Killing Rommel: A Novel

by Steven Pressfield

Book Overview

A thrilling WWII tale based on the real-life exploits of the Long Range Desert Group, an elite British special forces unit that took on the German Afrika Korps and its legendary commander, Field... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767926161
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.7" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

`Like many of my generation I did not go to war gravely and soberly ...'

By the autumn of 1942, France has fallen to Hitler's legions, the Soviet Union is reeling on the eastern front, and Britain is beleaguered. In North Africa, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (`The Desert Fox') and his Panzers have routed the Eighth Army and, seemingly invincible, threaten the vital oilfields of the Middle East. Out of desperation, the British plan to send a small, heavily armed mobile force behind enemy lines to strike a blow that will stop the Afrika Korps in its tracks. This force: the Long Range Desert Group, together with the SAS and Popski's Private Army, will become legendary. This novel brings to life the ingenuity and daring of this unit. In doing so, it pays tribute to all of this who were part of this struggle. Told through the eyes of a young lieutenant (Chapman), this novel is both an uplifting tale of great courage, bravery and ingenuity as well as a sobering reminder that while governments declare wars, it is people who fight them. For those of us who are unfamiliar with the detail of this particular theatre of World War II, this novel provides a wonderful starting point. I want to know more about the actual events and characters depicted - especially Rommel. Mr Pressfield has written a novel which is consistent with historical fact and acknowledges the contributions of the historical participants. It is also a tribute to the power of the imagination as expressed through the written word to bring events to life. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Horror and Glory of War in North Africa

Killing Rommel, a novel written by Stephen Pressfield, is a fictional memoir of a World War II British officer named Chapman who serves in the North Africa Campaign. It is also an awesome story of men at war. In Killing Rommel, the reader follows the fictional Chapman through his early life at a British public school, Oxford, the incredible seesaw fight in North Africa between the British 8th Army and Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, and then an ultimately doomed raid with the famous Long Range Desert Task Force to assassinate the German commander who was called, deservedly, the Desert Fox. Along the way the reader gets a feeling for what it was like to participate in one of the oddest campaigns in military history, atypical to most wars of the 20th Century, certainly on World War II. Chapman, a tank commander, is attached to the Long Range Desert Task Force in a mission designed to kill that man of honor and brilliance. But first they have to find their target, a story that occupies most of the last third of the novel. What follows is an epic of men at war, it's horror and glory, as compelling as anything Stephen Pressfield has written before, in his novels set in Ancient Greece.

Not your average Commando raid

Killing Rommel is the latest effort from the noted historical fiction author, Steven Pressfield. This fast paced book is different than most of Pressfield's titles which normally focus on ancient warfare. As the title suggests, this story is set during World War II. The story is treated as a first hand account of a British officer, Lt. Chapman, who is attached to the British Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) who along with the Special Air Service have been given a mission to assassinate Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Upon first hearing about the book, two things concerned me. First was the mission, assassinating Rommel, second was Rose, Chapman's wife. I was aware, as are many people familiar with the desert war, that the British had indeed planned a mission to capture or kill Rommel but the mission came to naught. As the book was a work of fiction, I could accept that the LRDG would assist in such a mission. Rose is Chapman's wife. I was worried that somehow Pressfield was going to have this signal expert be part of the patrol. If this thought has crossed your mind, you can breathe easy. Rose is simply the wife of the protagonist and is stationed in Egypt. This actually happened with some regularity during World War II. While Rose, is central to the development of Chapman's character she is not central to the mission. Her character is used to advance the story, principally through Chapman writing to and thinking about her. The story itself is relayed to us through an unpublished memoir of a British officer (Chapman) who was attached ever so briefly to the LRDG in late 1942. If you are expecting a book similar to The Eagle as Landed, by Jack Higgins, you will be disappointed. Despite the title, the book`s central focus is not the mission to kill Rommel. Chapman and his fictional T3 patrol do not spend days or even weeks planning a mission down to the last detail. You will also be disappointed if you are expecting a technical manual on the weapons and equipment used by the LRDG. What will not disappoint are the actual story and the writing style of Pressfield. The story moves quickly and smoothly form one chapter to the next. The story begins with the Chapman as a young man, shortly before entering college. As war is declared, he enlists and is commissioned in a Royal Tank Regiment. He is soon shipped to North Africa, where his tank regiment is engaged in combat with the newly arriving Afrika Korps commanded by Field Marshall Rommel. Chapman is no different that a thousand other officers in a tank regiment. Circumstances lead to Chapman's temporary assignment to the LRDG for the purpose of determining tank routes through uncharted deserts, an assignment not too uncommon for junior officers in the tank regiments. Upon assignment, Chapman is introduced to many names familiar to people who are familiar with the LRDG. Pressfield uses this opportunity to introduce these same people to the reading audience, a common plot device that

Another blockbuster !!

