Word Celebrity Blog

I am making several posts about Gen. George Patton. I am breaking up the material (which comes from various different sources) because It would be too long and more difficult to follow. As it is this one is longer than I desired. Many things have been writtin about Gen. Patton. Many are true and some are myths, therefore there is some controversy about his military record and life. When I was a boy, I read a letter from my cousin, Calvin Husband. He was a clerk in Gen. Pattons 3rd Army headquarters. In his letter, Calvin had much praise for Gen. Patton. He said that "his men would follow him to hell." Calvin never came home: he died at the Battle Of The Bulge. 

I am not sure about what I think about George Patton as a person or as a milatary leader. One thing I am sure of, I am very thankful that the United States had Him at That Time in our history.

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George Smith Patton, Jr.



George Smith Patton, Jr. (also George Smith Patton III) (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a United States Army officer most famous for his leadership commanding corps and armies as a general in World War II. He was also widely known for his controversial outspokenness.


























Family Life And Heritage

George Smith Patton was born in San Gabriel Township, California (in what is now the city of San Marino), to George Smith Patton, Sr. (1856–1927) and Ruth Wilson (1861–1928). Although he was technically the third George Smith Patton, he was given the name Junior. The Pattons were an affluent family of Scottish descent.

As a boy, Patton read widely in classics and military history. Patton's father was an acquaintance of John Singleton Mosby, a noted cavalry leader of the Confederate Army in the American Civil War who served first under J.E.B. Stuart and then as a guerrilla fighter. The younger Patton grew up hearing Mosby's stories of military glory. From an early age, the young Patton sought to become a general and hero in his own right.

George Patton came from a long line of soldiers, including General Hugh Mercer of the American Revolution. A great- grandfather, John M. Patton, was a governor of Virginia. His grandfather, Colonel George S. Patton, was killed during the Battle of Opequon. Colonel Patton was promoted to brigadier general by the Confederate Congress, but, at the time, had already died of battle wounds, so that the promotion was never official. A great-uncle, Waller T. Patton, died of wounds received in Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg. Two other great-uncles, John M. Patton and Isaac Patton, served as colonels in the Confederate States Army, while yet another great uncle, William T. Glassell, was a Confederate States Navy officer. Another relative, Hugh Weedon Mercer, was a Confederate general.

His seventh great-grandfather was Louis Dubois, a French Huguenot immigrant, who with 11 others founded the town of New Paltz, New York. Another of Patton's ancestors was Francis Gregory, a first cousin of George Washington. Gregory married Francis Thornton III, a first cousin twice removed from James Madison and three times removed from Zachary Taylor.

Patton's paternal grandparents were Colonel George Smith Patton and Susan Thornton Glassell. Patton's grandfather, born in Fredericksburg, graduated from Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Class of 1852, second in a class of 24. After graduation, George Smith Patton studied law and practiced in Charleston. When the American Civil War broke out, he served in the 22nd Virginia Infantry of the Confederate States of America.

George Patton's grandfather left behind a namesake son, born in Charleston, Virginia (now West Virginia). The second George Smith Patton (born George William Patton in 1856, changing his name to honor his late father in 1868) was one of four children. Graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 1877, Patton's father served as L.A. County District Attorney and the first City Attorney for the city of Pasadena, California and the first mayor of San Marino, California. He was a Wilsonian Democrat.

His maternal grandparents were Benjamin Davis Wilson, (December 1, 1811 to March 11, 1878), the namesake of Southern California's Mount Wilson, and his second wife, Margaret Hereford. Wilson was a self-made man who was orphaned in Nashville, Tennessee, came to Alta California as a fur trapper and adventurer during the Indian Wars before marrying Ramona Yorba, the daughter of a Californio land baron, Bernardo Yorba, and made his fortune through the wedding dowery, receiving Rancho Jurupa, settling what would become California's San Gabriel Valley, after the Mexican American War.



























Patton married Beatrice Banning Ayer on January 12, 1886. She was the daughter of wealthy textile baron Frederick Ayer, They had three children, Beatrice Smith (March 19, 1911–October 24, 1952), Ruth Ellen Patton Totten (February 28, 1915–November 25, 1993), who wrote "The Button Box: A Loving Daughter's Memoir of Mrs. George S. Patton", and George Patton IV (December 24, 1923–June 27, 2004), who rose to the rank of major general.


Education And Early Military Service



















George Patton attended Virginia Military Institute for one year, where he rushed VMI's chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order.

























He then transferred to the United States Military Academy, since graduating from West Point would assure Patton of receiving a direct commission in the U.S. Army, a goal he could not have been assured of graduating from Virginia Military Institute (VMI).



















The West Point Academy compelled Patton to repeat his first "plebe" year because of his poor performance in mathematics. He repeated his plebe year with honors and was appointed Cadet Adjutant (the second highest position for a cadet), eventually graduating in 1909 instead of 1908 and receiving his commission as a cavalry officer.


Fifth Olympiad

George Patton participated in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm in the first-ever modern pentathlon. He placed sixth out of 37 contestants in 300 meter freestyle swimming. Patton was third out of 29 fencers. In the equestrian cross-country steeplechase, he was among the three riders who turned in perfect performances, but he placed third because of his time. Patton "hit the wall" 50 yards (46 m) from the finish line of the four kilometer cross-country footrace, then fainted after crossing the line at a walk. He finished third out of 15 contestants. He finished fifth overall.


Pistol Shooting Controversy

In pistol shooting, Patton placed 20th out of 32 contestants. He used a .38 caliber pistol, while most of the other competitors chose .22 caliber firearms. He claimed that the holes in the paper from early shots were so large that some of his later bullets passed through them, but the judges decided he missed the target completely once. Modern competitions on this level frequently now employ a moving background to specifically track multiple shots through the same hole. There was much controversy, but the judges’ ruling was upheld. Patton neither complained, nor made excuses. Patton's only comment was: "The high spirit of sportsmanship and generosity manifested throughout speaks volumes for the character of the officers of the present day. There was not a single incident of a protest or any unsportsmanlike quibbling or fighting for points which I may say, marred some of the other civilian competitions at the Olympic Games. Each man did his best and took what fortune sent them like a true soldier, and at the end we all felt more like good friends and comrades than rivals in a severe competition, yet this spirit of friendship in no manner detracted from the zeal with which all strove for success."


Master Of The Sword And The Patton Saber

Following the 1912 Olympics, Patton traveled with his family to Dresden, Berlin, and Nuremberg. Seeking the greatest swordsman in Europe to study with, Patton was told the “beau sabreur” of the French Army would be the one. Adjutant M. Clèry was a French “master of arms” and instructor of fencing at the Cavalry School at Saumur. Patton went to Saumur for intense study with the master. Upon his return, Patton wrote a report that was revised for the Army and Navy Journal. Patton’s first article for the Cavalry Journal appeared in the March 1913 issue. In the summer of 1913, after he advised the Ordnance Department on sword redesign, Patton was allowed to return to Saumur to study once again under Clèry.

Lieutenant Patton was made the Army's youngest-ever "Master of the Sword" at the Mounted Service School at Fort Riley, Kansas. While Master of the Sword, Patton became an instructor at Fort Riley and improved and modernized the Army's cavalry saber fencing techniques.










Earlier in the year, he assisted in the design of the Model 1913 Cavalry Saber. It had a large, basket-shaped hilt mounting a straight, double-edged, thrusting blade designed for use by light cavalry. Patton's 1914 manual "Saber Exercise" outlined a system of training for both mounted and on foot use of the saber. The weapon came to be known as the "Patton Saber." There is no one sword that this saber was modeled after. Patton suggested the revision from a curved sword and edge and cutting technique to a thrusting style of attack, following his extensive training in France. Patton's thoughts were expressed in his 1913 report "The Form and Use of the Saber":

"In the Peninsula War the English nearly always used the sword for cutting. The French dragoons, on the contrary, used only the point which, with their long straight swords caused almost always a fatal wound. This made the English say that the French did not fight fair. Marshal Saxe wished to arm the French cavalry with a blade of a triangular cross section so as to make the use of the point obligatory. At Wagram, when the cavalry of the guard passed in review before a charge, Napoleon called to them, "Don't cut! The point! The point!" "

The weapon was never used as intended. At the beginning of U.S. involvement in World War I, several American cavalry units armed with sabers were sent to the front but they were held back; the nature of war had changed, making horse-mounted troops easy prey for enemy troops equipped with Gewehr 98 rifles and MG08 machine guns. However, George Patton took his style of move forward and attack technique to his use of the tank in battle. This became his trademark combat style.


Punitive Expedition Into Mexico


















During the Punitive Expedition of 1916, Patton was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Regiment  at Fort Bliss, Texas. He served as aide to then-Brigadier General John J. Pershing in his pursuit of Pancho Villa, after Villa's forces had crossed  into New Mexico,  raided and looted the town of Columbus,  and killed several Americans.


















Patton, accompanied by ten soldiers of the 6th Infantry Regiment, and using three armored cars, conducted the United States' first armored vehicle attack, and in the process killed two Mexican leaders, including "General" Julio Cardenas, commander of Villa's personal bodyguard. The bodies were brought back from San Miguelito to Pershing's headquarters strapped to the hoods of the vehicles in a manner similar to game animals brought back by hunters. For this action, as well as Patton's affinity for the Colt Peacemaker, Pershing titled Patton his "Bandito." Patton's success in this regard gained him a level of fame in the United States, and he was featured in newspapers across the nation.



























