Posted on 03/10/2013 6:59:35 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
Why?
“October 1944 .... hesitating command of the Americans and the French…” Later he said “Within my zone, the Americans never once exploited a success.”
Wasn’t that about the time the 3Rd Army was running out of fuel?
Patton was the real deal and the Germans knew it. He only had a couple of minor foul ups. He sent a way too small column to capture the prison camp his Son-in-Law was in. The whole effort was a foul up from the get go.
Also Patton was held up a little longer than he though he would be at Metz.
I have seen an interview with a German General, I can’t be sure if it was Von Rundstedt but he was in an English prison at the time. He was asked who were the best Allied generals and he simply said Patton and Montgomery. Who he thought were the least effective were Bradley and Clarke.
Our major contribution to the European War was supplying the Red Army with the transport to out run the German Army to Berlin. Strategically our overall plan was sound, we would have been in a cul-de-sac in Nothern France if we invaded there before 1944. Late 1942 and 1943 we, with the Brits, cleared the Mediterranean front, knocking out Italy. creating a 3rd front there.
We were careful after D-Day for the reason that the Germans had interior supply advantage despite air superiority. Patton may have been correct that he could have punched passed the German west wall in September, but he still would have exposed the flank has the northern front was stuck. (The Bridge Too Far put paid to any more daring thrusts for the duration.)
But it was a political blunder that the Western Allies didn't press on in Germany and move farther East when it was wide open in April to create a military accomplished fact given Stalin reneging on earlier agreements.
One of Patton's major accomplishments with his so-called authoritarian leadership style, was that his Third Army suffered the lowest rate of casualties of any unit of similar size and combat engagement.
His "authoritarian" training, expectations and discipline saved lives and as one survivor of Bastogne told me personally they were all really glad to see Patton when they were relieved.. He never knew or mentioned anybody else. And he didn't get Patton's name from the Sunday papers or the movies, like this joker.
I have to ask, where are you going with this post? I mean it’s interesting, but there must be an agenda here.....which is fine....just wondering what it is.
Where did this garbage come from. What is the Chieftians Website?
Looks like a place for kiddies to play study of war and buy video games.
My father was attached to Patch’s Army and the 3rd Army and was camped accross a lake from Patton’s headquarters. His impression of Patton was not from some history book he was there and saw him regulary. Near Bad Tolz Germany & Bad Wiessee Germany.
He to this day has nothing bad to say about the “bull” Patton. And nothing good to say about the arrogant “Monty”.
At 19 my father carried a M1 across parts of Europe. He was an armorer, worked on Quad 50’s and Bofors.
At 87 he is still a tough cookie. We talk daily about the insanity of the Commie B_tards who are taking over our nation. The fire is still in his belly and his eye.
I can assure you that he would straighten you out about what George Patton WAS.
I believe that some folks would make the case that Patton basically used blitzkrieg tactics — and that he did blitzkrieg better than the Germans did blitzkrieg. Perhaps some Germans didn’t like to admit that.
One thing Patton did which I have not seen reported very much is he worked his staff extremely hard. He would make them produce a complete set of battle plans for 3 or 4 different scenarios.
Then when the combat began he already would have made provision for what happened and how to respond.
Luck.
He was not in the Philipines when the Japanese attacked.
“But it was a political blunder that the Western Allies didn’t press on in Germany and move farther East when it was wide open . . . given Stalin reneging on earlier agreements.”
Calling it a “blunder” is akin to saying that President Ubama made a “blunder” by supporting blood thirsty anti-American Islamists during the so-called “Arab Spring.”
Both were deliberate political decisions made by socialists that had predictable outcomes against the best interests of our nation.
IMHO
Oldplayer
Excellent Post!!
I had a great uncle who served under Patton; that same uncle said he would follow Patton anywhere to fight anyone.
Why anyone should imagine their judgments regarding the quality of one of our generals or another should be respected is a good question.
A German Error of major consequence ~ how to build tanks. The Germans built large tanks and effective tanks ~ but yet they built them slowly since they'd decided to hand the work over to folks who usually built locomotives.
The Allies made use of automotive manufacturing capability ~ people who built trucks ~ and they could produce tanks, or chassis for use in Russia, quite rapidly.
In the end the best of the big German tanks proved totally inadequate. The Allied tanks were a stupendous success.
My dad and General Christmas regularly flew to various cities throughout the American heartland as the General saw to the production and deployment of tanks and other American rolling stock for the war ~ you almost never hear of General Christmas ~ BTW, there were two of them ~ the guy meeting with company engineers and executives in Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, etc. was actually far more relevant to what went on in Europe ~ and Russia ~ than Patton or any other field general.
That's why he got to hop around in the most luxuriously appointed and capable aircraft owned by the US government ~
They also had this legitimate grievance against the Germans who'd just knocked down 60% of all standing structures in what used to be called the USSR.
Eventually Stalin died, a series of apparatchiks of questionable talent followed, and in the end we got to see Boris Yeltsin on TV writing decrees that dismantled that structure and put the Russians on a different path.
Maybe that could have happened earlier with a deeper Allied advance from the West, and maybe it couldn't.
A lot of that blood could have been avoided if they had a different ruler....The Soviet Union won, in spite of Stalin.
As for Patton, the German general F.W. von Mellenthin in his memoir PANZER BATTLES praised Patton as a man who “could think along big lines”. Remember too that Patton would have made even more progress if so much material support had gone to fiascoes like Market Garden.
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