Rommel

by Charles Douglas-Home

Book by Douglas-Home, Charles

Genres: Nonfiction, Military Fiction, World War II, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Charles Cospatrick Douglas-Home was a Scottish journalist who served as editor of The Times from 1982 until his death. Douglas-Home was the younger son of the Honourable Henry Douglas-Home and a nephew of the former British Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is quite an old one. I think it was written in the 1970's. Maybe opinion on Rommel has changed since then. It's a nice short book looking at his military career. I didn't want anything too in depth. Just something to give me the overall idea. There were no fascinating insights into Rommel's character. the only thing I didn't already know was how he could be a little reckless from time to time. The book gives the usual story of him being a 'soldier's soldier'. Not over praising him but a seemingly fair account. It wasn't a rip-roaring read but a book I'm glad to have read. It had been on my 'to read' pile for a very long time.

The strange part was reading about a man who was sending his troops to fight against my Grandad's formation.

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erwin Rommel's stature as one of the great generals in military history is confirmed in this masterful account by Charles Douglas-Home. The author does not gloss over Rommel's faults but reveals how he shares certain characteristics with the other great military leaders. It was Rommel's misfortune, along with certain other German generals,to serve the monstrous Nazi regime and its demented fuhrer.

[1.1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moves at a brisk pace, which is fitting considering the subject, and covers the entire history of Rommel. Not quite in-depth but not lacking in detail either, which makes the reading easy. It's a real intriguing story, full of triumph and disaster, and of course it ends rather bleakly. One does not quite get a sense of Rommel's brilliance, in fact quite often I got the sense he was rather more reckless than strictly necessary, but these and other shortcomings are thoroughly discussed by the author.

Even the paperback, which I read, has a good amount of photos in it—and maps as well, which are always a welcome addition to books like this.

[Clair Keizer · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Rommel" by Charles Douglas-Home is a straight-forward brief overview of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Accompanied by a plethora of photos of Rommel and the every day view of the desert war, Douglas-Home sheds light on the all too human military man Rommel was. An otherwise mundane, stick to the rules army officer, Rommel also happened to be in the right place at the right time to rise in Nazi Germany's army. That is, until the end. "Rommel" is a quick read, but a very good study of the real person behind the larger than life persona and in some eyes, hero on the wrong side of the lines, of World War II.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing extraordinary, but still a nice book to have around, especially given the relatively large format (bigger than a normal hardcover but not quite an actual "coffee-table book"). Mr. Douglas-Home tries, fairly successfully, to avoid taking sides in the then still relatively active controversy surrounding the battles at El Alamein, which is a nice demonstration of skillful diplomacy. The author was for a number of years defence correspondent for the Times of London, and like many of similar background seems to have found little or no difficulty in writing history rather than news. A nice touch are the maps, by Richard Natkiel, whose work I have always found to be impressive...