World War I

At the outset of the U.S. entry into World War I, then-Major General Pershing promoted Patton to the rank of captain. While in France, Patton requested a combat command. Pershing assigned him to the newly formed United States Tank Corps.


















Gen. Pershing and Capt. Patton reviewing the troops.

When General John Pershing took command of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, he knew he could count on Captain George Smith Patton. He was an athlete; he made the pentathlon team for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. An experienced soldier, he had fought under Pershing in the campaign against Pancho Villa in 1916 (This was the United States Army’s first motorized combat).



























George Patton's love for and knowledge of France were Patton’s most important qualities: he had taken fencing classes at the prestigious Saumur Cavalry School, both he and his spoke French fluently. Patton arrived with Pershing on June 13, 1917. By September 1, 1917, he had established headquarters in Chaumont, in the Haute-Marne. He studied French tanks at Champlieu and returned to Langres to begin training Americans to use them. On September 12, 1918, his 304th tank brigade took part in the liberation of Saint-Mihiel. Promoted to Lt-Colonel, Patton was injured on September 26th. On October 17th, he was promoted again to full Colonel.






















In November 1917, Patton left Paris and reported to General Garrard of the French Army. At Champlieu, Patton drove a Renault char d’assault tank and tested its trench crossing ability. Depending on the source, he either led the U.S. tanks or was an observer at the 1917 Battle of Cambrai, where tanks were first used in significant numbers. As the U.S. Tank Corps did not take part in this battle, the role of observer is the more likely. However, in The Patton Papers: 1885–1940, author Martin Blumenson makes no mention of Patton being at Cambrai, stating only that on December 1, Patton went to Albert, not too far from Cambrai, to discuss the ongoing battle with the chief of staff of the British Tank Corps, Colonel J. F. C. Fuller.  Patton received his first ten tanks on March 23, 1918 at the Tank School and Centre, which he commanded, at Langres, Haute-Marne  department. The only one with tank driving experience, Patton himself, backed seven of the light, two-man Renault FT-17 tanks off the train.

For his successes and his organization of the training school, Patton was promoted to major, lieutenant colonel and then colonel, U.S. National Army. In August 1918, he was placed in charge of the 1st Provisional Tank Brigade, redesignated the 304th Tank Brigade on November 6, 1918. Patton’s Light Tank Brigade was part of Colonel Samuel Rockenbach’s Tank Corps, which was in turn part of the American Expeditionary Force. (Patton was not in charge of the Tank Corps as has often been misreported.) The 304th Tank Brigade fought as part of the First United States Army.

On September 26, 1918, Patton was wounded in the left leg while leading six men in an attack on German machine guns during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. The only survivors were Patton and his orderly Private First Class Joe Angelo, who saved Patton and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. While George Patton was recuperating from his wounds, the hostilities ended.

For his service in the Meuse- Argonne Operations, Patton received the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal, and was given a battlefield promotion to a full colonel. For his combat wounds, he was presented the Purple Heart.


On September 20, 1918, 32-year-old Colonel George S. Patton of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) writes to his father from the Western Front in France, recounting his experiences during the American-led offensive against the Germans at Saint-Mihiel earlier that month.

Patton had previously served in Mexico in 1916 under General John J. Pershing during the U.S. army’s pursuit of Mexican rebel Pancho Villa. The following year, after the U.S. declared war on Germany, the young officer traveled to France as Pershing’s aide. At Saint-Mihiel, Patton was put in command of the light-tank brigade. The attack marked the AEF’s first major offensive operation as an independent army during World War I, as well as the first time the U.S. had used tanks in battle.

"Dear Papa," Patton began his letter, "we have all been in one fine fight and it was not half so exciting as I had hoped, not as exciting as affairs in Mexico, because there was so much company. When the shelling first started I had some doubts about the advisability of sticking my head over the parapet, but it is just like taking a cold bath, once you get in, it is all right." In the rest of the letter, Patton chronicles his experience in battle alongside a brigade commanded by General Douglas MacArthur (later the commander of all Allied forces in the South Pacific during World War II) and his movement on foot across the battlefield, evading German shells and surveying the damage inflicted by the battle. As Patton finally concluded, "This is a very egotistical letter but intersting [sic] as it shows that vanity is stronger than fear and that in war as now waged there is little of the element of fear, it is too well organized and too stupendous."


The Interwar Years

While he was on duty in Washington, D.C. in 1919, Captain (he reverted from his wartime temporary rank of colonel) George Patton met Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would play an enormous role in Patton's future career.


























During their assignment at Fort Riley, Kansas, Patton and Eisenhower developed the armored doctrine which would be used by the US Army in World War II. In the early 1920s, Patton petitioned the U.S. Congress to appropriate funding for an armored force, but had little luck. Patton also wrote professional articles on tank and armored car tactics, suggesting new methods for their use. He also continued working on improvements to the tanks. He came up with innovations in radio communication and tank mounts. However, the lack of interest in armor created a poor atmosphere for promotion and career advancement, so George Patton transferred back to the horse cavalry.

Patton served in Hawaii before returning to Washington once again to ask Congress for funding for armored units. During his time in Hawaii, Patton was part of the military units responsible for the defense of the islands, and specifically wrote a defense plan anticipating an air raid against Pearl Harbor — 10 years before the attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 7, 1941. At the wedding of Patton's daughter Ruth Ellen (1940), a couple who knew Patton from Hawaii (Restarick and Eleanor Jones Withington) crashed the wedding, and explained they were in the area when they saw the wedding announcement and hoped Patton didn't mind them showing up uninvited. To this Patton unsheathed his sword and replied, "Restarick, if I’d found out you were within a hundred miles and not come, I’d have shoved this sword up your behind.” This humorous encounter reflects the outlandishness and kinship Patton was known for.


 1932

In July 1932,  George Patton served under Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur as a major commanding 600 troops, including the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. On July 28, MacArthur ordered Patton's troops to advance on protesting veterans known as the "Bonus Army" in Washington, D.C. with tear gas and bayonets.  Ironically, one of the veterans dispersed by the cavalry was Joe Angelo, who had saved Patton's life in World War I.


























In the late 1930s, Patton was assigned command of Fort Myer, Virginia. Shortly after Germany's blitzkrieg attacks in Europe, Major General Adna Chaffee, the first Chief of the U.S. Army's newly-created Armored Force was finally able to convince Congress of the need for armored divisions. This led to the activation of the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions in 1940. Colonel Patton was given command of the 2nd Armored Brigade, US 2nd Armored Division in July 1940. He became the assistant division commander the following October, and was promoted to brigadier general on the second day of that month. Patton served as the acting division commander from November 1940 until April 1941. He was promoted to major general on April 4 and made commanding general of the 2nd Armored Division seven days later.

John J. Bohn, an old cavalryman who, following graduation in forestry at the University of Wisconsin enlisted in the 7th Cavalry for service in the Philippines, rose to regimental sergeant major, was commissioned during WWI and later returned, briefly and as a major, to command the 7th Cavalry.

John Bohn could tell stories about Patton by the hour -- how for example during the Mexican expedition under Gen. Pershing prior to our participation in WWI Patton pursued a Mexican bandit named Candelario in a Dodge car, cornering his quarry in a house and shooting it out western style with six guns. Patton then tied the body to the bumper of his car and returned to headquarters, where he cut the ropes, allowing the body to fall to the ground and commenting, "Here's the SOB."


















"When George Patton was posted to the Hawaiian Islands", Bohn said, "Patton purchased a boat and learned to sail, naming the boat the "When and If" for when I retire or "If I am sacked". Then, doing his own sailing and navigating, Patton reached Honolulu, his navigation off eight miles!"

"Polo, poetry, the classics, all formed a portion of Patton's interests", according to Bohn.

"Several years ago when in Chihuahua, Mexico, I went through a museum maintained by the "legal" widow of Pancho Villa, where she showed me an old photograph of Gen. Pershing meeting Villa and, lo and behold, back of Pershing was an aide, George Patton."




















General Obregon, Pancho Villa, General Pershing, and Lt George Patton. 1916.























George Patton firmly believed in hard training for soldiers. He felt that hard training would save lives in combat. "A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood." was one of the many quotes attributed to him. Patton was ordered by Secretary of War Stimson to pick a place to train soldiers in preparation of an invasion of North Africa. Patton had planned no farewell to his brigade, as he knew they hated him for the hard life they had during their training, so he planned to slip quietly away at noontime, while the men were at mess. But, as his car was riding through Ft. Benning during his departure, the men poured out of the barracks and mess halls and lined the streets, shouting, cheering, and removing their shirts to swing them in the air, to say farewell to their commander. The car passed by so quickly, that no one noticed the general was openly weeping.


World War II

After serving in Hawaii, George Patton returned to Washington, to lobby congress for funding for Armored units. In the late 1930's, he was given command of Ft. Myers, VA. After Germany's blitzkrieg overthrow of Europe, Patton finally convinced congress of the need for an Armored force, in 1940 he was promoted to Major General and given command of the first American armored brigade, which eventually became the 2nd Armored Division.






















