George Patton, a sacrificial lamb?
General George Patton was one of the greatest generals of the Second World War. George S. Patton (1885-1945) was born in San Marino, California in a wealthy Virginia family with strong military traditions. After attending private schools he went to the West Point military academy where he graduated as a cavalry lieutenant in 1909. Served as an aide on the staff of General John Pershing.
His military career started in Europe in 1917 during World War I with the newly formed tanks corps. In World War II George Patton fought in North Africa (Morocco), in Sicily, in France and in Germany (Battle of the Bulge) where his Third Army distinguished itself for bold and highly mobile operations. When a surprise German offensive resulted in American units being surrounded at Bastogne, Patton moved his army over 100 miles in 48 hours and relieved the siege. He was also a very colorful and flamboyant general.
His highly disciplined leadership was combined with eccentricity and extravagance: he wore flashy ivory-handled, nickel-plated revolvers, highly polished helmet, polished high cavalry boots and a whip. Patton’s vehicles were equipped with sirens and carried oversized rank insignia. His speech was always riddled with profanities and caustic remarks. Nevertheless he was one of the most outstanding tactical commanders of WWII. Even the Germans admired and respected him for his bravery, his expertise at tanks warfare, his strategy and his courage in battle. His soldiers nicknamed him “Old Blood and Guts”.
In Sicily (August 1943) Gen. Patton was visiting patients at a military hospital when he noticed in a corner a soldier weeping. When he inquired, the soldier replied that he couldn’t take the heavy shelling. Obviously the soldier was shell- shock. Patton burst into a rage, called the soldier “a coward”, slapped him in the face and ordered him back to the front. Unfortunately for Patton the incident was observed by a press reporter and a few days later the news was reported in the United States by several newspapers.
When Gen. Eisenhower learned of the incident, he reprimanded Patton, relieved him of all duties and ordered his return to the United States. Subsequently Patton was transferred to England, to act as a decoy instead of playing a major part in the Normandy landings. But on June 1944 when the need for a valiant general arose for the invasion of France, Patton was re-instated.
As typical of him, Patton moved his Third Army at such a speed that his tanks ran out of gasoline at Lorraine bringing the race to a halt, which gave Gen. Bernard Montgomery reason for rejoice. It appears that Patton took great pleasure in antagonizing Montgomery and beat him just to prove that Americans were better fighters than the British. A rather childish attitude, but Patton never had much of a liking for our Allies, both the British and the Russians.
In Sicily Patton managed to beat Montgomery in entering Messina (August 17, 1943). In Italy Mark Clark, playing the same game, raced to Rome to enter the city ahead of Gen. Alexander to prove that his troops were superior to the British Army (June 4,1944).
In Germany units of the Third Army crossed the Rhine at Oppenheim (March 22, 1945) 36 hours ahead of Montgomery’s Rhine crossing. Toward the end of the year the German Army launched a last-ditch offensive thru Belgium and north-east France where 30 divisions (over 250,000 men) led by Field Marshal Von Rundstedt found at Bastogne a weak point in the Allied lines and several thousands soldiers were encircled. Patton, notified of the problem, turned the Third Army abruptly north to relieve the surrounded and besieged American troops. This was the Third Army greatest accomplishment during the Battle of the Bulge.
General Patton will be remembered as one of the greatest battlefield commanders and motivators of military troops.
On May 8,1945 the war was over in Europe but 5 star Lieutenant General George Patton, used to every day action, didn’t feel comfortable without fighting. Knowing that the war continued in the Pacific theater against Japan, Patton sent a message to Gen. Mac Arthur to find out if he could use his talent, but Mac Arthur, a prima donna himself, did not need... competition to finish his job in the Pacific.
On December 9, 1945 Patton and his chief of staff, Major General Hobart “Hap” Gay, were on a day trip to hunt pheasants in the country outside Mannheim, Germany, when a 2- 1/2 ton GMC truck driven by Sergeant Robert Thompson made a left turn in front of Patton’s staff car, a 1938 Cadillac that hit the front of the truck. Patton projected forward was scalped when his head stroke a metal light fixture; furthermore the impact caused a severe cervical spinal cord injury leaving the general totally paralyzed from the neck down.
Rushed to the military hospital in Heidelberg, Patton died 12 days later (December 21, 1945). He was buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery in Hamm,
Luxembourg.with other members of the Third Army, as per Patton’s request to be “buried with my men”.
The new book “TARGET: PATTON” by Robert Wilcox, a military historian, claims that General George Patton was assassinated with the connivance of US officials.
According to the book, General “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the OSS (Office of Strategic Service), the forerunner of the CIA, ordered a high decorated marksman by the name of Douglas Bazata to silence Patton because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with the Russians that cost American lives.
According to Bazata’s diaries, Bazata staged the car crash arranging that a military truck hit Patton’s staff car, then shoot him to brake his neck, while Patton’s companion, General General Hobart “Hap” Gay didn’t suffer a scratch.
Strange enough there are no witnesses. The driver of the truck, Technical Sergeant Robert Thompson was whisked away to London the day after the accident before he could be questioned. No autopsy was performed on Patton’s body.
