I think there both great but what do you think?
Rommel definately.
Made most with what little he had in N Africa.
Rommel. He attacked(and mostly won) when the enemy would have dug trenches and hunkered down.
I like Patton, but I agree with sickles. Rommel was good with what he had, and for whom he had to work under.
Patton, although some may have wished him dead, Ike never asked for his head.
I’m not all that enamoured of either. Rommel was incredibly lucky, taking huge numbers of chances in the desert that he only barely got away with. Patton was always fighting on the right side of a huge numerical and materiel advantage.
That’s why I’m such a big fan of Slim - he took a defeated army with limited, intermittent supplies and by sheer force of leadership turned it into the instrument that destroyed the Japanese forces in Burma.
Both are overrated, but also very competent combat commanders…
+1
Also they never faced each other so I guess we will never know.
…but it was close at El Guetar/North Africa.
Wouldn’t it have been interesting if the two of them could have sat down together after the war, had some beers , and told their stories. That would have made a great book!
Yep! That would be good. Didint patton speak german?
too bad hitler had rommel drink poison…
Well, in the capacity of hospital visitor, I’d have to go for Rommel 
In the capacity of hospital visitor with a masochistic disposition, I’d have to go for Patton!;)
Gotta love the fox i like rommel simply because he was so incredibly talented so sad that one of the greatest commanders was killed because of personal squables
I wouldn’t say that. I once saw and excellent documentary (I think it was on American Public Broadcasting, or PBS) about Rommel. Many of the commentators and interviewees were Rommel’s former adjutants.
To the man, they said he was no doubt a bit of a troubled (military) genius. They also cast him as an unsentimental prick who could often care less about the those around him. I think the specific example was when one man, then a captain in the Afrika Korp, said during an interview that he was with Rommel on one instance as part of his entourage. Rommel’s staff car was attacked by either British artillery or the RAF (I can’t recall), and a lieutenant colonel, who was a staff officer to Rommel, was seriously wounded and had his throat cut. Rommel ordered the men to leave him so they could make a quick exit. They got Rommel out, but made sure that the wounded officer was treated and evacuated also. Rommel’s actions are understandable, but hardly the iconic image of a great military hero…
I must also say that the image of Patton as the cold bastard that humiliated and slapped the “cowards” who dare have had post-traumatic stress disorder, then known as battle-fatigue, is of course somewhat truthful. In fact, he did it TWICE! The second time was in the presence of numerous outraged reporters and medical officers. However, it should also be mentioned that Gen. Patton also had another “fault” when visiting field hospitals.
He had a penchant for breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably after visiting wounded, disfigured men. There has been speculation that Patton wasn’t “all there,” specifically because he had been kicked in the head and concussed by US Army mules in the 1930s, and had resulting severe impulsiveness and mood swings that were almost what would be called “bi-polar” today. He certainly was a prick for slapping those two kids, but he also had a very human and compassionate side as well. Unfortunately it seemed narrowly focused on men physically wounded, not those psychologically scarred…
i think rommel was better …dont 4 get rommel and his men hav been fightin since 1939…2 years be4 patton…patton had freash troops
Patton…arrogance personified, but a great high level commander of troops…
Rommel…arrogance personified, stupendous frontline commander, trainer of troops without peer…disasterous at the high level of command. Rommel could always be counted on to run to Hitler when the advice of those who knew better contradicted his orders… Patton, at least, followed the program as far as Patton could, rather than jeopardising the operation with petty squabbling. Rommel simply would not listen to his Italian Allies about anything, or commanders from his own service like von Runestedt with far more experience at handling troops at a Corps and Army level,…
Patton, without question…and Georgie’s arrogance would, most of the time, be saved for those that deserved it,…Rommel had a habit of making enemies amongst his senior collegues…He should have gone to Russia, where the urge to disobey the odd operational order may well have reaped large dividends in 1941…
BTW…You’ve got to see the two slapping incidents of Patton’s from his perspective…We are dealing with a man who personally had never shied away from a fight in his life…A man who shot one of Pancho Villa’s deputies in Mexico and then strapped the corpse to the bonnet of the vehicle in the best “Old Western” style…A man who STOOD UP under enemy fire on a Morrocan beach-head to personally kick arses and move troops forward…As a young officer he had popped his head up at the business end of a rifle range “just to see what it was like to be fired at”…Whose platoon of Renault light tanks in 1918 France made an assault on the Hindenburg Line “just as a gesture”…
Psychological wounds were ANATHEMA to George S. Patton Jnr…I can well understand his sentiments when visiting battle casualties, all @#%$ed up from wounds, men who will never be the same again, and then being confronted with somebody claiming “It’s my nerves…”…to Patton, a slapping was what your buddies in the field gave you when the time was right, and at least one of those soldiers he slapped admitted later that it was not only understandable, but precisely the correct thing to do in most cases of a similar nature. Patton’s career was nearly ruined by such “bull”…What an incredible loss it would of been, and sacking Georgie would have LENGTHENED the war in Europe!
Another thing…Patton actually pioneered tactics that are still used, in principal, to this day…he called his method “Rock Soup”…
No such claim can be made by Erwin Rommel…no tactical school or precept survives him…Even “Infanteriegrieftan”, the book of infantry training, had not a sniff of a doctrinal method, and was really just a collection of training “problems” from the Master of Improvisational Soldering…
Rommel should have been Guderian or Bock’s “Hard Driver”…He may even have allowed Bock to realise his cherished ambition of “Conqueror of Moscow”…