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Exceptional handwritten training report in German by officer cadet Fähnrich Barnstorf of Infantry Regiment 18, extensively annotated in pencil by his instructor at the Dresden Infantry School, Erwin Rommel, 12 pages on six sheets, 8.25 x 11.75, Dresden, April 5, 1932. Titled “Infanteriedienst” (Infantry Service), the report lays out a tactical exercise for an infantry platoon holding the Geiersberg, east of the Harthwald, against a strengthening enemy. It includes five hand-drawn maps in blue, red, and green pencil tracking positions, fields of fire, and the withdrawal; the opening map is captioned “Ausgangslage v. Lager Ohrdruf,” placing the exercise at the Ohrdruf training ground.
Rommel reads the cadet’s work closely and marks it up throughout, adding lengthy handwritten comments in the margins of pages 1, 4, and 6. On page 4, beside the cadet’s account of the forward combat outposts, he presses him on the situation at the front, in part (translated): “Do the combat positions have any contact with the enemy? Who is still on the front? I would rather say: Fight while falling back (than retreating).” On pages 7 and 11 he marks his approval, “Gut!” (Good!). At the conclusion, he delivers his verdict and signs, “Fleißige, durchdachte Arbeit. E. Rommel” (“Diligent, well-thought-out work”). In fine condition. Accompanied by the original folder, a 3.25 x 4.5 postcard photo of a young soldier in uniform and steel helmet, identified as Barnstorf, and an 8.25 x 6.5 photo of a large group of uniformed officers and cadets, along with several civilians, posed on the steps of Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam.
Already a decorated hero of the First World War, Rommel received the Pour le Mérite, Prussia’s highest military order for officers, for his daring capture of Mount Matajur during the 1917 Battle of Caporetto. In October 1929, he was posted to the Infantry School at Dresden, where he spent four years training officer candidates. His lectures there became the foundation of his 1937 book Infanterie greift an (Infantry Attacks), a best-selling study of small-unit tactics drawn from his own combat experience. This report offers a rare look at Rommel the teacher. His pencil notes push a young cadet on the same questions of contact with the enemy, initiative at the front, and the fighting withdrawal that would define his command in North Africa less than a decade later. A fascinating record of one of history’s great field commanders shaping the next generation of officers.
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