George Macready: Gen. Fritz Bayerlein
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Quotes
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Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Rommel : [Hitler just sent an order not to retreat from El Alamein] It's an order, Bayerlein, a military order from General Headquarters. A clear, straight, stupid, criminal military order, from General Headquarters.
Gen. Fritz Bayerlein : And what are you going to do, double the insanity by obeying it? We've got the best soldiers in the German Army here. They may be just hanging on now, but they're still a force, they're still fighting. If we take them out now, they can fight again tomorrow. But this! This is sheer madness! It's out of the Middle Ages. Nobody had said "Victory or Death" since people fought with bows and arrows. Why, this is an order to throw away an entire army!
Gen. Schultz : If I may remind you, sir, here in the field, these men are yours, not his.
Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Rommel : I just can't understand it.
Gen. Fritz Bayerlein : I can. He's insane.
Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Rommel : He's not insane! He's - but neither am I.
[tears up the message and throws it away]
Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Rommel : Pull them out, Bayerlein! I'll argue with him about it later.
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Gen. Fritz Bayerlein : I don't know how the men on the line feel about it, but so far as the staff is concerned, I'd just as soon have a commander-in-chief with a little touch of cowardice about him. Just enough to get him back to his headquarters every now and then.
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Gen. Fritz Bayerlein : Nothing yet, though?
Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Rommel : No, but he
[Hitler]
Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Rommel : knows the situation. I sent him the whole story last night. If there's anything he can do, he will.
Gen. Fritz Bayerlein : No matter what you say, to Berlin we're only a sideshow - and you know it.
