Rommel is Mat?

[Jsbrads2]

Just listen to TopTenz on YouTube discussing unappreciated military heros. Rommel was quickly dismissed by Hitler’s Germany after outgeneraling Patton. Patton notes that he read Rommel’s book on infantry. Rommel advocates rapid infantry movement.

sound familiar?

[2RiversFan]

I don't like the comparison at all. RJ certainly didn't intend for readers to make a connection like that either, as far as I can tell. 

 

I have to admit that Rommel was one of the few German Generals that believed in proper ethical treatment of POWs, and wasn't a card carrying NAZI  (like most of them around Hitler).  He was implicated in and forced to commit suicide for the July 44 plot to assassinate the Corporal, but we don't have proof (that I'm aware of) that he was actually part of the plot.

 

Having said that, considering slavery (channelers/da'cavole (sp?)) and torture, I suppose that Mat leading the Seanchan isn't too far removed on the ethics scale from being a General for Nazi Germany.

 

 

Edited January 10, 2020 by 2RiversFan
clarity

[wotfan4472]

Mat is not Rommel, most definitely not.

To my mind, Mat is more Flavius Aetius, and Darius, since Demandred is shown with A Memory Of Light as Xerxes and also more Atilla The Hun. 

That is going by his brutal dispatch of the 50 captives, and the slaughterhouse he put up after The Last Battle started.

Only Flavius Aetius and Darius curved both brutal conquerors, historically, with mixed results since the Battle Of The Catalonian Fields went to Attila, while the Battle Of Marathon went to Darius, and these two battles were brutal clashes equal of the Last Battle in ferocity.

Edited January 16, 2020 by wotfan4472

[JenniferL]

Mat is likely an amalgamation of several historic generals. 

 

http://13depository.blogspot.com/2002/03/character-parallels-mat.html#warfare

[Jsbrads2]

Saw a video on Rommel and actual lines were taken from Rommel. Also I remember someone else telling Mat almost verbatim what Patton said to Rommel. Rommel was also one of the great generals and often won with smaller numbers, preferred infantry...

[wotfan4472]

Well, to be fair, Rommel had a thorn in his side in North Africa, and it was the Maori Battalion. He even fought them personally, and always failed to stop them from coming back later on to fight.

It was the only Allied Command he could not wipe out, even at his strongest.

The Maori Battalion was also one of two Allied forces Rommel ever respected as honorable fighting units. He even said so in his journals. The other force he respected was the Australian Army that held Tobruk for 8 months, alone and without assistance, and all while under ferocious siege.

He said in one journal, that if Hitler wanted him to take Hell, he would use the Maori Battalion to take Hell, and the Australians at Tobruk to hold it. In another journal, he said that if he could command an army of the courage, skill, knowledge and sheer terror the Maori inspired in his men, he said he could win the war.

Edited February 24, 2020 by wotfan4472