During the buildup of the United States Army prior to its entry into World War II, Gen. Patton commanded the 2nd Armored Division, which performed with mixed results in 1941 in both the Louisiana Maneuvers and Carolina Maneuvers. The 2nd Armored was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, until the unit, along with its commander, was ordered to the newly established Desert Training Center in Indio, California, by the Chief of the Armored Force, Major General Jacob L. Devers. Gen. George Patton was subsequently appointed commander of the newly activated I Armored Corps by Devers, and he was in this position when the corps was assigned to Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. In preparation,
Gen. George Patton trained his troops in the Imperial Valley, the Mohave desert near Indio, California. It was known for its blistering temperatures, sandy arroyos and absolute desolation. It was a close match for the terrain Patton and his men would encounter during the campaigns in North Africa.  Gen.Patton  created his own Desert Training center, some 162,000 square miles, to begin training the army he would carry to North Africa. The men trained all day every day... marching, maneuvering, handling weapons, etc, in the hot desert sun. The temperature reached 120 degrees in the summer, there was no water, there were no civilians there to worry about practice with live ammunition, actually, there were no living things present except for coyotes and rattlesnakes. The men learned how to sleep with their vehicles, how to treat heat exhaustion, how to go without sleep for up to 36 hours, how to navigate by the sun and stars.He commenced these exercises in late 1941 and continued them well into the summer of 1942.

Since leaving West Point, George Patton had kept a book of officers that he would want commanding his troops when he received his army... they joined him for this training, and would make the core commanders of his future army. Patton trained his officers harder than he trained the men... at the conclusion of each day, every officer had to run one mile... Patton would run a mile-and-a-quarter.

He did this not because he was a sadist, but, from his own experience, he knew the shock the men would face when they came to grips with Hitler's well trained, tough, fanatical army... it was the best way he could reproduce the horrors of war without the killing.

After many months of training, George Patton felt that he had the well trained, highly disciplined army, that he could proudly take to war and win battles.


North African Campaign


























On October 24, 1942, Patton finally got his lifelong wish, 102 ships left the American coast, carrying Patton's 24,000 troops. It was called Operation Torch, Patton's army would sail to Morocco to capture Casablanca, 18,500 American troops would land at Algiers under General Fredenhall, with 29,000 British troops under Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. Gen Dwight Eisenhower and Field Marshall Harold Alexander would co-command the entire operation. Prior to the launch, none of Patton's soldiers were told where they were bound and what they were going to do, for security reasons. After they were underway, they were given this message:

"Soldiers,"

"We are now on our way to force a landing on the coast of North West Africa. We are to be congratulated because we have been chosen as the units of the United States' Army to take part in this great American effort."

"Our mission is threefold. First to capture a beach-head, second to capture the city of Casablanca, third to move against the German wherever he may be and destroy him."..

"We may be opposed by a limited number of Germans. It is not known whether the French Army will contest our landing...When the great day of battle comes, remember your training and remember that speed and vigor of attack are the sure roads to success... During the first days and nights after you get ashore you must work unceasingly, regardless of sleep, regardless of food. A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood."

"The eyes of the world are watching us...God is with us...We will surely win."























In November 1942, Major General Patton commanded the Western Task Force of the U.S. Army, which landed on the coast of Vichy French-held Morocco in Operation Torch for the North African Campaign. Patton and his staff arrived in Morocco aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta, which came under fire from the Vichy French battleship Jean Bart while entering the harbor of Casablanca. Casablanca fell after four days of fighting. So impressed was the Sultan of Morocco that he presented Patton with the special Order of Ouissam Alaouite, with the citation: "Les Lions dans leurs tanières tremblent en le voyant approcher" (The lions in their dens tremble at his approach).





















As always, there was much confusion during the landing. Patton found it necessary to personally direct troops to get off of the beaches, where the movement onshore would not be bogged down. As he walked along the beach, forcing himself to appear calm, he faced his greatest fear (besides failure) in combat...Patton had a huge fear of being strafed by an airplane, and there were many German (and British) airplanes about, strafing the beaches.


























Patton hesitated to order an all-out assault, he knew that it would result in the needless loss of American and French lives. On Nov 10, with the remainder of Operation Torch successful, Eisenhower, commander of the operation, ordered Patton to take Casablanca. On Nov 11, Armistice Day, and Patton's 57th birthday, Patton's army was in position for an assault on Casablanca. Fortunately, minutes before the attack was to begin, a courier from the French commander came to the American lines with an offer to sign an Armistice.
























Patton's forces remained at Casablanca for several weeks. During that time, there was a conference held there that President Roosevelt attended, and upon arrival, he reviewed the troops. It was the first time since the Civil War had a president reviewed a large American force fresh from battle...he was visibly moved...as was Patton.

In Morocco, the French lost approximately 3000 men, the Americans lost around 700. The French, now allies, felt that they had retained their honor by putting up such a stiff resistance.

In mid-February 1943,, II Corps under General Fredenhall, suffered a horrible defeat by Field Marshall Erwin Rommell's German forces at the Kaserine Pass. Patton was given his third star, and given command of all American forces in North Africa.

In  following the defeat of the U.S. II Corps (then part of British 1st Army) by the German Afrika Korps, first at the Battle of Sidi Bou Zid and again at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, General Dwight D. Eisenhower sent Major General Ernest Harmon to assess the II Corps.


























On March 6, 1943, as a result of Harmon's report, Patton replaced Major General Lloyd Fredendall as commander of the II Corps. Patton was also promoted to lieutenant general. Soon thereafter, Patton had Omar Bradley reassigned to his corps as deputy commander. Thus began a long wartime association between the two different personalities.

II Corps men were demoralized and beaten, and Patton "whipped them into shape". One month later, they soundly defeated Gen. Rommel's army in battle after battle moving across Tunisia. Though, by that time, Gen. Patton had been given command of Seventh Army, to prepare them for the invasion of Sicily.





















It is said that his troops preferred to serve with him rather than his predecessor since they thought their chances of survival were higher under Patton.  For instance, Gen. Patton required all personnel to wear steel helmets (even physicians in the operating wards) and required his troops to wear the unpopular lace-up canvas leggings and neckties since the leggings prevented injury from scorpions, spiders and rats which would climb up under soldiers' trousers. A system of fines was introduced to ensure all personnel shaved daily and observed other uniform requirements. While these measures may not have made Patton popular, they did tend to restore a sense of discipline and unit pride that may have been missing when Gen.Fredendall was still in command. In a play on his nickname, "Old Blood and Guts," troops joked that it was "our blood and his guts."

























The discipline Patton instilled paid off quickly. Patton found victory at the Battle of El Guettar. By mid-March 1943, the counter-offensive of the U.S. II Corps, along with the rest of the British 1st Army, pushed the Germans and Italians eastwards. Meanwhile the British Eighth Army, commanded by General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, simultaneously pushed them westwards, effectively squeezing the Germans and Italians into a smaller and smaller portion of Tunisia and out of North Africa altogether by mid-May.


Sicily Campaign




















As a result of his performance in North Africa, Patton received command of the Seventh Army in preparation for the 1943 invasion of Sicily. Gen. George Patton took his new command with a rather heavy heart. His daughter Bea's husband, Col Johnny Waters, was listed among the missing in Tunisia. Patton himself searched in the hills of Sidi-Bou-Sid for a grave, and since he found none, he hoped his son-in-law was among the men that had escaped the Germans. Waters had formed a rear guard along with five of his men holding a hilltop against an overwhelming Nazi attack allowing the remainder of his men to escape. Waters later turned up in a German POW camp.

An even greater blow was the loss of his personal aide, Dick Jensen, who Patton had recently promoted to Captain. When Patton heard of Jensen's death, he stood immobile in his tent, tears streaming down his face. He loved Jensen nearly as his own son.


























Now, Patton began seeing the beginning of his future problems as commander. In an allied army, diplomacy is required to allow the different forces opportunities for "glory". Patton was forced to make his plans under the constraints that Montgomery would be allowed to take certain cities, etc. Patton had serious problems with this, and much of the diplomacy was taken care of by Patton's assistant, Omar Bradley. In the end, Bradley received much of the credit for Patton's successes. Patton really didn't care, he didn't cross the ocean to fight Germany's second string army, and set his sites on future battles.

Throughout the operation, Patton felt it necessary that he be visible to his men, and he was all over the area, visiting troops. Often, he would drive out towards the front lines, and then fly back to his headquarters, as he really didn't want his men seeing him headed towards the rear area. He continued this throughout the war.





















No general in history understood the dilemma that all great military leaders face more than George S. Patton...success involves the expenditure of the lives of one's fellow man. Patton, like his contemporaries Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery and General Omar Bradley, or his American predecessors, Gens George Washington, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant, loved his soldiers, and personally mourned the loss of every one killed in battle. Patton constantly could be found touring the field hospitals, which he considered places of honor. With reverence, he would speak and encourage the men, personally hand out medals, usually with tears in his eyes. He also continued this throughout the war.


























