Germans couldn’t do it –
They expected quick death for Patton, but not in peace
‘Old Blood and Guts’ talked about it; brushed grim reaper aside three times
By Robert Richards, United Press staff writer
The writer of the following dispatch was assigned to the U.S. Third Army during the last nine months of the European War and was with Gen. George S. Patton from Le Mans, France, to Pilsen, Czechoslovakia.
NEW YORK – Lots of people expected Georgie Patton to get killed. He even talked about it, himself, in the wild days when his Third Army swept hellbent across Europe.
But no one thought it would happen like this.
No one expected to see him killed in peacetime – the victim of a traffic accident.
Gen. George S. Patton Jr. had at least three brushes with death, back in the times when his Shermans and tank destroyers were still hurling their shells and all good G.l.’s called Germans “Krauts.”
Shell hit headquarters
A German 380-millimeter railway gun just missed his headquarters at Nancy, France. Once it even hit the headquarters, but Gen. Patton wasn’t home.
Another time a large shell landed within 10 feet of Gen. Patton’s parked jeep, but it was a dud. “If it had gone off, I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
Then near Nuernberg, at the end of the war, a German fighter attacked Gen. Patton’s tiny liaison plane. The skilled pilot managed to dive close to the ground and the fighter, unable to pull out, crashed in flames.
Respect for Germans
Despite his supreme confidence, Gen. Patton had great respect for the Germans as fighters. Once, around Metz, he said, “they’re valorous bastards. You must give them credit for that.”
Another time, earlier in the push through France, he told correspondents, half-serious, half-jokingly, “Give me 30 German colonels and I’ll win this war tomorrow.”
It was not always easy to tell whether Gen. Patton was joking or serious.
He prefaced each press conference with the remark, “All right, boys, don’t quote me unless you want me to go home.”
Knew value of acting
He knew the full value of acting. Once some SHAEF correspondents came down to interview Gen. Patton at Nancy. At his normal press meetings, he usually wore only one pistol, swung low in western fashion.
This time he came in loaded down with at least three. He proceeded to pull them out and elaborately laid them on a nearby table. You could almost hear the SHAEF boys, saying, “Gee, just like we expected.”
He had a dread of his fighters becoming too defense-minded. The Third Army went on the defensive only once, and that was along the Moselle River in September-October 1944, when the Shermans ran out of gas.
Patted his pistol
At the height of the Ardennes bulge battle, it was rumored that picked German troops had special orders to come after Gen. Patton.
The general always patted his pistol when he talked about possible capture. “They won’t take me alive,” he said, and he meant it. His eyes always lighted up while he talked, as if he might enjoy such a fight.
“Officers should never let themselves be captured,” he said.
I followed the Third Army from the Le Mans area, in France, to Pilsen, in Czechoslovakia, on V-E Day. I saw the Thirders Doughfeet close-up, day after day, and I think the vast majority of them liked Gen. Patton. And most were proud to be in his army.
Why?
Could lick other guy
I think it was because he had such tremendous vitality, and such complete self-confidence. He never saw the day when he didn’t know that he could lick the other guy.
And, despite his reckless reputation, in battle he seldom wasted lives. He took big chances only when he knew it was reasonably safe to take them.
He thought that the Third Army was the best in the world, and he made his men feel it.
He once said, “Why, Julius Caesar wouldn’t have been but a one-star general in the Third Army.”
He always admired skilled and daring fighting. Speaking of one armored division lieutenant, he said: “He’s a good man, and he’ll get killed. All the good ones get killed.”
“Keep away from foxholes,” Gen. Patton always snapped. “Let a soldier start digging a foxhole, and you’ll never get him out.”
Keep shovels handy
He went up outside Metz one rainy afternoon and told this to the 95th Infantry Division, newly arrived in the line. The division stood at attention and listened gravely. After it was over and Gen. Patton had left, their commander said, “Now, boys, you all heard the commanding general. But don’t take him too literally. Keep your shovels handy.”
Apparently Gen. Patton didn’t always observe this rule himself.
A correspondent once questioned his chauffeur, and this G.I. said, “Sure, the general has dived into a foxhole many a time. I ought to know. I was right alongside him.”
He just moved away
Another time Gen. Patton’s headquarters were in Luxembourg City. The Germans began lobbing small rockets into this gingerbread capital. Gen. Patton and his staff, for a short time, quietly moved to nearby Esch. The Luxembourg natives got a big kick out of this.
Gen. Patton used to say, “You can’t judge a man’s courage by his wounds in a modern war. In the last war I got shot in the tail myself.”
He also said, “Three wounds are enough. After three, a soldier gets pretty damned tired of it.”
Gen. Patton wouldn’t even let Congress get ahead of him. He put on the four stars of a full general before his new rank had been officially confirmed by Washington.
He actually blushed
When congratulated, he actually blushed.
“My striker did it,” he explained, “I got an extra star. and he thinks he’ll get an extra stripe.”
He didn’t explain, however, how the fourth star also gleamed from his auto license plates.
The Third Army, at least to my knowledge, seldom called their commander “Old Blood and Guts” and they seldom called him “Georgie.”
The Third was a soldier’s army. Mostly they just called him “Gen. Patton.”