World War 1
Rommel served at Bleid and Longwy near Verdun. This was where he first killed when he led his small patrol of four men against a dozen French soldiers.
In a later engagement, which was later to be called the First Battle of Ypres, Rommel was wounded in the leg charging with bayonet solo against five Frenchmen after running out of ammuntion. For this bravery he won the Iron Cross, Second Class.
During his first year at the front, Rommel began to show qualities which were to stay with him until his final battle. He was brave and confident. He followed up quick decisions with decisive action. He had an ability to sniff out the enemy's weak points and he exploited the vulnerabilities mercilessly. He also believed in loyalty. Once he won his troops' respect he never lost it. He believed and encouraged individual initiative.
After thirteen months of constant bloody fighting Rommel left the 124th Regiment to join an ad hoc mountain battalion, the Konigliche Wurrtemberg Gebirgsbataillon in training in Austria. Rommel took command of the 2nd Company, his first permanent command. The battalion thought that their alpine training meant they were to travel to the Italian Front. They were to be disappointed. On the last day of 1915, they traveled to the southern sector of the Western Front. This terrain was very different from the terrain around Verdun. It was Alsace, in the mountains near the French border.
It was easily defended territory, so offensive action was limited to raids. Rommel was skeptical of raids, they were expensive and often useless. He rarely used them.
In October 1916, the Gebirgsbataillon headed for another front, Rumania. They headed by truck to the Transylvanian Alps in southern Hungary. This was real mountain fighting, the kind the Gebirgsbataillon had trained for. The front was at an altitude of 6000 ft. Officers and men marched and climbed carrying heavy loads on their backs. The first night was pitch-black and rain was pouring down. A company commander, himself a mountaineer, presented the situation to the Battalion Commander: sickness and frostbite would punish the men and recommended withdraw. He received a threat of court martial.
Eventually the weather improved, and living became near tolerable. Rommel never forgot the effect that night had on his men, even his best.
Three days later he wrote, "Mist lay over the plains far beneath us, and like an ocean breaking on the shore,. beat against the sunlit peaks of the Transylvanian Alps. A superb sight!"
Fighting here was a lot more mobile where the enemy could be found anywhere at anytime. This warfare was second nature to Rommel. He had under his command two rifle companies and a machine gun company. He spent much of December and early January setting ambushes in the mist. He took large numbers of Rumanian prisoner.
The Gebirgsbataillon was able to form detachments comprising of troops Rommel thought suited the particular mission. His men were extremely flexible, and Rommel expected nothing less.
In the early part of 1917 the battalion was sent back to France. It was a return to the trenches, the artillery duels and the never ending work on fortification, drainage and repair.
But in August 1917 another train ride - this time in intense heat instead of the near-insufferable cold - took the Gebirgsbataillon back to the Rumanian Front.
On the 7th August, Rommel fought for Mount Cosna, one of his hardest battles. Mt Cosna had to be taken, it affected the whole situation on the Eastern Front.
In the beginning of the battle Rommel was given command of the whole battalion; six rifle companies and three machine gun companies. In an assault on the Rumanian positions that had degenerated into a confused melee Rommel was badly wounded in the arm. The battalion won a foothold on the mountain.
In the second phase of the battle Rommel aimed for the summit of Mount Cosna. His plan for taking Mount Cosna called for the machine guns and a rifle company to lay down fire while Rommel would lead four rifle companies and a machine gun company around to the north of the mountain and outflank the Rumanians.
The plan went well at first but the Rumanians shifted all their forces to fight the flankers, and Rommel's attack was checked.While Rommel was drawing the Rumanians away from the main approach to the mountain the MG companies advanced. The Rumanians threw everything they had to stop Rommel and the appearance of fresh troops decided the day. When the MG companies appeared many Rumanians fled.
Rommel thought the position on Mount Cosna was unsound and withdrew to a lower position with good lines of fire at the Rumanians. Several times the Rumanians counter-attacked, and Rommel fought them off both times.
Rommel and his battalion was withdrawn into reserve on the 25th of August,1917. Rommel was sent on leave which he desperately needed. During leave he began to babble idiotically, a battle casualty. He realized he was unfit to remain in command. He was relieved until October when he returned to the Gebirgsbataillon in Carinthia.
During the battle for Mount Matajur, Rommel sped ahead of any timetable and his battalion was the first to seize the summit. When his brother officer, Major Sprosser, was awarded the coveted Pour le Merite, the highest German medal for bravery, Rommel was furious. He later wrote that he complained at the presentation of the award to Schorner. However in January Rommel was awarded the Pour le Merite. The Battle for Mount Matajur was last time Rommel was to command troops in the field for twenty years.
After the battle Rommel was to spend the rest of the war on Staff assignments in Germany, work he found he wasn't suited for.