Officers quoted General Patton's speech to them before the invasion of Sicily, referring to Italians and Germans: "When we land against the enemy, don't forget to hit him and hit him hard. When we meet the enemy we will kill him. We will show him no mercy. He has killed thousands of your comrades and he must die. If your company officers in leading your men against the enemy find him shooting at you and when you get within two hundred yards of him he wishes to surrender - oh no! That bastard will die! You will kill him. Stick him between the third and fourth ribs. You will tell your men that. They must have the killer instinct. Tell them to stick him. Stick him in the liver. We will get the name of killers and killers are immortal. When word reaches him that he is being faced by a killer battalion he will fight less. We must build up that name as killers."

The Seventh Army repulsed several German counterattacks in the beachhead area before beginning its push north. Meanwhile, the Eighth Army stalled south of Mount Etna in the face of strong German defenses. The Army Group commander, Harold Alexander, exercised only the loosest control over his two commanders. Montgomery therefore took the initiative to meet with Patton in an attempt to work out a coordinated campaign.























The Seventh Army's mission was to protect the left (western) flank of the British Eighth Army as both advanced northwards towards Messina. The allies were facing some 200,000 Italian soldiers, and 30,000 Germans. The assault was successful, though the fighting was very fierce, and lasted 38 days. George Patton, once again facing diplomacy in battle, sent his army on a route different from the one planned, and raced and beat Montgomery's forces in taking Palermo and Messina.


Slapping Incident And Removal From Command

Gen. Patton averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night, spending around 20 hours a day racing around Sicily in jeeps, scout cars, tanks, and planes. He visited nearly every one of the units in his army, and every field hospital. These hospital visits were the greatest strain that he had to bear. He would walk through the aisles, tears in his eyes, hardly able to speak in his emotion. It was on one of these hospital visits that he nearly ended his career.

The "slapping incident" of August 3, 1943,  became known after newspaper columnist Drew Pearson revealed it on his November 21 radio program, reporting that General Patton had been "severely reprimanded" as a result.  Allied Headquarters denied that Patton had been reprimanded, but confirmed that Patton had slapped a soldier. While one incident received wide publicity, two soldiers in similar circumstances were slapped, the second was Pvt. Paul G. Bennett on August 10, 1943 at the 93rd Evacuation Hospital.

In the first incident, according to witnesses, General Patton was visiting patients at a military hospital in Sicily, and came upon a 27-year-old soldier named Charles H. Kuhl, who was weeping. Patton asked "What's the matter with you?" and the soldier replied, "It's my nerves, I guess. I can't stand shelling." Patton there upon burst into a rage" and "employing much profanity, he called the soldier a 'coward'" and ordered him back to the front. As a crowd gathered, including the hospital's commanding officer, the doctor who had admitted the soldier, and a nurse, Patton then "struck the youth in the rear of the head with the back of his hand." Reportedly, the nurse "made a dive toward Patton, but was pulled back by a doctor" and the commander intervened. Patton went to other patients, then returned and berated the soldier again.






















George Patton regretted his outburst, because it endangered the career he passionately loved. He felt that he had never been unjust, there had been such malingering throughout Sicily, and he could see his army melting away, for such behavior spreads through troops like wildfire. It was true that the soldier unbeknowingly by himself or the doctors had malaria, but in Patton's book, no man could say "I can't take it"... especially in a hospital where the men around him - men with shattered limbs, or bellies packed with dressings, could laugh and joke. Patton himself was not a fearless man... but he held that "the strength of the soldier is fear of fear." Beatrice exclaimed after hearing of the incident, that had she or any other member of the family behaved like Private Kuhl, he would have given them the same treatment - "and rightly so!"

Gen. Eisenhower took the view that Patton's conduct was unjustified and morally wrong. He spent sleepless nights wondering what he should do... he loved Georgie Patton, but he was determined that friendship should not influence justice... a more compelling reason forced his decision... "I can't afford to lose my best General!" Eisenhower exclaimed. He wrote the sharpest letter of his life to Patton, and ordered him to apologize personally to Kuhl, to the nurses and doctors of the hospital, and to the whole Seventh Army, or as much of it as could be reached.

Many members of Congress and the press called for Patton’s removal from command, and outrage over the alleged “cover-up” was also widespread.

















Gen. Patton humbled himself before his soldiers. The apology was freely given-and freely accepted. He added, in his apology to the doctors, nurses, and enlisted men of the 93rd Evacuation Hospital, a story of a friend of his during WWI, who in a fit of depression, had committed suicide. He felt that "If someone had been rough with him and slapped some sense into him his life might have been spared." He toured each division of his army and delivered an address to each.

He actually gained popularity after the incident, both in his army, and back in America...though the press made front page news of the incident, Patton received much personal mail from parents of soldiers in his army, expressing the thoughts that they were proud of their son being under his command, and that the coward soldier deserved what he had gotten.

The Senate delayed Patton’s confirmation as major general and Eisenhower relieved him of his command of the Seventh Army. He would go on to serve as a decoy during the invasion of Normandy,


























The incident had one beneficial effect that is generally unknown. Patton became conscious of the real danger of battle fatigue. He made a study of it, and as a result, when he commanded the Third Army, he saw to it that men showing signs of the strain of combat were given instant and effective treatment. There were rest centers throughout Third Army territory, places where a man could stay safe and warm, and rest until his courage was restored.

After the film Patton was released in 1970, Charles H. Kuhl recounted the story and said that Patton had slapped him across the face and then kicked him as he walked away. "After he left, they took me in and admitted me in the hospital, and found out I had malaria," Kuhl noted, adding that when Patton apologized personally (at Patton's headquarters) "He said he didn't know that I was as sick as I was." Kuhl, who later worked as a sweeper for Bendix Corporation in Mishawaka, Indiana, added that Patton was "a great general" and added that "I think at the time it happened, he was pretty well worn out himself." Kuhl died on January 24, 1971.

Kuhl's parents had avoided mention of the matter "because they did not wish to make trouble for General Patton.
Eisenhower thought of sending Patton home in disgrace, as many newspapers demanded, but after consulting with Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall, Eisenhower decided to keep Patton in the European theater, though without a major command. This decision was not based on the slapping incident alone, but also on confirmed intelligence that the Germans believed Patton would be leading the Allied assault into Nazi-held territory.

Eisenhower used Patton's "furlough" as a trick to mislead the Germans as to where the next attack would be, since Patton was the general the German High Command believed would lead the attack. During the ten months Patton was relieved of duty, his prolonged stay in Sicily was interpreted by the Germans as an indication of an upcoming invasion of southern France. Later, a stay in Cairo was viewed as heralding an invasion through the Balkans. German intelligence misinterpreted what happened and made faulty plans as a result.



























George S. Patton Diary Entry

"May 1, 1944"

"In spite of possible execution this morning, I slept well and trust my destiny. God has never let me, or the country, down yet. Reported to Ike at 1100. He was most cordial and asked me to sit down, so I felt a little reassured. He said, "George, you have gotten yourself into a very serious fix." I said, "Before you go any farther, I want to say that your job is more important than mine, so if in trying to save me you are hurting yourself, throw me out." He said, "I have now got all that the army can give me - it is not a question of hurting me but of hurting yourself and depriving me of a fighting army commander." He went on to say that General Marshall had wired him that my repeated mistakes have shaken the confidence of the country and the War Department. General Marshall even harked back to the Kent Lambert incident in November 1942 - certainly a forgiving s.o.b."

"Ike said he had recommended that, if I were to be relieved and sent home, I be not reduced to a Colonel, as the relief would be sufficient punishment, and that he felt that situations might well arise where it would be necessary to put me in command of an army."

"I told Ike that I was perfectly willing to fall out on a permanent promotion so as not to hold others back. Ike said General Marshall had told him that my crime had destroyed all chance of my permanent promotion, as the opposition said even if I was the best tactician and strategist in the army, my demonstrated lack of judgment made me unfit to command. He said that he had wired General Marshall on Sunday washing his hands of me. (He did not use these words but that is what he meant). I told him that if I was reduced to a Colonel I demanded the right to command one of the assault regiments; that this was not a favor but a right. He said no, because he felt he would surely need me to command an army. I said, "I am not threatening, but I want to tell you that his attack is badly planned and on too narrow a front and may well result in an Anzio, especially if I am not there. He replied, "Don't I know it, but what can I do?" That is a hell of a remark for a supreme commander. The fact is that the plan which he has approved was drawn by a group of British in 1943. Monty changed it only by getting 5 instead of 3 divisions into the assault, but the front is too short. There should be three separate attacks on at least a 90 mile front. I have said this for nearly a year. Ike said he had written me a "savage" letter but wanted me to know that his hand is being forced from United States. He talked to the Prime Minister about me and Churchill told him that he could see nothing to it. That "Patton had simply told the truth." Ike then went on to excuse General Marshall on the grounds that it was an election year etc. It is sad and shocking to think that victory and the lives of thousands of men are pawns to the "fear of They", and the writings of a group of unprincipled reporters, and weak kneed congressmen, but so it is. When I came out I don't think anyone could tell that I had just been killed. I have lost lots of competitions in the sporting way, but I never did better. I feel like death, but I am not out yet. If they will let me fight, I will; but if not, I will resign so as to be able to talk, and then I will tell the truth, and possibly do my country more good. All the way home, 5 hours, I recited poetry to myself."

