The Desert Fox

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Colonel Bayerlein behind) talks to Sonderführer Günther Halm. 'Sonderführer' was a unique rank given to men enlisted into the army with specialist skills, hence his unique uniform.

Günther Halm was a non-commissioned officer in the Afrika Korps and the first enlisted man to receive the Knight's Cross by Rommel personally, during the 1st Battle of El Alamein in July 1942.

Nineteen-year-old Halm was manning one of two antitank guns that had been positioned so that they would be the last defense before the enemy armour could break through. The gun crew was unable to dig the gun into the rocky ground, so two gunners had to sit on the gun’s trails to absorb its recoil. Toward them roared a column of British tanks. In two minutes Halm blasted four heavy tanks. The others halted, searched for the barely concealed guns, and opened fire on them. A shell screamed between Halm’s legs. A second shell tore off his loader’s legs; another gunner took that man’s place.

From left to right:

Colonel Siegfried Westphal, General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma, Colonel Fritz Bayerlein, and Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

This must have been taken during the Second Battle of El Alamein between October-November 1942, as Rommel did not meet von Thoma beforehand.

"Catch them!"

This photo was taken sometime shortly after Rommel's epic capture of the port of Tobruk, late June 1942. Colonel Fritz Bayerlein (right) and German & Italian staff officers are also present.

With his tunic bleached by the North African sun, Rommel looks every inch the Desert Fox in this photograph!

Rommel (left) and Field Marshal Albert Kesselring (centre), confer during the first Battle of El Alamein, August 1942.

Pictured is Generalleutnant Johannes Streich. He commanded the 5th Light Division during Operation Sonnenblume in 1941 - the Axis offensive against Cyrenaica. After repeated attempts to conquer the region he visits his superior - General Erwin Rommel.