Patton: A Biography (Great Generals)
Alan Axelrod
Language: English
Pages: 151
ISBN: 1250074002
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Gen. George Patton, "a great and flawed figure" who still elicits strong feelings, makes an excellent choice for the initial volume in Palgrave's Great Generals series. Axelrod, a prolific business writer and historian (Patton on Leadership; Elizabeth I, CEO), delivers a solid if brief introduction to Patton's life and career. Seeking a "balanced appreciation" of Patton, Axelrod focuses on the contradictions that make the general such a controversial figure. A tactical genius who was instrumental in pioneering the concepts of modern maneuver and combined arms warfare, Patton often struggled to control his own personal demons and emotions. Thus, the man who conquered Sicily and turned "a stunning catastrophe" into an equally stunning victory at the Battle of the Bulge once set off a media storm—and was sidelined by General Eisenhower for 11 months—after he assaulted two soldiers suffering from battle fatigue. Restless in peace, the man who Eisenhower observed was "born to be a soldier," was killed in an automobile accident in occupied Germany in 1946. Axelrod has captured Patton's checkered legacy in a balanced biography suitable for anyone looking for a concise introduction to the commander German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt pronounced the Allies' best
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Command in urgent need of remolding in his own military image. Through a program of drill, discipline, and the inculcation of pride, he began making Patton-style soldiers of them all. Then he worked on making them tankers. On October 2, Patton finally received his first star and was now a brigadier general in command of a brigade. The very next month, he was assigned as acting commanding general of the entire 2nd Armored Division and, on April 4, 1941, he was promoted to major general, assigned.
True gambler in the whole outfit.” Always, Patton’s controlling imperative was action, however imperfect: “We must do something now,” he wrote.4 After three weeks of meeting and planning in London, Patton returned to Washington. There he hammered out with the navy the details of the landings. The pessimism of the naval officers greatly aggravated Patton, who frequently exploded in fits of frustration. Despite this, by September 24, Patton had completed his portion of the plan and confided to his.
From evacuating Sicily reduced the magnitude and meaning of the victory in this campaign. Yet this failure did not deter Patton from writing to his cousin Arvin H. Brown that his “campaign . . . will ... go down in history as a damn near perfect example of how to wage war.” Nor did he hesitate in praising his soldiers and defining for them the magnitude of their victory. In General Order Number 18, issued on August 22, 1943, and addressed to the “Soldiers of the Seventh Army,” he wrote: “Born at.
The beginning ofJuly 1944 and was assigned to the Third Army as a Red Cross “doughnut dolly,” a volunteer who dispensed doughnuts and coffee to G.I.’s. According to Everett Hughes, one of Eisenhower’s logistics officers, Patton told him that the beautiful young woman had been “mine for twelve years.” Others who knew Patton, Jean Gordon, or both denied that anything other than an uncle-niece relationship existed between them. Beatrice, however, clearly believed the two were romantically involved.
Inscribe, using all uppercase letters, in one of his field notebooks: “YOU ARE NOT BEATEN UNTIL YOU ADMIT IT. HENCE DON’T.”4 In any event, no matter what happened to him, his adoring father and mother never allowed him to feel defeated. But for the limitations of dyslexia, George Smith Patton Jr. was, as he himself later recalled, “the happiest boy in the world,”5 and the idyll was made complete by summers spent on Catalina Island, which the sons of B. D. Wilson’s business partner Phineas.