"If you can make a heap of all your winnings
And risk them on one game of pitch and toss
And lose, and start at your beginning
And never breathe a word about your loss"

"I dared extreme occasion and never one betrayed."

"My final thought on the matter is that I am destined to achieve some great thing - what I don't know, but this last incident was so trivial in its nature, but so terrible in its effect, that it is not the result of an accident but the work of God. His Will be done."

"General Leroy Lutes of the U.S. Service of Supply was here when I got back after supper and we gave him a briefing and entertained him. I hope to get some equipment as a result."




















After the end of the Sicilian campaign, the Seventh army was disbanded, and various parts of it were sent to reinforce the Fifth Army, or sent to England to prepare for the invasion of the European continent. Patton called his staff together, and told them, "Gentlemen, I feel that you have hitched your wagons to a falling star. However, I still have some influence left, and I will see to it that anyone who wants to leave me will get a good job suitable to his rank and merits. I am not being relieved in this theater, but am being sent on another mission. If any of you feel so inclined, I'd like to have you with me." Out of 24 men in the room, 24 said they would go with him. When he heard their reply, the General wept.

One of Patton's several personal drivers said that though the above meeting was with Patton's staff officers, Gen. Patton personally requested that each of the enlisted men that worked for his headquarters... drivers, clerks, mechanics, etc, remain with him if they so wished. They, to a man, accompanied him to England, and most of them stayed with him to the end of the war. He said that he himself, personally really liked Patton, but his decision was as much influenced as much by the fact that he was an infantryman, and that leaving Patton would likely make him a front line soldier, as his wanting to stay with Patton. He said he really didn't have a fear of dying... that was as likely to happen driving Patton as it was being on the front lines... his main fear was of having to walk everywhere.



The Fictional First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG)

In the months before the June 1944 Normandy invasion, Patton gave public talks as commander of the fictional First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG), which was supposedly intending to invade France by way of Calais. This was part of a sophisticated Allied campaign of military disinformation, Operation Fortitude. The Germans misallocated their forces as a result, and were slow to respond to the actual landings at Normandy.
























Ghost-army fake patches


Gen. Patton arrived in England in Jan, 1944, to take charge of the Third Army, just beginning to arrive from its initial training in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It had initially been under the command of General Walter Krueger, who, like Patton, believed in hard training and strict discipline. At first, Patton was devastated to find that he would not be part of the initial assault on the European continent, but was later pleased to find out his army's mission was to spearhead an inward assault after the initial beachhead was established, especially since he would not be bogged down with the preparations for the assault itself.

Part of Operation Overlord, the codeword for the invasion, was Operation Fortitude, an immense deception operation intended to deceive the Germans into thinking that the initial invasion would take place at southern Norway, and the main invasion would be at Pas de Calais, where the English Channel is most narrow, instead of Normandy. The buildup and training of the Third Army, which in the deception plan was actually known as "FUSAG" (First US Army Group), was very important to the plan. A key part of the deception was Patton's presence...he Germans would readily believe that Patton would command the initial assault, and since he, and a building-up army, were located near the narrow part of the Channel, it was likely that he would be leading that army into the Pas de Calais area. Though, officially, it was never announced that Patton was even in England...letting the Germans think that their spies, many who were double agents supporting Fortitude, were collecting valuable intelligence. FUSAG would eventually consist of 50 divisions, the Third Army would be the initial 12. Decoy bases, vehicles, etc, were eventually placed all around the area, giving the impression that the army was much larger than it was.

Gen. Patton, traveled throughout the Third Army, in his typical style. During this period, another incident happened that once again nearly ended Patton's career. Very important to the war effort in England, the Women's Volunteer Service, an organization consisting mainly of middle-aged English women, worked very hard to help the war effort. At Knutsford, they had opened a club for the American soldiers nearby, and Patton was asked to speak at its opening, with the feelings that someone so important would better express the appreciation of the members of the organization. There were only about 60 people present, and Patton was insured that no reporters were present, and the regional administrator of the organization, Mrs. Constantine Smith, when introducing the General, made it quite clear that what he said must not be reported in the press. There are several versions of what Patton actually said, he was speaking impromptu of the need for understanding between the British and Americans. He made the jocular remark, "Since it seems to be the destiny of America, Great Britain, and Russia to rule the world, the better off we know each other, the better off we will be."

Some British newspapers the next day on their account ommitted any reference to the Russians, despite the assurance to Patton that his remarks would not be reported. It is not known whether Patton actually omitted mention of the Russians, nor if the omissions in the newspapers were accidental. American Press reaction was immediate, volcanic, and acid. Many papers, especially the Washington Post, were particularly hostile, saying that his remarks were "a general's intrusion into the political sphere on the side of Roosevelt", it was generally known that Roosevelt did not particularly trust the Russians. For days, Eisenhower and General of the Army Marshall, debated by wire on what to do. Finally, Eisenhower issued a former admonition to Patton... Marshall, and Secretary of War Stimson left it up to Eisenhower to make the decision whether or not to relieve Patton. All three men believed that the incident was not as serious as the press had made it, but they were pressured by the politicians to take action against Patton. "I am once more taking responsibility of retaining you from a personal indiscretion. I do this solely because of my faith in you as a battle leader and from no other motive."

This cut Patton to the core, personal relations between him and Eisenhower were never quite the same after that. Patton wrote in his diary: "My final thought on the matter is that I am destined to achieve some great thing - what I don't know, but this last incident was so trivial in its nature, but so terrible in its effect, that it is not the result of an accident but the work of God. His will be done."

In a story recounted by Professor Richard Holmes, just three days before D-Day, during a reception in the London Ritz Hotel, Patton shouted across a crowded reception in the direction of Eisenhower "I'll see you in Calais!", much to the consternation of all those around him. The ploy appears to have worked as reports of overnight troop movements north from Normandy were detected by Bletchley Park code decrypts.





















The Normandy invasion, though difficult and costly, had been successful...ery much in part to Operation Fortitude. Over a week later, Hitler was still not convinced that the actual invasion had taken place. And that pretty much was all that was keeping the operation from turning into a disaster... the American forces were bogged down in the bocage, the massive hedgerows that continued for miles inland, the very hedgerows that Patton had written about 20 years earlier. The British were stopped at Caen, having contained four Panzer divisions and fighting it out with them ... fortunately for the Americans, if one of these divisions had been able to move to the hedgerows, it would have been disastrous. Patton was back in England, fretting about nothing happening in Normandy, waiting to get into the fray. At one point he exclaimed "Don't forget, you men don't know that I'm here. No mention of that fact is to be made in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell happened to me. I'm not supposed to be commanding this Army. I'm not even supposed to be here in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddamned Germans. Some day I want to see them raise up on their piss-soaked hind legs and howl, "Jesus Christ, it's the Goddamned Third Army again and that son-of-a-fucking-bitch Patton". " Patton mostly (mistakenly) blamed Montgomery for the hold up. Patton never tried to conceal his dislike for Montgomery, though the two men were very much alike, only their methods were different. Both men were loved by their soldiers, both men were military geniuses, both men knew well the problems that armies faced.


























Finally, on July 6, Patton boarded a C-47 and flew to Normandy. He landed near Omaha Beach, where the wreckage of the initial assault appalled him, though he wrote "it demonstrates that good troops can land anywhere." His command post was set up in an apple orchard, and the weeks he spent there while the Americans were slugging it out in the hedgerows was a miserable time for him. He was obsessed with the idea that the war might end before he ever got into it, and it seemed to him that he spent most of his time attending the funerals of his friends. Finally, after a long wait for favorable weather, the breakout from the bocage came on July 25, and the First Army opened up a small corridor between the Germans and the sea. Finally, Eisenhower gave the order that launched the Third Army though the hole. He took a great chance...a successful counterattack by the Nazis would leave the Third Army defenseless, and totally surrounded. A traffic jam in that narrow gateway to France would have meant a massacre. Patton said, "It was one of those things that could not be done, but was. I had to say to myself, Do not take counsel of your fears." Somehow, the Third Army roared through, with 2-and even 3-star generals getting off their command cars and personally directing traffic like policemen. Gen. Patton was everywhere, screaming "Hurry, Hurry."

























Gen. George Patton was in command of the U.S. Third Army, which was on the extreme right (west) of the Allied land forces. His good friend, Gen. Gilbert R. Cook, was Deputy Commander, whom Gen. Patton had to later relieve due to an illness which "shook him to the core." Beginning at noon on August 1, 1944, he led this army during the late stages of Operation Cobra, the breakout from earlier slow fighting in the Normandy hedgerows. The Third Army simultaneously attacked west (into Brittany), south, east towards the Seine, and north, assisting in trapping several hundred thousand German soldiers in the Chambois pocket, between Falaise and Argentan, Orne.

Gen. Patton's units generally took positions by frontal assault with his armor used in the infantry support role. Once the breakthrough was achieved, the armor was used for exploitation in the manner of Civil War Cavalry advancing unopposed over vast distances, covering 60 miles (97 km) in just two weeks, from Avranches to Argentan. Patton's forces were part of the Allied forces that freed northern France, bypassing Paris. The city itself was liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division under French General Leclerc, and insurgents who were fighting in the city, and forces of the US 4th Infantry Division. The French 2nd Armored Division had recently been transferred from the 3rd Army, and many of the unit's soldiers thought they were still part of 3rd Army. These early 3rd Army offensives showed the characteristic high mobility and aggressiveness of Gen. Patton's units, which however was only possible because of the absence of German heavy armor. George Patton demonstrated an understanding of the use of combined arms by using the XIX Tactical Air Command of the Ninth Air Force to protect his right (southern) flank during his advance to the Seine.

