Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Patton VS Rommel: truth or fake?
There are many different articles comparing Rommel and Patton, table and computer games, where Patton resists the Desert Fox. But in fact, Field Marshal of the III Reich Erwin Rommel and the 3-star US Army General George Patton ever met on the battlefield?
When USA took part in the WWII, Patton was commander-in-chief of the Western contingent of the US Army during the landing in Morocco during Operation Torch on November 8, 1942. At that time, the American soldiers were opposed by the German General Nering in Tunisia only. Rommel retreated at the time under the onslaught of the fourteen-fold Montgomery forces in Libya.
After Rommel began commanding troops in Tunisia, in the battle for the Kasserine Gorge, he dealt a crushing defeat to the US 2nd Corps, creating a threat of complete annihilation. Patton made a report to the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Tunisia on the causes of the defeats and on March 6, 1943 Patton was sent to command the 2nd Corps of the US Armed Forces, which was assigned a secondary role after the 9th British Corps in the decisive phase of the capture of Tunisia. Rommel himself left the African continent on March 9, Patton was never lucky enough to resist the Desert Fox in North Africa.
Next Patton is entrusted with the command of the 7th US Army, already at the stage of preparing the invasion of Sicily, whose task was to protect the left flank of the 8th British Army. They invaded Sicily at a time when Rommel himself was desperately trying to gain command of the troops in southern Italy, since only he was able to stop the invasion.
Patton was removed from main command of a group of troops in Italy after he hit a wounded American soldier and began to shout, calling him and his neighbor cowards and unworthy of the rank of soldier.
Meanwhile, Hitler had already given the order: "to appoint Field Marshal Erwin Rommel as commander-in-chief of the Expeditionary Forces of the Third Reich in Italy, subjecting all the ground, air and naval forces to him," but due to the maneuvers of Keitel and Yodel, the signing of the document was constantly postponed and as a result, in October 1943 Rommel was sent to the Atlantic Wall. Patton again failed to fight the Desert Fox.
Finally, the last possible meeting between Rommel and Patton could have occurred in France in 1944. Patton took his place in the command of the 3rd US Army, which took an extremely western position on the Western Front. After the landing on June 6, 1944, the forces of General Patton were part of the united forces of the Allies, who liberated France, reaching Paris. After this, at the end of August, the 3rd Army stopped near the Moselle River, near Metz.
Erwin Rommel commanded Army Group "B" and his troops were concentrated in the Caen area, where he desperately tried to throw Canadian and British troops into the sea. Thus, retreating to the east, Rommel's troops were much to the north of Patton's army, after Patton's division descended south to capture Paris.
Nevertheless, France was the only country in which Rommel and Patton were at the same time. But also this time was not long: because of the hospitalization of Rommel after the raid of the Allied aircraft on his car on July 17, 1944, Rommel and Patton were simultaneously in France for only 42 days. That is, when Patton's troops went north into the Arden Forest, Rommel was there a long time ago. As a result, the opposition "Patton VS Rommel" is a myth.
In the George Patton Museum, which was founded in 1988, there is a place for the Desert Fox. The picture shows the corner of Rommel in the Californian Museum of George Patton. Most likely, the presence of Rommel's corner in the museum can be explained by the desire of the organizers to raise the status of Patton, allegedly the Desert Fox confronted him. Perhaps the idea of a computer game and this myth, in general, was created just with the purpose of increased interest in the figure of the American general.
General Patton Memorial Museum locating by address: 62-510 Chiriaco Road, Chiriaco Summit, CA, 92201, USA