Rating: 
Summary: This is a great book!
Review: There is not much to say. It's a great book, and I now have lots of respect for what he did to try to protect his country from the allies. If his belief was true that if he opened the front when the allies broke out of Normandy, they would have reached Germany before the Russians would enter and would have ended the war quicker and saved millions of lives and not divide the country and let East Germany fall into Russian hands. But I felt sorry for how he was treated by the Nazi's and I have great respect for him and his family.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not Great
Review: This biography on the greatest German tank commander and arguably the greatest tank commander of WWII is a little lacking. His book, while interesting and insightful portrays a rather harsh picture of Rommel the man, if not the commander. While Fraser was a British general during the war, he understandably comes off judgemental and is not objective. A far better book on Rommel would be (Rommel, the Desert Fox) by Desmond Young. Young was also a British general, and unlike Fraser not only fought against Rommel, but was taken prisoner by him during Rommel's fighting in Africa. After the War Young visited Rommel's family and interviewed many of Rommel's fellow officers including his driver. In conclusion Young's book is a easier and more accurate read.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not Great
Review: This biography on the greatest German tank commander and arguably the greatest tank commander of WWII is a little lacking. His book, while interesting and insightful portrays a rather harsh picture of Rommel the man, if not the commander. While Fraser was a British general during the war, he understandably comes off judgemental and is not objective. A far better book on Rommel would be (Rommel, the Desert Fox) by Desmond Young. Young was also a British general, and unlike Fraser not only fought against Rommel, but was taken prisoner by him during Rommel's fighting in Africa. After the War Young visited Rommel's family and interviewed many of Rommel's fellow officers including his driver. In conclusion Young's book is a easier and more accurate read.
Rating: 
Summary: No Soul!
Review: This book COULD have been so much more. A subject of such high drama set against the back-drop of the greatest catastrophe in mankind's history should be an engaging read! Fraser fails to engage the reader. This work seems almost watered down and clumsy. It relates nothing of the MAN who was Erwin Rommel. At times the book reads like a high school text and fails to impart the real flavor of the times or the passions of the characters. After reading it (which took effort as each of the 562 pages dragged by) I felt I knew nothing more about Rommel than a basic chronology of life events and that is the tragedy of this book. To experience how military biography should be written, read Carlo D'este.
Rating:
Summary: No Soul!
Review: This book COULD have been so much more. A subject of such high drama set against the back-drop of the greatest catastrophe in mankind's history should be an engaging read! Fraser fails to engage the reader. This work seems almost watered down and clumsy. It relates nothing of the MAN who was Erwin Rommel. At times the book reads like a high school text and fails to impart the real flavor of the times or the passions of the characters. After reading it (which took effort as each of the 562 pages dragged by) I felt I knew nothing more about Rommel than a basic chronology of life events and that is the tragedy of this book. To experience how military biography should be written, read Carlo D'este.
Rating:
Summary: Good narrative, but....
Review: This book is something of a hodgepodge on Rommel's career with the author jumping and skipping about a little more than one would normally like. The book is a relatively good straightforward recounting of Rommel's military career with most of the emphasis on the two great wars. Unfortunately, there is very little of Rommel's personal side included in this book -- a few pages on his childhood and parents, a paragraph here or there about is wife Lucy and his son Manfred, etc. The book is laid out as a chronological narrative which offers relatively few insights into Rommel's character which, themselves, are quite often unsubstantiated or not cross referenced with any other source. Plus the sidetracks into German history (i.e. Hitler's rise to power) are wholly incomplete and somewhat inappropriate for this book. I realize the author was trying to set a background, but given the volume of information required to have a decent understanding of the political ins and outs of 1930s Germany requires far more than a chapter or two. The result is the right conclusions for the wrong reasons which may be confusing or unintentionally misleading to some.Otherwise it is a decent, fairly readable, overview of Rommel the military commander, but I would recommend the following for deeper reading: Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer, Achtung-Panzer! by Guderain, The Rommel Papers edited by B.H. Liddell-Hart or Rommel's own Attacks: Rommel.
Rating:
Summary: The best Modern book on Rommel
Review: This is the best modern book on Rommel. Fraser lacks the charisma that David Irving brings to the Rommel story, but Fraser does an excellent job of providing details that Irving left out. Combinded, these books provide the most extensive Rommel biography available in print. Fraser also has many wonderful pictures of Rommel during his life
Rating:
Summary: Great Bio Of The "Desert Fox"
Review: This one is one of the best bio pieces on Erwin Rommel that I have read in a long time. Rommel was indeed a great soilder and a great man(and had he survived the war, I personally believe that he would have been one of the few German generals not to face any war crimes because he treated his adversaries generously and respectfully) and this book clearly shows it. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the "Desert Fox" and what he was all about.
Rating: 
Summary: A Swabian Through and Through
Review: Thus beings Fraser's assessment of Erwin Rommel, exemplar of the "good" WW2 German. However debatable that concept may be, Fraser's narrative is efficient and crisp, as he portrays the fascinating journey of a man who begins by teaching his young son the virtues of blind obedience, only to rescind that advice hours before his death. "Always" question orders, he told the boy as the Gestapo took him away. Also interesting (hitherto neglected) are Rommel's WW1 experiences in the southern and eastern fronts, his long inter-war spell, and the march on France.
Rating:
Summary: A Swabian Through and Through
Review: Thus beings Fraser's assessment of Erwin Rommel, exemplar of the "good" WW2 German. However debatable that concept may be, Fraser's narrative is efficient and crisp, as he portrays the fascinating journey of a man who begins by teaching his young son the virtues of blind obedience, only to rescind that advice hours before his death. "Always" question orders, he told the boy as the Gestapo took him away. Also interesting (hitherto neglected) are Rommel's WW1 experiences in the southern and eastern fronts, his long inter-war spell, and the march on France.
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