Once out of the corridor, Patton's army really began to roll. They were moving so fast that at one point, Patton had lost touch with the 4th Armored Division. The only way he could visit his forward-most units was in a Piper Cub. The front lines were often only yards from the German lines. Patton admitted that skimming the treetops in Brittany made him nervous, "feeling like a clay bird in front of a crack trapshooter." Many people criticized his constant appearance at the front as showing off, but Gen.Patton felt that it was essential. "An army is like a piece of cooked spaghetti - you can't push it; you have to pull it after you."






















By August 16, much of the Third Army was making its historic dash through France. They raced through country that was thick with Nazi troops that were too demoralized to stop them. It was the epitome of the tactics Patton had long planned, his racing columns followed the roads used by Caesar's legions. "If Caesar chose those routes, they must be good. And the roads he built are still there." The army spearheads were often fifty miles or more ahead of the main body... depending on surprise, they cut right through the enemy held territory. Patton's tankers boasted, "We hold the roads, they hold the shoulders." The tactics were similar to those used by J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry. But, Stuart didn't have the 19th Tactical Air Command, a squadron of fighter bombers attached to Third Army, that gave them air reconnaissance, strafed, and bombed the enemy. When their bullets and bombs were gone, they dropped their belly tanks on German convoys. The entire countryside from Brittany to Paris was marked by thick black columns of smoke from burning armor and transports. Sometimes the roads were so choked by ruined German vehicles that bulldozers had to be sent ahead to clear the way. On August 25, almost incidentally to the tremendous victories of the Third Army, Paris was liberated. By this time, the Third Army had long outrun the supply lines of ordinance, supplies, and gasoline coming from the coast. Patton had run out of gas.


Lorraine Campaign
General Patton's offensive, however, came to a screeching halt on August 31, 1944, as the Third Army literally ran out of gas near the Moselle River, just outside of Metz, France. One explanation for this was that Patton's ambition was to conquer Germany, and refused to recognize that he was engaged in a secondary line of attack. Others suggest that Gen. John C.H. Lee, commander of the Zone of Communication, chose that time to move his headquarters to the more comfortable environs of Paris. Some 30 truck companies were diverted to that end, rather than providing support to the fighting armies.























Gen. Patton expected that the Theater Commander would keep fuel and supplies flowing to support successful advances. However, Gen. Eisenhower favored a "broad front" approach to the ground-war effort, believing that a single thrust would have to drop off flank protection, and would quickly lose its punch. Still, within the constraints of a very large effort overall, Eisenhower gave Montgomery and his 21st Army Group a strong priority for supplies for Operation Market Garden.  The combination of Montgomery being given priority for supplies, and diversion of resources to moving the Communications Zone, resulted in the Third Army running out of gas in Alsace-Lorraine while exploiting German weakness.  In late September, a large German panzer counter attack sent expressly to stop the advance of Patton's Third Army was defeated by the 4th Armored Division at the Battle of Arracourt. Despite the victory, the Third Army stayed in place as a result of Gen. Eisenhower's order. Ironically, the Germans believed this was because their counterattack had been successful.























Gen. Patton's rapid drive through the Lorraine demonstrated his keen appreciation for the technological advantages of the U.S. Army. The major US and Allied advantages were in mobility and air superiority. The U.S. Army had a greater number of trucks, more reliable tanks, and better radio communications, which all contributed to a superior ability to operate at a high tempo. However, probably the key to Gen. Patton's success compared to all of the other U.S. and British forces, which had similar advantages, was his intensive use of close air support; the Third Army had by far more G-2 officers at headquarters specifically designated to coordinate air strikes than any other army.  Third Army's attached close air support group was XIX Tactical Air Command, commanded by Gen. Otto P. Weyland. Developed originally by Gen. Elwood Quesada of IX TAC for the First Army at Operation Cobra the technique of "armored column cover" whereby close air support was directed by an air traffic controller in one of the attacking tanks was used extensively by the Third Army.

In addition, because Gen. Patton's rapid drive resulted in a salient that was vulnerable to flanking attacks and getting trapped by the Germans, Weyland and Patton developed the concept of using intensive aerial armed reconnaissance to protect the flanks of this salient. Microwave Early Warning (MEW) radar, another technique pioneered by Quesada, was also used by XIX TAC to both cover against Luftwaffe attacks and to vector flights already in the air to new sites as an air traffic control radar. As a result of the close cooperation between Patton and Weyland, XIX TAC would end up providing far more air sorties for ground support for the Third Army than the other attached Tactical Air Commands would for the First and Ninth Armies. Despite their success, however, Gen. Eisenhower had faith only in the traditional method of advancing across a broad front to avoid the problem of flanking attacks, which most account for the decision to halt the Third Army.






















Gen. Patton warned tank driver that sandbags actually increased the effectiveness of shaped charges.jpg


The halt of the Third Army during the month of September was enough to allow the Germans to further fortify the fortress of Metz. In October and November, the Third Army was mired in a near stalemate with the Germans, with heavy casualties on both sides. By November 23, however, Metz had finally fallen to the Americans, the first time the city had been taken since the Franco-Prussian War.


BATTLE OF THE BULGE

The German army launched a last-ditch offensive in mid-December, 1944, across Belgium, Luxembourg, and northeastern France, popularly known as the Battle of the Bulge, It was led by German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. On December 16, 1944, the German army massed 29 divisions (totaling some 250,000 men) at a weak point in the Allied lines and made massive headway towards the Meuse River during one of the worst winters Europe had seen in years.

Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., was as surprised as everyone else, from the Supreme Commander on down. Patton, lacked the intelligence resources available at higher headquarters, and was slower to recognize the offensive for what it was: an effort to break the Anglo-American lines through the lightly-defended First Army position in the “impassable” Ardennes with the object of seizing the major port of Antwerp, splitting the Western Allies, and causing the Allies to settle for a peace that would leave Germany, and Hitler’s regime, intact.






















When General Omar N. Bradley, on General Dwight Eisenhower’s orders, directed Patton to send his treasured 10th Armored Division to First Army he protested at the top of his voice. With his sights set on his impending attack past Metz to the Saar, Patton interpreted the attack up north as merely a spoiling attack to relieve the Germans from the pressure of his vaunted Third Army. But the order stood and it was not long before Patton realized that the war in Europe had taken on a completely new aspect.

During the next two weeks, the period when the tactical situation on the Western Front was fluid, George Patton was at his best. His accomplishments constituted the apex of a long and distinguished (if sometime tempestuous) career. During that time he proved himself to be one of Ike’s best tactical commanders, if not the very best. The climax of the campaign came long before German General Hasso von Manteuffel’s spearheads were stopped just short of the Meuse River. It happened at Bradley’s main headquarters at Verdun on the morning of December 19, three days after the German attack had begun.

By that time the situation was beginning to clarify itself. The main German attack at Elsenborn Ridge, in the north, had been halted; further south the important road center of St. Vith was in grave danger; in the middle of the bulge, an apt description, the likewise important town of Bastogne, defended by the 101st “Screaming Eagle” Airborne Division was about to be surrounded. The question was: how to deal with it?


























Patton disengaged his forward attacking units when he became aware of the scope of the attack, and re-directed a corps-sized element toward the North before setting out for a strategic meeting with Eisenhower, Bradley and the rest of the allied high command. Thus, he was able to tell Eisenhower that his forces would be in position to counter-attack almost immediately.

Before Gen. Patton left his headquarters for Verdun that morning, he had studied the entire front and had foreseen what would be the outcome of the meeting – or at least one of three possibilities. Before he left, Patton gave his chief of staff, Gen. Hobart Gay, three possibilities, each one with a codeword. Gen. Patton was sure that it would be one of his alternatives that would be the final decision. All that Patton had to do was to pass that codeword to Gen. Gay, and the Third Army could begin their march.

Needing just 24 hours of good weather, Gen. Patton ordered the Third Army Chaplain, Col. James O'Neill, to come up with a prayer beseeching God to grant this. The mimeographed prayer was issued throughout Third Army and was to be offered by everyone in supplication. The prayers were answered by good weather. Gen. Patton decorated Chaplain O'Neill with the Bronze Star on the spot.





















Once Gen.Eisenhower had announced his decision to turn Gen.Patton’s Third Army northward toward Bastogne, and postponing his attack in the Saar, they discussed the strength, the timing, and other details of the attack. Gen.Patton was more optimistic than the other commanders. They settled on a three division attack to be executed in three days from Arlon toward the beleaguered town of Bastogne. Once they had agreed, Gen. Patton excused himself from the meeting, and telephoned his codeword to his chief of staff, Gen. Gay.

Gen. Eisenhower gets the credit of infusing a spirit of optimism among a gloomy group of commanders and ordering an attack on the south flank of the penetration. To George Patton goes the credit of making Eisenhower’s concept possible.


The Third Army Was On The Move.



















