Erwin Rommel was a competent German general who was transformed by Nazi propaganda into the Desert Fox — a mythical figure of tactical genius and chivalrous warfare. The Allies then adopted the myth because a brilliant enemy made their own victory more impressive. The real Rommel was more complicated than either version: a skilled tactician who overextended his supply lines, a man who benefited from Nazism while maintaining plausible distance from its crimes.

This episode examines the gap between the Rommel myth and the Rommel reality, tracing his North African campaign, the propaganda machine that inflated his reputation, and the forced suicide after the July 1944 plot that gave his story its final tragic twist.

• Rommel's World War I combat record and the infantry manual that caught Hitler's attention
• The North Africa cam ...