Word Celebrity Blog

George Patton And I

by Haynes W. Dugan
(Written in 1977)

At the outset, let me say that there was no close relationship between me and the illustrious general. My view of him was from a relatively low level and he would not have known me, as they say, from Adam, but besides being under his command for a short period there was a reciprocal relationship which, to date, has had a lasting effect.

It all began shortly before Christmas in 1940 when I received from the Army a red bordered letter marked, "Important - Immediate Action." This was in the nature of a warning order that I, as a First Lt. of Cavalry, U.S. Army Reserve, was on the point of being called to active duty and to get my affairs in order.

This was followed up by Special Orders No. 12, Headquarters IV Corps Area, dated Jan. 15, 1941, ordering me to report to the commanding general, 2nd Armored Div. Fort Benning, Georgia, by not later than Feb. 13, 1941.

THE Commanding General of the 2nd Armored was Brigadier General George S. Patton, then a name unknown to me, although he had commanded the 5th Cavalry about a year prior to the time I, as a cadet, underwent summer training there in 1934, following which I was commissioned.

From time to time at Ft. Benning there would be a gathering of the entire Officers Training Corps at a theatre and it was here that I first saw George Patton. He was wearing riding breeches and boots and I noted that his tailor had not given his breeches the low "cavalry peg" much in favor in the Southwest. He stood at a lectern with the light shining up on his face and with his balding head and eyeglasses which he put on to consult his notes he appeared a fatherly creature, an impression which did not last.

It might be well here to mention that few of us in our prior military training had constant association with any officer over the rank of major for, if memory serves, the pre-war military establishment consisted of something like 12,000 officers and around 100,000 enlisted men, and this included the Corps of Engineers. The point of this is that a general officer was something to be beheld in a mixed state of awe and curiosity. George Patton gave us ample opportunity to expand this viewpoint, for it soon became apparent that this was a salty character, to be treated with respect but tinged with a touch of humor.

Some of the enlisted men said that every time they took a patented hangover remedy they helped make George Patton rich, but elsewhere I was told that if there was any investment involvement it was through his wife.

To George Patton it was not enough that we be trained as armored officers, but that we look like one, to which end he instructed us on the wearing of the high Armored Forces "overseas" cap on the left side of the head. When he said that he did not want his officers "looking like a bunch of sailors" we hired to the post tailor to have our "pink" trousers slimmed, and when he congratulated us on shining not only the outside but the inside of our brass belt buckles we looked at each other in amazement. Could he mean it?

One day on the firing range, while getting accustomed to the new Garrand rifle, I was visited by a major from Patton's staff named John Smith, better known as "Long John," who inquired if I would be interested in going to division headquarters for public relations duty pending activation of the 3rd Armored Division. As a working newspaperman, this was like offering a cat catnip or waving a red flag at a bull.

So, by Special Orders No. 64, Headquarters 2nd Armored Division, dated March 19, 1941, I was ordered to report to the G-2 Section, 2nd Armored, which I did.

Fortunately I was quartered in an old wooden bachelor officers quarters and messed at the open post mess, all within walking distance of division headquarters, then quartered in an old one-story brick mess hall, as I had no transportation. At hqs. I reported to a Lieut. Col. Pickering and found that Lieut. Hutchinson had likewise been posted for Public Relations Office (PRO) duties, he coming from The Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper.

Office quarters were crowded and naturally a G-2 did not want any PRO people underfoot, so we were given an unused storeroom with one boarded over window and a single light-bulb, unshaded, hanging from the ceiling. We were also issued a used portable typewriter, which rested on an orange crate, and a few chairs, some paper, and that was it. We were also given access to files giving the history of the various organizations of the division and their predecessor units going back to the American Revolution.

It was here that, when turning out publicity for a parade in Columbus, Georgia, in which the 2nd Armored took part that I first used the words "hell on wheels" in connection with the divisions activities and purpose. General Patton must have liked it, for it was later adopted for use on the division patch and it was here that the reciprocal and lasting relationship previously mentioned was established.

General Patton would usually arrive at hqs. after everyone else was at work, and this was a busy place at that time, sometimes followed by a most unfriendly looking German police dog whose head seemed constantly turning, seeking someone who might harm its master. There was a current story that the child of an officer quartered near the general had been pulled from its bicycle by the dog and that the officer was loathe to report it to the general for fear of incurring disfavor.

Each day there was published a little one sheet "Daily Bulletin" containing information on pending training assignments, uniform of the day, movies being shown and the like. One day this contained a short command which was pure George Patton. It read, "Each man of this command old enough to do so will shave every day."

It is known that General Patton was something of a showman and not without ego and this was displayed in military exercise on a drill field in front of a grandstand. He liked the grandstands filled, even with wives and children. First a few blanks would be fired by guns on the far side of the field. In the distance light tanks, some "Mae Wests" - double turrets - could be seen advancing, interlined by infantry wearing the British helmet and leggings (we were not to receive the modern helmet until much later) and also gas masks. Then a smoke screen would be laid down, the guns would boom, and in the final stretch the tanks would outstrip the infantry, sirens screaming.

I never afterwards saw a tank with a siren attached, but these were so equipped, or some of them. As a climax, General Patton would land his private plane in front of the grandstand, descend wearing a tankers helmet and self-designed coverall, tailor made, of green cloth and with gold buttons down each side of the front in a semi-V effect. Taking off his gloves, he would go to the microphone in front of the grandstand, and, in his high voice, describe what was happening. There was at this time running in a Columbus movie house a serial - remember serials? - called "The Green Hornet" and it did not take the soldiers long to call Patton the Green Hornet for his fancy green coveralls. General officers are given some latitude as to uniform.

