Rommel disobeyed some of Hitler’s direct orders.

After serving as the commander of a tank division during the French blitzkrieg of 1940, Rommel was sent to North Africa to aid the Italians in their struggle against the British. He quickly reversed the situation, repelling the British hundreds of miles away in a series of audacious assaults, earning him the moniker "Desert Fox" and promotion to field marshal in the process.

The numerically superior British finally stopped their advance near El Alamein, Egypt, in October 1942. When Rommel ran out of tanks, ammo, and fuel, he started to make his escape. Hitler, though, wrote to him and pleaded with him not to give up "not even a yard of land." The Führer said, "As for your army, you can only show them the way to victory or death. Rommel rebelled despite his admiration for Hitler out of concern for the utter destruction of his army. Additionally, he disobeyed orders to tell German generals to put Allied commandos caught behind enemy lines to death.

Rommel ultimately retreated to Tunisia, where he engaged in tank combat with both the British and Americans before returning to Europe in March 1943. The Allies' army completely drove the Germans out of North Africa two months later, preparing the way for their invasion of Italy.