littledesertfox

[littledesertfox]

Last weekend I came across a WW2 documentary on TV which I hadn't known before. It included this clip of an old propaganda film from 1942 (probably was part of the Wochenschau though I'm not 100% certain), which I wanted to share because you can hear Rommel speaking in it!

I don't know how many recordings of him that include sound are preserved/were made in the first place, but I feel like it's not a whole lot or at least they are hard to find. I've never seen this specific one before despite always looking for video recordings of him. I like how his Swabian dialect is always coming through a little bit :) His chief of staff (and good friend) Fritz Bayerlein has a cameo here as well, he's the officer standing behind Rommel on his right side and looking over his shoulder. Günter Halm, the young soldier who's being awarded the Knight's Cross here, was the youngest member of the Afrikakorps to receive this decoration.

[littledesertfox]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROMMEL 🎉🎉 (his birthday was yesterday but I was busy watching the Paul/tyson fight 🙏)

[littledesertfox]

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Erwin

For me, Rommel with Leica camera is his most iconic. He gives me an impression that he snaps a photo anywhere he goes. Already it is the 4th drawing I do for him with his Leica, and it's not even on purpose. See the previous ones here　→　◆ ◆ ◆

he wants to capture life as he goes (and yes I'm using present tense.) There's a softer, more profound gleam in his eyes when he focuses on what's in front of him, compared to the beaming glow when he recieved honor or the steely concentration when he read a map. I am drawn to him in his life more than obsessing over his death. The one I drew on his memorial day, it's somber quietude. That's all I can say.

You guys all know where the reference for this drawing originates. It is this clip-

Not the best quality, but I believe you folks could dig out its unedited footage. I would like to challenge myself to recreate these clips into animation. It is going to be a tall order.

I drew this picture on a larger canvas and then crop it down, to suit the twitter post tile format. I know, it's a silly trend. I had to do it this way to nail the realism somewhat.

I wish you beautiful Scorpions whose birthdays fall around this season a very wonderful life.

[littledesertfox]

This took me way too long but ahh at least it's done now🤧 I wanted to draw a little something for Rommel's birthday (which was already like 4 days ago but let's ignore that) and decided to redraw one photograph of him that I really like. His face isn't that easy to get right though, especially the eyes and his smile. I tried😭 (to be fair it was only like my second or third time drawing him though, and the first time I did a full illustration, I'd probably just need more practice)

But I'm also so out of practice like damnnn. Not sure if I want to continue in this kind of style, or maybe try something different for possible future drawings. When I was finally done I also started to get a bit anxious about posting this (because what if it's weird to post art of a historical figure, especially from that era) ... but now I already finished it, so I guess I might as well show it😅

[Reference photo under the cut]

Maybe I should've chosen a different photo, his smile in this one is so sweet but sooo hard to get right😅

[littledesertfox]

I didn't say a name but you're thinking about him...

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I probably won't finish the drawing I had planned on time (I started late and I'm a hella slow artist), but of course I couldn't forget what day it is today! Happy birthday Erwin! <3

Unfortunately I can't remember where I found this photo, and don't have much background info on it other than it was taken in North Africa (but I think he looks very cute in it hehe).

[littledesertfox]

Some sketchbook stuff.

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Krebs is threatened with the Pencils of Doom

The Fall of Berlin (1950)

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Random list of my top 5 parodies by unterganger bewegungsunFISH, for no particular reason other than she was one of my favourite creators in the community and I'm sad to this day that she quit:

Hitler vs. Hogan's Heroes

Hitler's Pirate-y Adventure (3 part series)

Goebbels Reviews - Episode 1 (kinda goes hand in hand with Goebbels Writes a Play)

Hitler Meets Krebs' Fish

Lemme Smash (Downfall Edition)

There are many more I like but I'd say these are the ones that always make me laugh the most or that I've rewatched the most often :D

By the way ... her YouTube channel may have been deleted, but luckily someone was able to recover her videos and uploaded them to the internet archive, so at least they aren't entirely lost. You can just download them as a zip file here and keep them for yourself forever <3

Also here's her old channel banner, obviously all credit goes to her (I'm generally against reposting art but since her channel doesn't exist anymore it's the only way), I just wanted to include some supporting visuals in case the name rings a bell for someone but you can't quite pinpoint it. I love her style it's so cute and silly😭

[littledesertfox]

Kinda thinking about whether I should post some of my art on here should I find the time to draw again ... on one hand I think it'd be nice to share it, but on the other hand I'm worried that somehow, people who know me from my regular account will stumble across this one and recognise my art style, and I'll be called out/cancelled because they probably won't understand this community🤐

[littledesertfox]

This is a message for people in the Reichblr community. You’re platforming a known pedophile.

This is the user: hermmyhess also known as Elijah Schmidt

He was previously on Twitter but since his last account was deleted he’s moved onto Reichblr. Here is evidence of him literally admitting to his pedophilia below. (In the discord messages he refers to himself as Himmler/Göring)

What I’m about to show was provided to me by multiple sources.

He is also in possession of CSEM as a witness can confirm

He’s also a borderline Nazi and doesn’t even attempt to defend himself.

This freak should not be allowed a platform anywhere, especially in Reichblr where there are many minors. He is a danger to others.

Please do not let him escape the things he’s trying to hide.

[littledesertfox]

I feel so sorry for my friends from the US today. Reminder that my blog is not a safe space for neo-nazis, fascists, right-wing extremists of any form.

