There are those who say invading the Soviet Union was a mistake, and that Rommel was one of Germany's greatest generals.

I am not one of them. Great Britain would only be subdued by direct invasion (something the Germans were ill-prepared to do) or by a total U-boat blockade (Germany did not have enough subs to accomplish this in a short period of time).

The invasion of the Soviet Union came precisely at the moment when she was the most vulnerable...the army command in total disarray from the purges, and in the midst of upgrading armaments (imagine a year later when most Soviet mech divisions would've had the T34 and KV's instead of only a small handful of units having them). A proper, and more conservative plan for the invasion would have crippled the Soviet Union and could very well have led to Stalin having to sue for peace.

Rommel was an excellent divisional commander, a very good corps commander, but beyond that his total lack of understanding of logistics and grand strategy was a liability (the defeat of the Afrika Corps was a direct result of those two short-comings).

My 2-cents, of course......