. This is one of the reasons why the Germans were so effective man-for-man and why the war dragged on so long. The Germans were nothing if not logical and they knew that the ony really effective way to lead a battle was from as close to the front as possible. This is where Rommel got his legendary "fingerspitzengefuel" that helped him win so many battles because he had a much better idea of the reality of the front than the Western commanders, who at times made ridiculous decisions made from their safe comand posts in the rear.

 

Great, another comedy post!

Blah blah blah. Opinions are like ... you know the rest.

Who?

The OKW? OKH? Hitler? Keitel? Jodl? Were they on the frontlines? Every German divisional commander and upwards?

Look son, Rommel was one of the rare exceptions, not the rule by any means! Tell me for instance of examples of FM von Manstein running about the battlefield, if you please!

Rommel's horsing around was not much more than him playing at battalion or regimental commander. What happens then is that one focuses one attention on the local problem of a single unit and loses the overall vision. The only advantage in so negating the authority of the local unit commander is that the CinC has at his disposal other reserve means that he can summon on his own authority other than having to go through a lengthy requests process, all the while gaining what is effectively tunnel vision. Not forgetting about the instances where R was simply lost and IIRC at least once evaded capture by sheer luck.

Oh, and by the way that was exactly what happened to Gen. O'Connor, commander of the Western Desert Force in April '41: he got careless in the desert.