In "Killing Rommel" veteran author Steven Pressfield has written yet another vivid and exciting novel detailing the matter-of-fact heroics and actions by the warriors who fight and too-often die. Set in North Africa during the British fight against Gen Erwin Rommel in 1942, Pressfield takes the exploits of the British Army's little-known Long Range Desert Group, and presents the reader with yet another well-researched and exciting story of men at war. As is Pressfield's style, he tells the story from the viewpoint of one of the participants. Lt. Lawrence Chapman is one of Pressfield's proverbial citizen-soldiers, a young man thrust into a war for which his middle-class collegiate upbringing has not at all prepared him. While normally in Pressfield's books it's the enlisted men who are the narrators and telling the story from the boots-on-the-ground perspective, it's a unique change in approach as Lt. Chapman brings an officer's point of view to the fight. The war in 1942 in North Africa was going badly for the Allies. Gen Rommel's strategy and tactics overwhelmed Gen Montgomery's British troops, and the initial American Army reinforcements were routed at the Kasserine Pass. If Rommel could successfully capture Cairo, then the Germans would control the middle-eastern oil fields, the Suez Canal, and quick access to India and the Pacific, all of which would have horrific repercussions on the Allied war effort. The British had previously formed the Long Range Desert Group as a desert recon force, which they now tasked to kill Rommel, and Pressfield uses Lt. Chapman to narrate the war in the desert. Historically accurate, "Killing Rommel" describes a war that most in Americans might only know through the old television show "Rat Patrol." Driving old Chevrolet trucks that they up-armor themselves, often short on petrol, rations, water, and ammunition, Lt Chapman depicts the fight in North Africa between the beleaguered Brits and Rommel's Afrika Corps as he learns to command as he learns to fight. Those who have fought, and especially those Marines who have fought at An-Nasiriyah, Fallujah, Haditha, and Anbar Province, will understand the pictures Pressfield paints of the thirst, heat, sand, and boredom - interrupted by intense combat - in the desert. He draws the reader into the action with Chapman and his men as they drive -often by stars and dead reckoning - to their rendezvous points and multiple missions. As Pressfield's books are so famously noted, the characters in "Killing Rommel" possess a quiet courage and grow into a maturity far beyond their years. Similar to Xeo in "Gates of Fire," and Matthais in "The Afghan Campaign," the deep story here is how Chapman and his fellow Tommies are thrown into some extraordinarily ugly situations, and then respond. It's the story of these citizen-soldiers and how they react to the carnage around them that makes "Killing Rommel" one of Pressfield's best books.

A Lesson in Honor

The short line on Steven Pressfield's new book: the best. It almost hurts to write that because I've hung to Gates of Fire for a decade at the top of my best books ever list, a list that includes books from a wide genre, Victor Hugo to Stephen King, Tom Clancy to Par Lagerkvist, Mark Helprin to Howard Fast and everywhere in between. Pressfield's characters captured me from the first pages, and this tale of honor among men refused to let me put the book down. If you are a Pressfield fan, this book will not disappoint you on any level. If you are new to Mr. Pressfield, this book will encourage you to read his others. I am particularly fond of historical novels because I consider them a painless way to learn history. Mr. Pressfield has never failed to teach his readers all the details within the historical context in which he writes, in this case, about the little known Long Range Desert Group, the LRDG, the predecessor to Special Forces as we know them in the modern era. The story is simple: the memoir of a LRDG lieutenant who is part of a mission to kill Field Marshall Rommel and thereby disrupt the Axis control of North Africa and its hold on oil assets in the Middle East during World War II. The characters are noteworthy: average men with simple vocations who rise above their commonality in extraordinary circumstances by committing themselves to a mission simply because it was their job. The prose is crisp and fast and the story moves quickly and with intensity. That is the short of it: great story with great characters that is impossible to put down until you've finished the final page. Scrupulously researched like all Pressfield books and packed with the type of action that would draw viewers to the big screen in droves. Hollywood cannot let this one pass. That's the short of it. If you need more, please continue ..... Steven Pressfield is a literary risk-taker: he started with a mystical golf journey, moved into the realm of ancient Greek history and now finds himself in the blistering deserts of North Africa surrounded by Rommel's Africa Corp. The common thread: ordinary men are capable of uncommon deeds when their purpose is fixed and their hearts are committed. Pressfield has told his stories as a fictional character, as a mythical woman, as a real historical character and now as Everyman in the guise of Lt. Chapman, "Chap" who finds himself in the middle of an unthinkable mission to cut off the head of the snake, to kill arguably the most dynamic military mind of modern warfare, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. As I journeyed through Mr. Pressfield's ancient histories, I was always very comfortable with his prose. It immersed me into a world, ancient and distant from my own. His prose is part of his genius as it captures the flavor of his historical era. Killing Rommel is his best writing yet. Mr. Pressfield has even elected to use the `s' in place of the `z' as is common in the King's English, "civilisation," for