| Original caption: “Erwin Rommel – general of the German armored forces. Portrait photograph on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday.” A rather unusual picture of Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel (November 15, 1891 – October 14, 1944) wearing an early Afrika Korps pith helmet instead of his peaked officer cap and British gas goggles. He is also wearing the Italian Medal for Bravery around his neck, on top of his Pour le Merite. This is frequently attributed to his 50th birthday celebration, but he was in Rome with his wife on November 15, 1941, so this was likely taken at his visit to Generalleutnant Ludwig Crüwell’s (March 29, 1892 – September 25, 1958) Headquarters at the Umm al Rizam oasis a few days later. There were plans for an elaborate birthday party on November 15 or thereafter; Oberstleutnant Hans-Jaochim Schraepler (October 13, 1903 – December 9, 1941) wrote his family on October 31, 1941: “We reviewed last night, Crüwell, [Generaloberst Fritz] Bayerlein [January 14, 1899 – January 30, 1970)] and I, the best way to mark Rommel’s anniversary November 15. He will celebrate his fiftieth birthday and his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary at the same time. We are giving him a carpet, and a letter written by Crüwell. Crüwell wants me to hand everything over. I am not terribly keen on doing it, but Rommel will be happy to see me.” By the beginning of November, less than half of the troop reinforcements Rommel required for an assault on Tobruk had arrived. The 5 Italian ships carrying the fuel and ammunition he needed had been sunk by the enemy. He flew to Rome to finalize plans for his attack and to ask that 5 more ships be sent. He was reminded that intelligence reports indicated the British would attack 1st, but dismissed the idea of an imminent enemy offensive as ridiculous, perhaps because he had other plans for the next few days. Rommel and Generalmajor Johann “Hans” von Ravenstein (January 1, 1889 – March 26, 1962) Kommandant 21.Panzer-Division, flew to Rome, to discuss supplies and dispute General der Artillerie Alfred Jodl (May 10, 1890 – October 16, 1946), Chief of the Operations Staff of the newly formed Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) who ordered Rommel to “leave Tobruk alone and get ready to meet [United Kingdom Royal Eighth Army General Claude] Auchinleck’s (June 21, 1884 – March 23, 1981) attack.” After a stormy session with Generalleutnant Enno von Rintelen (November 6, 1891 – August 7, 1971), OKW’s liaison in Rome, Rommel reviled von Rintelen as “a coward and a friend of the Italians”, Rommel promptly seized the phone and called Jodl at OKW in Berlin. “I hear you wish me to give up the attack on Tobruk. I am completely disgusted.” He assured the OKW Chief of Operations Staff that 21.Panzer-Division could contain any British offensive. Jodl relented. On November 15, Frau Lucia “Lucie” Mollin Rommel (June 5, 1894 – September 26, 1971) met her husband in Rome where, with Elisabeth Marie von Ravenstein (May 17, 1891 – May 2, 1982), they all celebrated Erwin’s 50th birthday. Lucie had travelled by train to Rome, bringing his brown civilian suit, and they booked into the Hotel Eden. But over lunch at the Eden, von Ravenstein sensed that despite his chief’s presence in the Eternal City, his heart and mind were rooted in the desert. For a time Rommel listened abstractedly as Lucie Rommel and Frau von Ravenstein extolled the wonders of Saint Peter’s. Suddenly he broke in: “You know, von Ravenstein, I’ve been thinking again about what we ought to do with those infantry battalions…” Rommel had cause for preoccupation; once again he had won a victory over his own top brass. They visited Saint Peter’s and travelled on to spend Rommel’s 50th birthday in Naples. He left Italy to return to North Africa the next day but his plane developed engine trouble and had to make an unscheduled stop in Athens, where he was delayed for more than 24 hours. For about a fortnight the Ravensteins had their meals with the Rommels, but the rest of the day the 2 couples generally spent separately. “My husband got on very well with Rommel as a soldier,” said Elisabeth, “but he knew him only as a soldier: it was their profession that they had in common.” Rommel was fighting his desert campaign in the picture galleries, at the opera – everywhere. “When I said to him ‘Do you like Rembrandt?,’ he said ‘Yes, I think the English will attack in November’ — or something like that!” Von Ravenstein himself confided to Rommel’s aide-de-camp Leutnant Heinz Werner Schmidt (1916 – 2007) after the war, that on 1 occasion during this leave, he had been to the opera with Rommel, and that as they emerged from “listening to glorious singing,” Rommel turned to him in the foyer and said “Von Ravenstein, we must shift those battalions in the Meddawa Sector.” Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (“Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda”) Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) favored Rommel at the time; that would change after the July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler’s (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945). Goebbels had been a keen follower of Rommel’s progress during the invasion of France – via his man on the ground, Oberleutnant Karl Hanke (August 24, 1903 – June 8, 1945) – and quickly spotted the propaganda potential of North Africa. As the good news from the Russian front faded with the onset of poor weather in November 1941, Goebbels turned to Rommel and the Desert War instead. In honor of his 50th birthday the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP – “National Socialist German Workers’ Party”), daily newspaper Völkische Beobachter (“People’s Observer”) featured on its front page a photograph of the “Desert Fox” wearing his sun helmet. It marked the start of a sustained media campaign celebrating Rommel’s virtues and achievements in the desert. From February 1941, Goebbels had seconded to Rommel another of his trusted subordinates, Leutnant Alfred Ingemar Berndt (April 22, 1905 – March 28, 1945), as Hanke’s replacement when he and Rommel fell out. Just like Hanke, Berndt was an early party member (from 1924), SS-Oberführer, Propaganda Ministry official and Leutnant in the army reserves. Like Hanke, part Nazi plant and part conduit between Rommel and Goebbels, Berndt was also used when anything unpleasant needed saying to Adolf Hitler, because he was a brave man. Leutnant Schmidt recalled of Berndt: “I got to know Berndt very well in those days. I saw then that he was contributing more than most people realized to the growing Rommel legend. He took every opportunity of arranging for photographs to be taken of the ‘Desert Fox’ for publication at home and in neutral countries. Rommel himself, as war correspondents will testify, readily allowed himself to be photographed. I noticed that he often deliberately fell into a pose that would make the photographer’s task easier and more effective. On January 26, 1942, the morning conference at the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda recorded a discussion about the “Rommel myth”: “The Minister criticizes the Wehrmacht censorship in exceptionally sharp terms. Any photographs likely to popularize German generals are being ruled out by the Wehrmacht as a matter of principle. Pictures from Generalfeldmarschall Walter von Reichenau’s (October 8, 1884 – January 17, 1942) life, for instance, are not allowed to be published. The Minister says: “One feels like slapping those censors’ faces!” Evidently a few superiors in the Wehrmacht would feel inferior to their subordinates. Rivalry and envy in the Wehrmacht seem to end only with death. Certain persons are evidently being plagued by the fear that some generals might become too popular. The Minister mentions the fact that, among other things, the Wehrmacht censorship altogether forbade the German press to mention General Rommel’s 50th birthday while that of some unknown Luftwaffe general who holds some administrative and technical post in the provinces, is allowed prominent treatment.” Goebbels’s diaries of those days are full of praise for Rommel. Nevertheless, the press did record Rommel’s 50th birthday on November 15, 1941. The Stuttgarter NS-Kurier, for instance, carried a 2-column article with a picture. On January 20, 1942, Hitler awarded Rommel the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross with Swords for his “defensive victory” in Cyrenaica. On January 29 he promoted him to Generaloberst for his recapture of Benghazi. On both occasions the press published the pictures customary on such occasions. The ban on the publication of anecdotes from the lives of German generals was relaxed on January 24, 1942. Operation Crusader was preceded by a daring British special forces raid, on a private villa thought to be Rommel’s headquarters, on the night of November 13-14. Hoping to kill or capture Rommel, the raid proved disastrous. Rommel, at the time, was in Rome. The leader of the raid, Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Keyes (May 18, 1917 – 18 November 1941), was killed and posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery. When Rommel later found out about the raid, the 1 thing that seemingly annoyed him the most was the fact that the Allies thought his headquarters was so far behind enemy lines. It is a fair point. Rommel always believed that his generals should be as close to the fighting as they could, and so he always led by example. He was regularly at the front, often too close to the action, and surely this would have been known? The failure of the raid proves the importance of having good and reliable intelligence: the information Keyes had been given was clearly inaccurate and out of date. Sadly, though, it had been an expensive lesson to learn and had cost many men, including Keyes, their lives. Rommel kept this image on postcards that he signed and mailed to his many admirers. They were labeled Generalfeldmarschall Rommel Träger des Eichenlaubs mit Schwertern zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (“Field Marshal Rommel Recipient of the Oak Leaves with Swords to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross”) This image was also on the cover of the July 21, 1942, issue of Berlin Deutsche Illustrierte Number 29. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0737.jpg |
| Image Size | 966.87 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2390 x 3481 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | November 18, 1941 |
| Location | |
| City | Umm al Rizam |
| State or Province | Derna |
| Country | Libya |
| Archive | Archiwa Państwowe |
| Record Number | 3/2/0/-/2013 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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