KILLING ROMMEL
Steven Pressfield
Doubleday
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9780385519700

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• Author Talk -- May 9, 2008

General Erwin Rommel was probably the most famous German Field Marshal of World War II and was commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps. He became known by the nickname “The Desert Fox” for his skillful military campaigns waged on behalf of the German Army in North Africa that featured some of the finest strategies of World War II. His legacy also includes a reputation as being a chivalrous and humane military officer in contrast to many other figures of Nazi Germany.

It is the character Erwin Rommel that is the driving force behind KILLING ROMMEL. Steven Pressfield’s career has been dominated by bestselling works of historical fiction, most famously with GATES OF FIRE (which has been optioned by George Clooney for a film treatment) about the Spartans’ battle with the Persian army. He also wrote the non-military novel THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE, which was made into the Robert Redford movie starring Matt Damon and Will Smith.

KILLING ROMMEL is told from the perspective of R. Lawrence Chapman, and the story that proceeds from a brief introductory chapter allegedly comes from Chapman’s diaries of his experiences with the British Army during World War II. Chapman is not a traditional military type and, in this story, went on to become a famous publisher following the end of WWII. Pressfield does a nice job of blending fact with fiction and features real-life British Army heroes like Jake Easonsmith, Paddy Mayne, Nick Wilder and Ron Tinker. Others represent composites or fictional characterizations.

Chapman is selected to join a secret unit known as the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), and they are identified by their scorpion insignia. The LRDG is tasked with infiltrating the German troops in North Africa and killing their leader, General Rommel. They recognize that this may indeed be a suicide mission but one that is necessary to alter the outcome of the war. General Rommel had just routed the British forces in a series of battles in the Western African Desert and is in the process of marching on to the gates of Alexandria. If the German troops are successful in this course, they threaten to push from the Suez into the Middle East oilfields. With Arab oil in their control, Hitler’s army could very well break the backs of the European Allied Forces and Russian Army.

What follows during Chapman’s recounting of his time with the LRDG is some very engaging historical and fictional accounts of the challenges and struggles that this secret unit faces against not only the Nazi Army but also the conditions of the African desert and their own vehicular limitations. It is during this point that you will forget you are reading a work of fiction and actually feel like you are there with this desperate British unit, as they valiantly struggle to overcome many obstacles in an effort to reach their goal of killing General Rommel.

With the British Eighth Army, led by General Bernard Montgomery, surging and a push from the recently landed American Allied Army led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the LRDG realizes how critical it is for them to succeed and provide intelligence that will allow their overall forces to succeed in stopping the Nazi desert push. The historical battle at El Alamein is an important turning point in this effort, and Pressfield again puts the reader right there with the LRDG. The eventual face-to-face confrontation between Chapman’s team and General Rommel himself is powerful and contains enough nervous tension to make the best military history buff forget the eventual documented outcome.

It is a known fact that Rommel was defeated in his efforts to drive through to the Middle East, and this failure led to his eventual falling out with Hitler himself. Rommel’s life ended with his suicide when he was fingered as part of a Nazi mutiny that plotted to kill Hitler. Pressfield succeeds greatly in making you feel distinctly what these young British soldiers went through during this North African campaign (which actually lasted from 1940–1943), and knowing the outcome of the battle ahead of time makes this novel no less interesting a read.

KILLING ROMMEL is a thoroughly engaging book --- and not just for military history buffs.

   --- Reviewed by Ray Palen

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