Fort Benning at this time was not only home for the 2nd Armored but the 4th Motorized Infantry Division, the Infantry School, and a parachute school, the latter known by the parachute release towers and number of officers connected therewith limping around with walking sticks. It was a busy place.

The summer of 1941 General Patton increased his fame in the Louisiana maneuvers, making a wide sweeping run from the south and crossing the Sabine river to "capture" Shreveport. We of the 3rd Armored, then at Camp Polk, Louisiana near Leesville had our hands full receiving selectees, equipment, training, learning amidst constant changes in procedure.

From Louisiana, General Patton may have participated in the Carolina maneuvers, I do not recall, but the summer of 1942 found the 3rd Armored on the Mojave Desert and again under Gen. Patton, who headed the Desert Training Center. By then it was clear that we were preparing for service in North Africa. Before then we had sent a small party as observers with the British. While at Benning I had been detailed to escort a British officer from North Africa on a "sightseeing" tour of the 2nd Armored. I recall he had an inordinate amount of gear which he carried with him constantly, a short warm, trenchcoat and the like, and that he was not much impressed with the medium tank then in use, a decrepit object whose main armament was a right sponson mounted 37mm gun.

Since then we had been issued the Gen. Grant medium tank, having a right sponson mounted short barrel 75mm gun and a turret mounted 37 mm gun and gone on to the General Sherman tank with short barrel 75 nip gun, turret mounted. Our returning observers from North Africa reported the British found the General Grant objectionable in many ways - it was - but in later reading the memoirs of one of Rommel's staff officers - I found that the Germans had considerable respect for it, as most of their limited number of tanks were Mark IV's.

Sometime during the summer, General Patton "slipped away," if "slipping away" can describe information being bandied around the supermarkets in Palm Springs by officers wives.

A short time later I was detailed to hand carry a voluminous shortage report to the post office at Phoenix, Arizona, destination, Washington D.C. and my transport, the airplane of Gen. Alvan C. Gillem, Jr., former 3rd Armored and by now Desert Center commander. This done we returned, landing on a stretch of graded desert at night by the light of scout car headlights.

As fate would have it there were not enough bottoms to carry us to North Africa, but we rushed to the east coast, first to Camp Pickett, Virginia and then to Indiantown Gap, PA and on to England in the early fall of 1943 and all I knew of General Patton in the meantime was what I read in the newspapers and magazines, including his leadership in North Africa over General Omar Bradley and under him in Sicily.

Of the aftermath of the hospital slapping incident in Italy when Patton was relieved of command, I later heard much from Team R. Henry of The Washington Star. Reduced to command over a headquarters company and in disgrace, Patton - an Episcopalian - would each morning resort to a nearby chapel, spending hours praying for another opportunity at command.

The next time I heard that General Patton was in the vicinity must have been about Aug. 1, 1944 in the midst of the Normandy breakout. Our division commander had been relieved and I was temporarily assigned to Brig. General Doyle 0. Hickey's Combat Command "A" of the 3rd Armored and had reported to him near Brecey when it became apparent that there was a map shortage, and I returned to division headquarters that night by a circuitous route to obtain a supply and ran into incoming troops with the 5th Armored Division and learned that they were under Patton's command. While they were taking a guided tour of Brittany we of the 3rd Armored, the 30th Infantry Division, and others held off the German counter-attack around Mortain.

Between Aug. 12th and 18th, the 3rd Armored took part in the closing of the Falaise Gap, with Patton's army being our right flank. At the time I understood he shared our pique over reports that Gen. Montgomery had refused to move the army line after the Americans had reached it, but the British had not. The British in fact were heavily opposed, but Montgomery's action, or inaction, had allowed a portion of the German army to escape.

A week after Mortain, Aug. 25th, found the 3rd Armored crossing the Seine on a pontoon bridge between Melun and Corbeil. About mid-morning of the 26th, there was a lull in the traffic and I was sitting on the bank, whittling, within talking distance of my radio equipped half-track, when a jeep began crossing from the other side.

From a distance the helmet of the passenger seemed unusually shiny, and as it came closer it turned out to be Gen. Patton, with lacquered helmet bearing three stars, Eisenhower jacket, riding breeches, boots, gloves ivory handled revolver and large as life.

When he was near, I arose and gave him a proper salute. "Everything under control, major," he inquired. I said that it was and he responded, "Give Maurice Rose (our division commander) my regards," and went on. North of the Seine in a sole unarmored vehicle at that time was not a particularly safe place to be.

This was the last time I saw George Patton.

Later, when we were around Stolberg in Germany, we would from time to time, have someone enter the area of Patton's army, and it was always with trepidation, for Patton required his combat soldiers to wear neckties, while Gen. Courtney Hodges of the First Army did not. Patton's MP's were quick to pick up any offenders.

During the Bulge or the Ardennes campaign, as it was also known, the 3rd Armored was hastily moved back from the Stolberg area of Germany to points south of the main road leading northwards to Liege (and eventually to Antwerp) and we were happy to hear of Patton's arrival in the Bastogne area, although I have made some of my friends who served there unhappy by reminding them that for the Germans, Bastogne was a holding action, and that their main drive was northwest to the port of Antwerp.

I am not sure that the press fully understood him, for he was a proud Virginia gentleman, a cavalryman who believed in unrelenting pursuit, just as Montgomery was an infantry general, and when not obeyed I have heard of Patton's mutterings of "we need some killing around here" when he was not speaking of the enemy.

His death in a car accident following the war was tragic but timely, as the American army was melting like snow in a summer sun. We will not see his likes again.