Gen. Patton turned the Third Army abruptly north (a notable tactical and logistical achievement), disengaging from the front line to relieve the surrounded and besieged U.S. troops holding the Belgian crossroads town of Bastogne. He did not have to rely completely on his staff. Turning an army in a right angle direction was a difficult move. There had to be plans for road nets, supply depots, and above all, communications which had to be changed. But George Patton had these matters straight in his own mind. He dictated his instructions as traveled in his jeep, his new command center.

The fighting was hard, and Gen. Patton would have liked to move on faster, but the roads were icy, and the overcast weather made air support impossible at first.  On December 26, 1944, the lead elements of Gen. Patton’s 4th Armored Division led by a Lgt Col. Creighton Abrams, made contact with the outposts of the 101st Airborne. General Anthony McAuliffe, in command, is famous for his single word of defiance to a German demand for surrender: “Nuts.” Doubtless it gave him more pleasure to say a less celebrated sentence: “I am mighty glad to see you.”  And the Allies, especially the Americans, could be mighty glad that it was Gen. George Patton who led the relief column to Bastogne.

















Many military historians remark that this complicated maneuver was Patton's (and the Third Army's) greatest accomplishment during the war. (John MacDonald, a management consultant specializing in operations and quality control, cites it as one of the greatest examples of logistics, stating, "General Patton is extolled as one of the greatest battlefield commanders and motivators of military troops, yet probably his greatest military achievement, unsurpassed at the time, was the logistic repositioning, within twenty-four hours, of a whole army corps at the Battle of the Bulge."






















General Patton pinning the Distinguished Service Cross on Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe,


Gen, Patton was then ordered to go on the defensive. His reply was "Nobody ever successfully defended anything... It's ignominious for the Americans to be on the defensive when the war ends." He was told he could continue probing attacks while on the defensive. These probing attacks much resembled his army in the offensive... he called it a "creeping defensive"... and continued it right up to the Rhine River.


























During this time, Patton basically raced Montgomery up to the Rhine. While Monte was carefully preparing his amphibious assault across, Patton's units had already crossed. When Patton crossed the river himself, he deliberately tripped and fell-in imitation of William the Conqueror landing in England. He jumped up holding a handful of German soil.



















Patton's army surrounded Nazi corps after corps by double envelopment, like a series of Hannibal's victory over the Romans at Cannae. During this time, Patton was very aware of the historical parallels of his movements in this area, he loved to follow in the footsteps of the Roman conquerors. He drove his armor up the old Roman road to Trier. "I entered by the same gate Lobienus used." In 10 days the Third Army surrounded and destroyed two German Army Groups, captured 60,000 prisoners, and 10,000 square miles of territory, with minimum losses.





















George Patton after reaching the bridge at the Rhine with the Third Army


Gen. George Patton said "I'm going to be an awful irritation to the military historians, because I do things by a sixth sense... They won't understand."


Though the fighting went on for a few more months, and many men died as the result of Hitler's refusal to surrender, the war was basically over, the German army was fighting as a series of separate groups instead of an army with a coordinated plan. The greatest danger was from the Hitler Youth... 10 year old boys with abandoned weapons of the retreating Wehrmacht... who shot up isolated groups of Americans.

























Generals Manton Eddy, Omar Bradley and George Patton
viewing the macarbe scene at Buchenwald 























When  George Patton's troops of the Third Army captured the horrible Nazi concentration camps, Gen. Patton ordered that the German citizens living nearby to be sent to the camp to see the horror.























When the Nazi mayor and his wife were shown the inside of the camp for the first time, they were so stricken with guilt that they went home and killed themselves.


Task Force Baum

On March 26, 1945, Gen.Patton sent Task Force Baum, consisting of 314 men, 16 tanks, and assorted other vehicles, 50 miles (80 km.) behind enemy lines to liberate a prisoner of war camp OFLAG XIII-B,. One of the inmates was Patton's son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel John K. Waters. The raid was an utter fiasco. Only 35 men made it back; the rest were either killed or captured, and all 57 vehicles were lost. Waters himself was shot and had to be left at the camp. When Eisenhower learned of the secret mission, he was furious. Patton later reported it was the only mistake he made during WWII.

Patton's operations staff was drafting plans to take the city of Prague, Czechoslovakia, when Eisenhower, under ressure from the Soviets, ordered American forces in Czechoslovakia to stop short of the city limits. Patton's troops liberated Pilsen, on May 6, 1945, and most of western Bohemia.


























The End

And then finally it was done. The Germans signed an unconditional surrender. There was no celebration at Third Army headquarters, they were too tired. Patton felt let down... the job for which he had been born, toward which he had trained himself for fifty years, was completed. The Third Army had taken more enemy territory and caused more enemy casualties than any American army in history, with losses held to an amazing minimum. That, to Georgie, was the test of generalship. He knew he had passed it. He knew he had passed another test as well... he had won the affection and loyalty of his army. Somewhere along that long road from Normandy to Lenz, the sentiment of the men had changed. They might still curse his discipline and make fun of theatrics... but they trusted him and would follow him wherever he led... because he led. They were inordinately proud of him, and jealous of his reputation. And, at the end, it was much more than that. With all his faults they loved him.


























Generals Omar Bradley, General George Patton and General Dwight Eisenhower inspecting art that was  stolen by the Nazis.


The War Is Over

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."


























American servicemen preparing to go home after their tour of duty in WWII.  They are checking their belongings before boarding the ships.


 George Patton returned to the US on June 8, to a hero's welcome. He spent that first evening in his home in Bedford, MA, with the entire family. His son, future General George S. Patton IV, was allowed 24 hours leave from West Point...that would be the last time he saw his father. Gen. Patton was given a hero's welcome in Boston...but that would be nothing compared to the greeting he would receive in Los Angeles. 100,000 people came to the Coliseum to greet him.




















 General George S. Patton riding in a WC-56 command car during a ticker tape parade in Los Angeles.

While in California, Patton spent a few days in his childhood home, he attended the church he went to as a child.





















Jimmie Doolittle (center) with (l-r) LtGeneral Carl Spaatz, LtGeneral George Patton, MajGeneral Hoyt Vandenberg and BrigGeneral O.P. Weyland .jpg


Largely overlooked in history is the warm reception that Patton received on June 9, 1945, when he and Army Air Forces Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle were honored with a parade through Los Angeles and a reception at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before a crowd of over 100,000 people. The next day, Patton and Doolittle toured the metropolitan Los Angeles area. Patton spoke in front of the Burbank City Hall and at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. He wore his helmet with a straight line of stars, chest full of medals, and two ivory handled trademark pistols (not pearl, as is often incorrectly asserted). He punctuated his speech with some of the same profanity that he had used with the troops. He spoke about conditions in Europe and the Russian allies to the adoring crowds. This may be the only time in America when civilians, en masse, heard and saw the famous warrior on the podium.


























During this visit, Patton quietly donated an original copy of the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, which he had smuggled out of Germany in violation of JCS 1067, to the Huntington Library, a world-class repository of historical original papers, books, and maps, in San Marino. Patton instructed physicist Robert Millikan, then the chairman of the board of trustees of the Huntington Library, to make no official record of the transaction, and to keep their possession of the materials secret during Patton's lifetime. The Huntington Library retained the Nuremberg Laws in a basement vault in spite of a legal instruction in 1969 by the general's family to turn over all of his papers to the Library of Congress. On June 26, 1999, Robert Skotheim, then the president of the Huntington Library, announced that the Library was to permanently lend the Nuremberg Laws to the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, where they are currently on display.


























Patton returned to Germany, as commander of the 15th Army of the Occupation Troops. Of course, he required the same discipline as ever, all American troops were required to look and act their best. He was proud of the victorious American troops. When reviewing the 82nd Airborne Division in Berlin, he was especially impressed with their professionalism, and called them the name that they still proudly bear, "America's Guard of Honor."


Accident And Death
On December 9, 1945, Gen. Patton was severely injured in a road accident. He and his chief of staff, Major General Hobart R. "Hap" Gay, were on a day trip to hunt pheasants in the country outside Mannheim. Gen. Patton had recently been given his orders-he was about to return home, and he looked forward to a pleasant future.

Their 1938 Cadillac Model 75 was driven by Private First Class Horace Woodring (1926 – 2003), Gen. Patton sitting in the back seat on the right side, with Gen. Gay on his left, as per custom. At 11:45 near Neckarstadt (Mannheim-Käfertal), a 2½ ton GMC truck driven by Technical Sergeant Robert L. Thompson made a left turn in front of Patton's Cadillac towards a parking place. Patton's driver tried to swerve, but his timing was off, and the limo hit the truck almost head-on at a low speed. The driver and General Gay were unhurt, but Patton was in a heap on the floor. He was perfectly conscious. The general had been thrown forward and his head struck a metal part of the partition between the front and back seats, incurring a cervical spinal cord injury. Casually, he spoke to Gay "This is a hell of a way to die." Paralyzed from the neck down, he was rushed to the military hospital in Heidelberg.


















Twelve days after the accident, with Bea at his side, after putting up the last fight... and the only one he had lost in his life, Gen. George Patton died of an embolism.


























The US Army Band marching, in the funeral procession for General George S. Patton Jr., whose funeral services were held in Heidelberg before his burial in Luxembourg.


























