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Post by Desert Stallion on Nov 2, 2006 15:51:25 GMT -5
That's one thing I always miss in the books I read on him. Not much on him as a person, just a soldier. Some of the biographers got frustrated with that too. I read in one of the books that he was "an amatuer violinist, but was otherwise easy to get along with." I love that. As a violinist myself, I know they can get pretty sqwawky if the bow doesn't have enough rosin on it. Poor Lucie and Manfred, what they had to put up with.
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 2, 2006 16:13:55 GMT -5
Don't speak of it ! My brother was a violonist as well, and... uh... all I can say is that he did get better after a while... (but truly, that makes me think more of Klink in Hogan's Heroes... it's a wonder his prisoners never escape when they had to put up with that). But that's a good question. Well, in times of war he didn't have much time with his family or foranything personal, but all the time between both WW, what was he like ? From what I've read, I'd say he was a devoted father and husband, although that's only an educated guess. But I never found on the net what kind of tea he preferred *sighs*. I didn't know you were a violonist... I studied cello for a while myself, and a (very) little bit of piano. Just enough to understand how it works. Haven't played in a while, though, 'cause I left my instrument at my mothers, and that's like on the other side of France, so that's kinda far away. Hey, if Wingy can play too, we could form the Rommelteers trio
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 2, 2006 16:24:08 GMT -5
Ah, I just remembered... I read somewhere that Rommel liked photography, and was rather good at it as an amateur. I've even seen a photo taken by him on this website :http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitzkrieg.htm
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Post by Desert Stallion on Nov 2, 2006 16:37:46 GMT -5
I read in the book, Discovering the Rommel Murder, that he was a very able mechanic. The author, Charles Marshall, talked with Lucie, and she said that Rommel once took apart their motorcycle, completely apart. She was appalled but he told her that he needed to know how it ran. Then he stuck it all back together, without misplacing "a nut or a bolt." I'd say they were fortunate that they still had transportation. That incident was between wars, I think.
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 2, 2006 16:41:36 GMT -5
Uh... now, that's time for a what if. What if he had misplaced a piece ? Who knows, that might have changed the tide of the war *tries to think of a way that may have happened*
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Post by Desert Stallion on Nov 2, 2006 16:51:12 GMT -5
What if he had misplaced a piece? I guess he would have been walking to work. Not to mention he would have been in the doghouse. (That's an American expression. It means he would have been in big trouble with Lucie. I can hear her saying, "I told you so.") I think the book said he took their first car completely apart too, when they first got it. Poor poor Lucie, do you suppose her hair got gray early on in life?
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 2, 2006 17:10:35 GMT -5
Uhuh, in the doghouse... I guess it means she'd be so angry with him that she'd send him sleep in the doghouse (only, as far as I know, they didn't have a dog, so that'll have to stay theoretical). (why doesn't my english teacher ever teaches me that kind of useful sentences ?)
Do you think he did the same thing with his panzers ? Uhuhuh, here's a drawing idea... loool, imagine a picture featuring Rommel, taking apart one of his panzers, to the dismay of his staff. And near him, his aide asking him "you've lost something, sir ?"
Oh, my *breathless* That'll be the end of me...
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Post by Wing on Nov 2, 2006 17:30:16 GMT -5
Goodness mio, great idea for a piccie! *gets on it* Yeah, that was one of my several dogeared pages in my library's now-battered copy of The Rommel Murder...Lucie said that "I had more confidence in him" when he did it to the car too. I was reading The Rommel Papers last night, and there's this picture of him peering curiously over a feldwebel's shoulder while three guys are sweating over fixing his staff car engine. Teehee. Speaking of the Rommel Papers, there are great pictures taken by Rommel all over that book. Most of the pics are either by him or taken with his Leica camera, presumably by an aide. Manfred comments sin that book everal times that his father loved to take pictures and his own favourite was a colour one taken of an Australian infantry division doing a bayonet charge, who Rommel jumped out in front of and snapped a photo of. And I thought I was a daring photographer when I jumped out of a tree to see how the lense would blur. Huh. Fifteen feet of exhilaration and three broken toes later... I didn't know he was a violinist! I play the violin...I think I'm trying to break the world record for going the longest time without re-applying rosin. Needless to say, my orchestra teacher hates me. Well, if we're on the subject of what he was like as a person, I recommend Panzer Commander by Hans von Luck--my absolute favourite book in the whole world, btw--which is the memoirs of a guy who was a cadet under Rommel between wars and was assigned to Russia directly after the invasion of France. You'd think he was screwed for the rest of the war, but no: guess who calls six months into the campaign demanding that he come down to North Africa straight away? Our favourite field marshal, and he wants no one else but this guy, Hans von Luck. Besides the fact that the memoirs are really well-written and von Luck is a funny, very human character, I really got a good insight on Rommel’s character: von Luck knew him very well, especially during North Africa and Normandy, and they had a lot of private discussions that are by no means printed in the history books. For example, when Rommel broke down crying in front of him when he found out that Hitler was forcing him to surrender the Afrika Korps...’twas quite sad...
