Krieg ohne Hass (War without Hate)
Most of you probably know that one of my heroes (although certainly a man and most certainly a man with flaws and rough edges) is Generalfeldmarshall Erwin Rommel.
He was, without doubt, a prickly fellow. He brooked no laying about and once had one of his generals sacked for dallying too long over breakfast. He spent much of his time right at the front amongst his men and was not at all above grabbing an entrenching tool and showing a green private how to properly and quickly dig a foxhole, or lending a shoulder to shove his own staff car out of a ditch. He disobeyed orders that he thought stupid or dishonorable with great regularity. He refused, for instance, to halt his offensives against the British when told to do so by both German and Italian High Commands. The AfrikaKorps was supposed to be nothing more than a 'blocking force' to stiffen the Italians and let them keep their Libyan Empire. He equally ignored orders to shoot Jewish prisoners of war and flew into a rage when soldiers were mistreated either alive or dead. And one of those well documented rages was over a group of stripped bodies that were quite obviously American. Soldiers were soldiers and their nationality made no difference to the Desert Fox. Only their devotion to duty, their honor and their service. He was also ordered to leave to rot the body of an Australian Major of Commandos who had been killed in a raid. He had the man buried with full military honors. Never mind that the man's express mission had been to kill or capture Rommel.
One very telling story of this took place during the bloody and desperate retreat from the second battle of El Alamein. As the shattered remnants of the Afrikakorps fled westward back along the coast road Rommel was concerned about his southern flank. Anchored only by the endless sands of the Sahara, he was concerned the British could throw a flanking force around behind him and pin his smashed army allowing Montgomery to finish the Afrikakorps once and for all. After all, it was a tactic he, himself had subjected the 8th Army to many times on his drive to the Egyptian border.
With that in mind he sent some of his best units south into the desert. The 33rd, the 580th (those two comprising the 'Voss Group') and the 3rd Panzer Reconnaissance Battalions, the latter Rommel's 'pet unit' commanded by Major Hans von Luck were based out of the Jarabub Oasis on 6 November 1942. Against them were arrayed the 8th Army's best desert warriors. These consisted of the Long Range Desert Group (the famed 'Desert Rats') the new SAS, which would later become modern Britain's equivalent of the US Navy Seals or Green Berets and the 11th Hussars, who had been in the desert for nearly a decade at that point and had pioneered modern desert warfare and survival. Von Luck would not be facing easy opposition.
Yet despite this, the high desert proved to be a strange arena to fight in. Even before the opposing forces, the land itself was a constant enemy. Blistering days, frigid nights, blinding sandstorms that could tear flesh from bone or strip paint right off metal, nights so dark that you could get lost taking only a dozen or so steps.
One night, the Royal Dragoons called von Luck on the radio. They were concerned about a young Lieutenant and his group who had gone missing. Had the Germans seen him? They had, he'd been captured earlier that day and was in good health and being treated well. Von Luck then asked if any of his men went missing could he radio the British? He was told he would be more than welcome to.
From this, a rather peculiar war developed. At 5:00PM each evening all conflict would halt. At 5:05, the various commanders would contact each other about missing men, prisoners and other issues. At one point von Luck's unit doctor became lost in the desert. Had the British seen him? They had, and had picked him up. Would von Luck be willing to make a trade with them for synthetic Atrepine as some of their men had malaria? Von Luck made the trade.
When Rommel visited the little private war going on in the south von Luck filled him in on the situation there. Rommel's comment was, "I am glad you can have this fair play here in the desert; on the coast, it's just a matter of survival."
There's a lesson there to be learned. There are other occasions when similar events took place down through history - the high desert battles of the AfrikaKorps and the LRDG and SAS but one situation amongst many. I can't imagine such an arrangement with fanatics like Al Quaeda or the Taliban, unfortunately. But perhaps with those less fanatic we can learn from von Luck and his British opponents. One can fight, die and kill, but still do so with honor, courage and chivalry. What is unfortunate is that probably isn't possible unless both sides possess those qualities or some analogue of them.