[littledesertfox]

There's a disturbing lack of Krebs x Burgdorf content on here and I feel the need to do something about it

[littledesertfox]

sometime in the 1930s...

I'm fukking sorry.💀

[littledesertfox]

Hello have you ever heard about the book called The Night I Danced With Rommel by Elisabeth Marrion? I've read the overview and it sounded like some kind of fanfiction (I would read) to me. 😅

No I haven't heard of it before, but I looked it up and now I'm kind of interested👀 Don't know if I'd get to read it anytime soon (I think my parents are getting a bit weirded out by me constantly ordering books related to WW2😭😂 I mean I'm an adult and can buy what I want but of course they still comment on it when I open my packages. I just really enjoy learning about it though!). I might put it on my list for later though! From what I understood it's based on some personal experiences of the author's mother, but I wouldn't assume it's entirely historically accurate (partly because of personal bias - from the title and description I'd guess it paints a rather positive picture of Rommel, and partly because fictionalising some elements just might make for a better story). I'm wondering though if I should rather read it in English or German, as far as I could find out just from googling, the author has written both versions by herself, but I wonder which one may convey the story better in this case.

Also I now got a bit curious about whether there are actual fanfictions about Rommel and looked it up just for the heck of it. I have to say, well, there's not a lot😅 First of all, there is only a small number of stories in English, most I found are written in Chinese so I can't understand them anyway. Among the ones I could understand, I found one x reader story that was extremely out of character (pointing this out because tbf I expected a lot more of these just based on how popular he is, but apparently I was wrong), otherwise most stories seem to be crossovers/AUs with various fandoms (many that I'm not familiar with, so I don't think it's really worth for me to read if he's just a minor character), and some topics are simply not my taste.

I only looked on Ao3 at the moment, but these are the stories that could be interesting and I might actually consider reading if I find the time (based on just their descriptions, mind you I haven't actually any of them properly past the first few sentences and have no idea if they're actually good):

Desert Fox Triumphant: Rommel beats the Allies in June 1944 - An alternate universe historical fanfiction where Rommel beats the allies in the Normandy, the description doesn't give away much, but it seems like Rommel is actually the main character which got me interested (plus my guy Fritz Bayerlein is listed among the characters so that's a personal bonus for me).

The Second Terran Sector War/Clone Wars - In this story apparently a bunch of important WW2 figures find themselves in the Star Wars universe and have to deal with that. Besides my history interest, I'm also a big Star Wars fan so this is a crossover that really intrigues me actually.

We'll Always Have Paris - An alternate universe fanfic set in the world of the Desert Peach comics. The content warnings include some heavy stuff so I'm not sure if I'll actually want to read it, but I'm curious about any fan content of the series in general, since there's not a lot of it out there in the first place.

Well, I have no idea how this post suddenly turned into Rommel fanfic recommendations😂 That was decidedly not planned, but actually kind of interesting to look into. Thinking that Rommel is generally regarded as a fascinating and even popular historical figure, I was surprised to find there's actually so little, so I felt like highlighting those that seem intriguing to me.

[littledesertfox]

Historical Fiction Recommendation

A bit of an unusual post, but I recently learned about the existence of the Desert Peach comic series created by Donna Barr and I need more people to know about it because it's a true gem. A big shoutout goes to @darksideoftwenty who introduced me to this comic, otherwise I may have never even knew that it existed!

To put it simple, the story is about Rommel's fictional gay younger brother called Pfirsich (sidenote, this is literally just the German word for peach and not actually used as a name, but it's still cute😅). He is the leader of a small support unit of the Afrika Korps, which consists mostly of people that are considered "misfits" in other parts of the army. The individual stories consist of all sorts of adventures and shenanigans but also have overarching plot points.

I think it's important to not let yourself fool by the potential first impression with this comic. At first glance, Pfirsich may seem like the absolute stereotype of the effeminate gay man, but there's actually so much more to him. This applies to the other characters too, as the story goes on and we get to know more about them, their personalities just become more and more well-rounded. At least since issue 3 I've been absolutely hooked.

For a comic that was written in the 80s and 90s, I was also extremely impressed how delicately it touches on and handles topics that are still relevant today, and manages to balance chaos and silliness with more serious and darker moments. Of course, not everything may be politically correct by today's standards and you should keep that in mind, but honestly I think there are pieces of media that are far more recent and still did things like this much worse.

The comic is available entirely for free on Webtoon, so if WW2 fiction is something you're into you should definitely give it a try. Apparently there was also a musical made back in the 90s that was based on the comics, but I could barely find anything related to it, I wish there existed recordings😭 Please note that although there aren't really depictions of sensitive content - injuries and (partial) nudity may occur but are usually quite simplified thanks to the art style - but due to the subject matter, it is targeted at adult audiences.

I'm currently at issue 18 and can't wait to continue reading! Here's just one small excerpt showing Pfirsich and Erwin (dancing together and I love how small it makes Erwin look xD), their brother relationship is hilarious and just absolutely adorable <3

[littledesertfox]

I finally got my copy of Fritz Bayerlein's personal file in the mail last week!🙌 I am so excited to finally be able to hold it in my hands, I already skimmed through it a bit and I think there is some interesting stuff to be found in there. It's over 150 pages though so getting through it in detail will probably take a while (plus some of the documents are handwritten - which means I'll have to decipher them first and that old-fashioned cursive can be a pain to read😂), but I hope to maybe share some interesting or entertaining trivia from it.