Editing Erwin Rommel (section)

==== Combat ====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-785-0299-24A, Tobruk, Rommel, Bayerlein, englische Kriegsgefangene.2.jpg|thumb|Rommel walks past Allied prisoners taken at Tobruk, 1942]]

Many authors describe Rommel as having a reputation of being a chivalrous, humane, and professional officer, and that he earned the respect of both his own troops and his enemies.{{sfn|Coggins|1980|p=30}}{{sfn|Lewin|1998|pp=241–242}}<ref name="Moreman2010">{{cite book|first=Tim|last=Moreman|title=Bernard Montgomery: Leadership, Strategy, Conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nrPP1kVXLEYC&pg=PA50|date=2010|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-84908-143-6|page=50}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>{{sfn|Beckett|2013|p=52}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wistrich|first1=Robert S.|title=Who's who in Nazi Germany|date=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-26038-1|page=207|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PrYwT3eI3wcC&pg=RA1-PA107}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Williamson|first1=Gordon|title=German Commanders of World War II (1): Army|date=2012|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-78200-020-4|page=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mawXDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7}}</ref><ref name="Barnett">{{cite book|last1=Barnett|first1=Correlli|title=Hitler's Generals|date=1989|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=0-8021-3994-9|page=293|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f0fclZ_UjwQC&pg=PA293}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Khanna|first1=K K|title=Art of Generalship|date=2015|publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uAmqCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|isbn=978-93-82652-93-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Stein|first1=Marcel|last2=Fairbank|first2=Gwyneth|title=Field Marshal Von Manstein: The Janushead – A Portrait|date=2007|publisher=Helion & Company Limited|isbn=978-1-906033-02-6|page=242|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qWuWOFS4o7AC&pg=PA242}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Chickering|first1=Roger|last2=Förster|first2=Stig|last3=Greiner|first3=Bernd|title=A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-83432-2|pages=40–41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=evVPoSwqrG4C&pg=PA40}}</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|date=April 2021}}
[[Gerhard Schreiber]] quotes Rommel's orders, issued together with Kesselring: "Sentimentality concerning the Badoglio following gangs ("Banden" in the original, indicating a mob-like crowd) in the uniforms of the former ally is misplaced. Whoever fights against the German soldier has lost any right to be treated well and shall experience toughness reserved for the rabble which betrays friends. Every member of the German troop has to adopt this stance."
Schreiber writes that this is exceptionally harsh and, according to him, "hate fuelled" order brutalised the war and was clearly aimed at Italian soldiers, not just partisans.<ref>Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen in Italien: Täter, Opfer, Strafverfolgung
By Gerhard Schreiber, p. 49, Beck, 1996</ref> [[Dennis Showalter]] writes that "Rommel was not involved in Italy's partisan war, though the orders he issued prescribing death for Italian soldiers taken in arms and Italian civilians sheltering escaped British prisoners do not suggest he would have behaved significantly different from his Wehrmacht counterparts."<ref>''Patton and Rommel: Men of War in the Twentieth Century'', by Dennis Showalter, 2006 p. 334 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

According to Maurice Remy, orders issued by Hitler during Rommel's stay in a hospital resulted in massacres in the course of [[Operation Achse]], disarming the Italian forces after the [[Armistice of Cassibile|armistice]] with the Allies in 1943. Remy also states that Rommel treated his Italian opponents with his usual fairness, requiring that the prisoners should be accorded the same conditions as German civilians. Remy opines that an order in which Rommel, in contrast to Hitler's directives, called for no "sentimental scruples" against "Badoglio-dependent bandits in uniforms of the once brothers-in-arms" should not be taken out of context.{{sfn|Remy|2002|pp=203–205}} [[Peter Lieb]] agrees that the order did not radicalise the war and that the disarmament in Rommel's area of responsibility happened without major bloodshed.{{sfn|Lieb|2014|pp=129–130}} Italian internees were sent to Germany for forced labour, but Rommel was unaware of this.{{sfn|Remy|2002|pp=203–205}}{{sfn|Lieb|2014|pp=129–130}} Klaus Schmider comments that the writings of Lieb and others succeed in vindicating Rommel "both with regards to his likely complicity in the July plot as well as his repeated refusal to carry out illegal orders."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Schmider|first=Klaus|title=German Military Tradition and the Expert Opinion on Werner Mölders: Opening a Dialogue among Scholars|journal=Global War Studies|volume=7|issue=1|pages=6–29|url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/gws/gws/2010/00000007/00000001/art00001?crawler=true&mimetype=application/pdf}}</ref>
Rommel withheld Hitler's [[Commando Order]] to execute captured commandos from his Army Group B, with his units reporting that they were treating commandos as regular POWs. It is likely that he had acted similarly in North Africa.{{sfn|Lieb|2014|p=130}} Historian [[Szymon Datner]] argues that Rommel may have been simply trying to conceal the atrocities of Nazi Germany from the Allies.<ref>Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach wojennych armii regularnych w II wojnie światowej
Szymon Datner Wydawn. Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1964, p. 254. {{ISBN?}}</ref> Remy states that although Rommel had heard rumours about massacres while fighting in Africa, his personality, combined with special circumstances, meant that he was not fully confronted with the reality of atrocities before 1944.{{sfn|Remy|2002|pp=245, 361}} When Rommel learned about the atrocities that ''[[SS Division Leibstandarte]]'' committed in Italy in September 1943, he allegedly forbade his son from joining the [[Waffen-SS]].{{sfn|Lieb|2014|p=129}}