He was, without doubt, a prickly fellow. He brooked no laying about and once had one of his generals sacked for dallying too long over breakfast. He spent much of his time right at the front amongst his men and was not at all above grabbing an entrenching tool and showing a green private how to properly and quickly dig a foxhole, or lending a shoulder to shove his own staff car out of a ditch. He disobeyed orders that he thought stupid or dishonorable with great regularity. He refused, for instance, to halt his offensives against the British when told to do so by both German and Italian High Commands. The AfrikaKorps was supposed to be nothing more than a 'blocking force' to stiffen the Italians and let them keep their Libyan Empire. He equally ignored orders to shoot Jewish prisoners of war and flew into a rage when soldiers were mistreated either alive or dead. And one of those well documented rages was over a group of stripped bodies that were quite obviously American. Soldiers were soldiers and their nationality made no difference to the Desert Fox. Only their devotion to duty, their honor and their service. He was also ordered to leave to rot the body of an Australian Major of Commandos who had been killed in a raid. He had the man buried with full military honors. Never mind that the man's express mission had been to kill or capture Rommel.
One very telling story of this took place during the bloody and desperate retreat from the second battle of El Alamein. As the shattered remnants of the Afrikakorps fled westward back along the coast road Rommel was concerned about his southern flank. Anchored only by the endless sands of the Sahara, he was concerned the British could throw a flanking force around behind him and pin his smashed army allowing Montgomery to finish the Afrikakorps once and for all. After all, it was a tactic he, himself had subjected the 8th Army to many times on his drive to the Egyptian border.
With that in mind he sent some of his best units south into the desert. The 33rd, the 580th (those two comprising the 'Voss Group') and the 3rd Panzer Reconnaissance Battalions, the latter Rommel's 'pet unit' commanded by Major Hans von Luck were based out of the Jarabub Oasis on 6 November 1942. Against them were arrayed the 8th Army's best desert warriors. These consisted of the Long Range Desert Group (the famed 'Desert Rats') the new SAS, which would later become modern Britain's equivalent of the US Navy Seals or Green Berets and the 11th Hussars, who had been in the desert for nearly a decade at that point and had pioneered modern desert warfare and survival. Von Luck would not be facing easy opposition.
Yet despite this, the high desert proved to be a strange arena to fight in. Even before the opposing forces, the land itself was a constant enemy. Blistering days, frigid nights, blinding sandstorms that could tear flesh from bone or strip paint right off metal, nights so dark that you could get lost taking only a dozen or so steps.
One night, the Royal Dragoons called von Luck on the radio. They were concerned about a young Lieutenant and his group who had gone missing. Had the Germans seen him? They had, he'd been captured earlier that day and was in good health and being treated well. Von Luck then asked if any of his men went missing could he radio the British? He was told he would be more than welcome to.
From this, a rather peculiar war developed. At 5:00PM each evening all conflict would halt. At 5:05, the various commanders would contact each other about missing men, prisoners and other issues. At one point von Luck's unit doctor became lost in the desert. Had the British seen him? They had, and had picked him up. Would von Luck be willing to make a trade with them for synthetic Atrepine as some of their men had malaria? Von Luck made the trade.
When Rommel visited the little private war going on in the south von Luck filled him in on the situation there. Rommel's comment was, "I am glad you can have this fair play here in the desert; on the coast, it's just a matter of survival."
There's a lesson there to be learned. There are other occasions when similar events took place down through history - the high desert battles of the AfrikaKorps and the LRDG and SAS but one situation amongst many. I can't imagine such an arrangement with fanatics like Al Quaeda or the Taliban, unfortunately. But perhaps with those less fanatic we can learn from von Luck and his British opponents. One can fight, die and kill, but still do so with honor, courage and chivalry. What is unfortunate is that probably isn't possible unless both sides possess those qualities or some analogue of them.