Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. He was nicknamed the "Desert Fox" for his tactical genius as commander of the Afrika Corps from 1941 to 1943.
Rommel was first noticed by Adolf Hitler in 1937. He was then appointed command of HQ of Czechoslovakia and then later in Poland. After this he was given command of the 7th Panzer division, because of his wonderful work at HQ. His army moved through France in June 1940 at a blistering pace, fitting the description of Blitzkrieg. After his great success in France he was appointed to command the newly formed Deutsches Afrika Korps and successfully drove the British 8th Army out of Libya. His greatest victory was at the Battle of Gazala in June 1942. German and Italian troops defeated a British force which was more than twice as large. Ninety-eight thousand British Empire troops were killed, wounded or captured. He later went on to El Alamein, Egypt, but had been hampered by a lack of supplies and was defeated. He was in charge of Army Group B in Normandy when the D-Day operation began, but was not present when the invasion itself began. After being wounded, he was implicated in the July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. Given a choice between reprisals against his family or quietly committing suicide, he chose suicide.