Crowds gathering to line the streets as soldiers attend General George S. Patton Jr's. coffin during the funeral procession.





















George Patton firmly believed that a soldier should be buried where he falls... so he lies in the military cemetery at Hamm in Luxembourg, among 30,000 men that fought for him during the Battle of the Bulge. On March 19, 1947, his body was moved from the original grave site in the cemetery to its current prominent location at the head of his former troops.


















Gen. Patton's car was repaired and used by other officers. The car is now on display with other Patton artifacts at the General George Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky.


A cenotaph was placed at the Wilson-Patton family plot at the San Gabriel Cemetery in San Gabriel, California, adjacent to the Church of Our Saviour (Episcopal), where Patton was baptized and confirmed. In the narthex of the sanctuary of the church is a stained glass window honor which features, among other highlights of Patton's career, a picture of him riding in a tank. A statue of General Patton was placed between the church and the family plot.


Gen, George S. Patton Jr. was loved by many, and hated by many, and usually misunderstood by all. Gen. Eisenhower, one of the few men that really understood George Patton, knew that tough shell was really a bluff, and said of him, "Patton's besetting sin was softheartedness."


























As his reputation as a soldier, the fitting epitaph comes from one that could speak without prejudice... Field Marshall Karl Gerd von Rundstedt, Commander in Chief of all of the German Armies during the Battle of the Bulge, during an interview for Stars and Stripes magazine said of Patton, "Patton, he iss your best!"





Patton's Relations with Eisenhower


























The relationship between George S. Patton and Dwight Eisenhower has long been of interest to historians in that the onset of World War II completely reversed the roles of the two men in the space of just under two years. When Patton and Eisenhower met in the mid 1920s, George Patton was six years Eisenhower’s senior in the Army and Eisenhower saw Patton as a leading mind in tank warfare.

Between 1935 and 1940, George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower developed a very close friendship to the level where the Patton and Eisenhower families were spending summer vacations together. In 1938, Patton was promoted to full colonel and Eisenhower, then still a lieutenant colonel, openly admitted that he saw Patton as a friend, superior officer, and mentor.

Upon the outbreak of World War II, George Patton’s expertise in mechanized warfare was recognized by the Army, and he was quickly made a brigadier genera  l and,  less than a year later,  a major general.  In 1940, Lt. Col. Eisenhower petitioned Brigadier General Patton, offering to serve under the tank corps commander. Patton accepted readily, stating that he would like nothing better than for Eisenhower to be placed under his command.

George Marshall, recognizing that the coming conflict would require all available military talent, had other plans for Eisenhower.  In 1941, after five years as a relatively unknown lieutenant colonel, Eisenhower was promoted to colonel and then again to brigadier general in just 6 months time. Patton was still senior to Eisenhower in the Regular Army, but this was soon not the case in the growing conscript army (known as the Army of the United States).  In 1942,  Eisenhower was promoted to major general and, just a few months later, to lieutenant general — outranking Patton for the first time. When the Allies announced the invasion of North Africa,  Major General Patton suddenly found himself under the command of his former subordinate, now one star his superior.

In 1943, George Patton became a lieutenant general one month after Eisenhower was promoted to full (four-star) general.  Patton was unusually reserved in never publicly commenting on Eisenhower's rapid rise. Patton also reassured Eisenhower that the two men’s professional relationship was unaffected.  Privately however, George Patton was often quick to remind Eisenhower that his permanent rank in the Regular Army - both men were still colonels there throughout 1943- predated Eisenhower's.

When George Patton came under criticism for the "Sicily slapping incident", Eisenhower met privately with Patton and reprimanded him.

Eisenhower is also credited with giving Patton a command in France, after other powers in the Army had relegated Patton to various unimportant duties in England. It was in France that George Patton found himself in the company of another former subordinate,  Omar Bradley, who had also become his superior.   As with Eisenhower, George Patton behaved with professionalism and served under Bradley with distinction.

After the close of World War II, Patton (now a full general) became the occupation commander of Bavaria, and made arrangements for saving the world-famous Lipizzaner stallions of Vienna, fearing that the Red Army would slaughter the horses for food. Patton was relieved of duty after openly revolting against the punitive occupation directive JCS 1067.  His view of the war was that with Hitler gone, the German army could be rebuilt into an ally in a potential war against the Russians, whom Patton notoriously despised and considered a greater menace than the Germans. During this period, he wrote that the Allied victory would be in vain if it led to a tyrant worse than Hitler and an army of "Mongolian savages" controlling half of Europe.  Eisenhower had at last had enough, relieving Patton of all duties and ordering his return to the United States.  When Patton openly accused Eisenhower of caring more about a political career than his military duties, their friendship effectively came to an end.

In addition, Patton was highly critical of the victorious Allies use of German forced labor. He commented in his diary "I’m also opposed to sending PW’s to work as slaves in foreign lands (in particular, to France) where many will be starved to death."  He also noted: "It is amusing to recall that we fought the revolution in defence of the rights of man and the civil war to abolish slavery and have now gone back on both principles."

Near the end of the war (February 1945), Eisenhower ranked the capabilities of U.S. generals in Europe. Omar Bradley and Carl Spaatz he rated as the best. Walter Bedell Smith was ranked number 3, and Patton number 4,  followed by Mark Clark, and Lucian Truscott.

Bradley himself had been asked by Eisenhower to rank all the generals in December 1945, and he ranked them as follows: Bedell Smith #1, Spaatz #2, Courtney Hodges #3, Elwood Quesada #4, Truscott #5, and Patton #6 (others were also ranked)

However, George Patton was a ground commander. Spaatz and Quesada had been air commanders since the 1920s,  having spent their military careers through the end of World War II in the Army Air Force, the forerunner of today's U.S. Air Force, which was not separated from the U.S. Army until 1947.  It may be impossible today to make a fair comparison of commanders from two such different branches of the U.S. military.

Eisenhower's and Bradley's rankings probably included factors other than Patton's success as a battle leader. As to that, Alan Axelrod in his book Patton (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) quotes German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt as stating "Patton was your best" and, surprisingly, Joseph Stalin as stating that the Red Army could neither have planned nor executed Patton's advance across France.  Even Adolf Hitler was impressed by Patton's ability, reportedly calling him "The most dangerous man (the Allies) have."





Legacy Of George Patton

    * General George S. Patton statue, Ettelbruck/Luxembourg 2007

    * A residential street in Shreveport, Louisiana, is named for Patton. Adjacent to this street is another named for Dwight D. Eisenhower.

    * General George Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

    * A museum dedicated to Patton, and his efforts training thousands of soldiers for African desert combat, is located at the site of the Desert Training Center in Chiriaco Summit, California. A statue of Patton can be seen from nearby Interstate 10.

    * Two active United States Army installations are named in memory of General Patton. Patton Barracks in Heidelberg, Germany houses the headquarters for the United States Army Garrison Heidelberg.

    * Patton Army Air Field, located on Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, provides rotary-wing aviation support for Army units in southern Kuwait.    * Patton United States Army Reserve Center, in Bell, California is named for General Patton.

    * Patton Hall, located in Fort Riley, Kansas, houses much of the Judge-Advocate General (JAG) Corps at the base.

    * Patton Junior High School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas is named for him.

    * The Patton series of tanks is named for him.

    * A chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution is named for Patton.

    * Patton Monument (West Point)

    * There is a large Patton Monument in Avranches, France.

    * At the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in San Gabriel, California, there is a stained glass window depicting Patton as a version of Saint George. He is shown in a tank fighting a dragon festooned with swastikas. The lettering in the window reads "I fought a good fight."[citation needed]

    * Hamilton, Massachusetts, where Patton's summer home was located, dedicated its central park to Patton, boasting a World War II–era tank in the center of town, and the town's school sports teams play under the name "Generals." In addition, the French government gave two statues to the town commemorating Patton's service to their nation. They were improved in 2003 and sit at the entrance to Patton Park.

    * Patton was named the class exemplar for the United States Air Force Academy's class of 2005, the only non-aviator to receive this honor.

    * A street in Arlon in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium, is named for General Patton, and a street in the comune of Ixelles, in Brussels.

    * Patton wrote much material, including speeches, lectures, and poetry. Incorporating the biblical phrase



He composed a poem imbued with his personal interpretations of reincarnation:

"Through a Glass, Darkly"

    Through the travail of the ages,
    Midst the pomp and toil of war,
    Have I fought and strove and perished
    Countless times upon this star
    ...
    So as through a glass, and darkly
    The age long strife I see
    Where I fought in many guises,
    Many names, but always me.
    ...
    So forever in the future,
    Shall I battle as of yore,
    Dying to be born a fighter,
    But to die again, once more






Awards And Decorations

United States awards
General Patton's Ribbons as they would appear today
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Distinguished Service Cross with one oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Distinguished Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Silver Star with one oak leaf cluster
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star
Purple Heart
ilver Lifesaving Medal[60]
Mexican Service Medal
Silver star
World War I Victory Medal with five battle clasps
American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
Silver star
Bronze star
Bronze star
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one silver and two bronze service stars
World War II Victory Medal
In 1955, the U.S. Army posthumously presented General Patton with the Army of Occupation Medal for service as the first occupation commander of Bavaria.