Patton
I am sitting here watching the movie "Patton" and it triggered memories of a lot of stories my dad told me about his experiences during World War 2. He trained with the 12th Cavalry at Fort Bliss, Texas. In 1942 he was sent to New York for training as a radio operator. After that he was assigned to Patton's 3rd Army and sent overseas. He was a scout for the 16th Mechanized Cavalry Group the last part of the war. They were the first troops to enter Germany. Dad was wounded twice, once by machine gun fire in the legs and once by being blown out of a halftrack when it hit a mine. His job was to scout advanced positions and radio back reports.
Dad saw Patton several times and was not impressed. He thought Patton was an egotistical prima donna who sent a lot of good men out as cannon fodder. One day after the battle of Trier his group was roused early by a colonel and forced to line up. The colonel said "Something has happened last night and the general wants a quick resolution to it. Who stole the general's cognac?" It seems that someone entered the supply tent and absconded with a case of Patton's finest stolen cognac. The men were dirty and very tired after the battle. When they heard this pronouncement they fell to the ground rolling with hysterical laughter. Sergeants were running around yelling and kicking at the laughing soldiers. By the way, dad said that the cognac was excellent!
Dad made it to the level of technical sergeant. The military offered him a chance to attend officer candidate school but he detested the military discipline and did not want to make a career of it. The only reminders of this time that I have are a German bone handled dress dagger, an old Belgium pistol, his dog tags, and a plaque the military sent him. While he was proud he got through this experience it left a lot of mental scars. Patton may have been a great strategist but according to dad he only cared about his own career. "Old Blood and Guts" had little regard for individual soldiers.
2 Comments:
Very well written account of your dad's service.
Biographies of Patton are usually flush with stories of his egotism, vanity and lust for publicity. I heard many such stories about General Mark Clark when I was a boy. No good ones though!
Generals, like Admirals, are a cross between men (And Women; A childhood friend is in line for her 2nd star! U.S. Army, Hoooahh) and Gods to enlisted personnel. Patton was more so.
The history of the European theater is well documented and Patton's aggressiveness has been widely credited as being decisive wherever he worked. Conversely, the U.S. Marines, operating in the Pacific theater had (and still do) many officers who's tactics were in many ways similar to Patton's. This without anything like the numbers of tanks or the land mass suitable for maneuver that characterized the terrain Patton's operations traversed.
The Marine slogan from WWI, "do you want to live forever?" (credited to Gny Sgt Dan Daley) typifies the difference in mindset between the Marines and soldiers of the pacific as opposed to those in Europe.
A different enemy with different codes of marshall conduct (at least with non slavs) governed the veiw of Germans as people and Japanese as monsters. I think this also serves to punish Gen. Patton as there is no doubt his approach- close with and fight the enemy wherever he is weakest and push,push,push - makes him look venal and indifferent to the lives of individual soldiers. I think this is so to a point.
Contrast him to Montgomery or Clark and the hesitancy demonstrated during Market Garden or Anzio respectively. In these and many additional cases, the argument can be made that due to delay or worries about logistical T's and I's, the initiatve was lost and needless additional casualties ensued. Far more than would have been realized if a fast push, though bloody, had been focused and followed up.
This is all simplistic enough and not meant to gain say the experiences of someone who was there. And I hope you will forgive my effort to put a fair face on Gen. Patton. I never knew or met the man and can only speak from the history I have read of him.
History has shown that Generals such as Bradlee, Macarthur, Monty or Maclellan (civil war) and others with a professed compassion for their troops often prolong the war and ultimately ensure more of them are killed than the "ruthless" Grants, Pullers, del Valles or Pattons.
It seems you are a fair man as I've known of those who would not watch the movie Patton (Andy Rooney) and speak nothing but ill of him.
One thing common to all of them: they were never Generals. It aint an easy Gig, looted cognac notwithstanding!
Well done man,
Queequeg
Thank you for the thoughtful comments. I agree that this type of person is probably necessary to prosecute a war and be successful. It is interesting that many who were in the trenches thought that people like Patton were horrible but at the same time the actions of generals like Patton probably saved a lot of these guys' lives in the long run. Dad saw it all from a soldier's viewpoint and historians saw it from the viewpoint of successful generalship. My feeling is that both views were correct and that each does not invalidate the other. If dad had been on Patton's general staff he would have probably felt differently.
Over the years I have read most of the biographical literature about Patton put out by reliable sources. One thing that most people don't realize about him was that he was really a member of the upper class in this country and was very active in the social parties, boating, and polo that belied his rough image.
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