In , he published his classic book on military tactics, Infantry Attacks , drawing on his experiences in that war. Among his British adversaries he had a reputation for chivalry, and his phrase "war without hate" has been uncritically used to describe the North African campaign. After the Nazis gained power in Germany, Rommel gradually accepted the new regime. Historians have given different accounts of the specific period and his motivations.
Because of Rommel's status as a national hero, Hitler wanted to eliminate him quietly instead of having him immediately executed, as many other plotters were. Rommel was given a choice between suicide , in return for assurances that his reputation would remain intact and that his family would not be persecuted following his death, or facing a trial that would result in his disgrace and execution; he chose the former and took a cyanide pill.
Rommel became a larger-than-life figure in both Allied and Nazi propaganda , and in postwar popular culture. Numerous authors portray him as an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of Nazi Germany, although other authors have contested this assessment and called it the " Rommel myth ". Rommel's reputation for conducting a clean war was used in the interest of the West German rearmament and reconciliation between the former enemies β the United Kingdom and the United States on one side and the new Federal Republic of Germany on the other.
Several of Rommel's former subordinates, notably his chief of staff Hans Speidel , played key roles in German rearmament and integration into NATO in the postwar era. Her father, Karl von Luz , headed the local government council. As a young man, Rommel's father had been an artillery lieutenant. Rommel had one older sister who was an art teacher and his favourite sibling, one older brother named Manfred who died in infancy, and two younger brothers, of whom one became a successful dentist and the other an opera singer.
He returned to the th when war was declared. He successfully employed the tactics of penetrating enemy lines with heavy covering fire coupled with rapid advances, as well as moving forward rapidly to a flanking position to arrive at the rear of hostile positions, to achieve tactical surprise. In August , his unit was involved in the battle for Mount Cosna , a heavily fortified objective on the border between Hungary and Romania, which they took after two weeks of difficult uphill fighting.