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 2, 2006 18:55:28 GMT -5
My ! I can't imagine Rommel crying ! I really gotta find that book (guess that'll make amazon happy, 'cause there are little chance I'll find it in France or in French). But on the other hand, surrendering must have been pretty hard for Rommel, knowing how he dedicated himself to his beloved panzers and Afrika Korps. He and von Luck must have been pretty close indeed, if Rommel took the trouble to get him personnally. Is there a part about the war academy of which Rommel was a director between wars ?
Speaking of picture, have you seen the one where his car's stuck in the mud and he's pushing to get it out ? It's among the pics I sent you by mail. Here's another good drawing idea... Rommel jumping with his camera in front of this infantry division, and his aides panick-stricken... Australian, you said ? Whose side were they on ? *gaping* don't tell me he jumped in front of an *ennemy* division to take a photograph ? Ach gottleu, he really was crazy !
Speaking of what he was like as a person, he was also a great skier - he even was an instructor, and later on appointed as head of an elite unit, whose specialty was indeed warfare on skis. His men saw a 42 years old man, and weren't sure he'd be up to the task, so to test him they offered to make a descent with him. He did it three times in a row, while all his men weren't able to. Guess he was in great physical shape.
Two violonists and a cellist. Here goes the Rommelteer trio. Think we'll become famous ?
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Post by Wing on Nov 2, 2006 19:00:13 GMT -5
I remember that. I love skiing, and I'm pretty good too, if I do say so myself, been skiing since I was three. And I don't think he was 42 at the time, was he? That was during WWI, I thought...I have a picture of him skiing, and he didn't look that old.
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 2, 2006 19:04:00 GMT -5
He started skiing younger than that, but the anecdote I said was when he was forty-two and got command of this elite unit (who obviously hadn't heard of him, uhuhuh). I love skiing too, haven't for a long time (mainly for lack of snow) but I got my three stars. I don't know if you have stars too in the US ?
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Post by Desert Stallion on Nov 2, 2006 19:42:59 GMT -5
I think I've read von Luck's book, very briefly in the bookstore. I mostly skimmed it, but it seemed like a really good read. Now I'll probably have to buy it. Who knew the Desert Fox would be so expensive? I understand the rosin, or lack of it. It's such a pain to have to apply all the time, though it does make the playing sound better. I've never heard of the star system in skiing, but then, I've never been skiing. Down here in the south we don't get much of a chance to. If it snows an inch we're all out dancin' in the streets, the kid's schools are cancelled, we go sleddin'. (More mud sledding than snow sledding, but hey, you take what you can get.) I read somewhere that Rommel took Lucie on a lot of outdoor adventures between wars. He showed her the battlefield around Longarone (eh, is that how you spell it) in Italy, but they were shown off the premises because the Italians didn't like a German officer prowling around with his trusty camera.
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 2, 2006 19:53:22 GMT -5
Ah, yeah, I remember reading the anecdote about the Italians unhappy with Rommel's presence (I think they would have been far more amiable if he'd been defeated during the war...) Well, I guess that's the kind of resentment German people held against France for the Versailles treaty. But from what I learnt in history classes, my people were pretty humiliated since 1870, so they kinda took the occasion for revenge.
The star system might be a French thing. That's quite simple, really ; the more stars, the better (just like a general). Only, the maximum stars is three. When you've got three of these, you can try to get the arrow, the goat (cabri, actually, but I don't know its english name. It's a kind of jumping goat living in mountains), and another one I don't remember. Ranks in these are bronze, silver, vermeil (alloy of silver and gold) and gold. Each of these is a particular discipline ; you get the arrow for speed, the goat for jumps, and so on. The better you are, the closer to gold. *musing* that's weird but it actually sounded simpler whilst I was writing it. Now, it just seems confusing, lol.
Rosin's not so bad. Only, my father brought mine back from New Zealand, and it melted during the trip, so it has a weird shape and it's way harder to use it than if it was flat as it should be.
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Post by Wing on Nov 2, 2006 20:21:41 GMT -5
Whoa--star system? Yeah, we have NOTHING like that in the U.S.: it's just hit the slopes and hope you don't hit anything else. Most mountains have a ski school of some type, but you don't have to do that. I used to live in Colorado: that was real skiing out there. *sighs* Powder, powder, and more powder, minus the ice we have here in New England, and huge 14000 ft mountains.
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 2, 2006 20:29:10 GMT -5
Guess I'm lucky, this year I'm living in Grenoble, so I might have some snow (but I'm going back in Normandy for the Christmas holidays, so I'll have still another snowless Christmas I guess). I hope I'll be able to ski though. Maybe we should create the Rommel award for very, very good skiers ?
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