Just to balance things, my father DID fight under Patton in Europe, and had nothing but praise for the man.
Dif’rent strokes…
He wasn’t wounded. He left the battle without orders. I believe that’s still considered Desertion Under Fire.
I have never heard this anywhere except in your post. Do you have a cite?
Here is Omar Bradley’s account of both incidents. The first one: “Patton visited the wounded at an evacuation hospital near Nicosia[Sicily]. While there, he encountered one of Allen’s [Maj. Gen. Terry Allen, 1st Infantry Div. Commander] privates, Charles H. KuhI, who apparently had no wounds. When Patton asked why Kuhi was in the hospital, Kuhi replied, ‘I guess I can’t take it.’ The doctors had diagnosed him as being in a ‘psychoneurosis, anxiety state, moderately severe.’ It was the third time Kuhi had been evacuated for the same reason.”
“Patton flew into a rage, cursed Kuhi, slapped him across the face with his gloves, then grabbed him and threw him out of the tent, shouting, ‘I don’t want yellow-bellied bastards like him hiding their lousy cowardice around here, stinking up this place of honor.’ … It later developed that Kuhi suffered from chronic diarrhea, had malaria and a fever of 102.2 degrees. He was sent back to a North Africa hospital by sympathetic medical personnel who had been shocked and outraged by Patton’s loss of self-control and abuse of a patient.”
And the second: “Patton … visited another evacuation hospital, this one in Truscott’s[Maj. Gen. Lucian Truscott, 3rd Infantry Div. Commander] rear near Sant’ Agata. Here Patton found another unwounded soldier, Paul G. Bennett, suffering a severe case of ‘shell shock.’ He was huddled shivering on his bunk. … When Patton asked his problem, Bennett replied: ‘It’s my nerves. I can hear the shells come over, but I can’t hear them burst.’ Patton again exploded in rage: ‘Your nerves, hell. Hell, you are just a goddamned coward, you yellow son of a bitch. . . . You ought to be lined up against the wall and shot. In fact, I ought to shoot you myself right now, goddamn you.’”
“Patton pulled his pistol out and waved it in Bennett’s face, then hit him in the face with his free hand, shouting to the doctor, ‘I want you to get that man out of here right away. I won’t have these other brave boys seeing such a bastard babied.’ Patton rehoistered his pistol and started to leave the tent, but when he saw Bennett was openly crying he rushed back and hit him so hard his helmet liner flew off and rolled out of the tent. The doctor then interposed himself between the soldier and Patton, …”
In a footnote, Bradley continued, “By striking an enlisted man, Patton had technically committed a court-martial offense.”
Anyone who doesn’t understand how atrocious Patton’s actions were must have been watching too many Clint Eastwood movies.
Patton had a great talent for warfare and was just great as long as he was in his headquarters directing battles. But when there wasn’t anything crucial going on he had a big mouth and was continually in hot water, almost getting himself fired by Ike from the 3rd Army command before the Normandy landings [again see Bradley’s A General’s Life, in which his Army didn’t participate, and finally being fired for stupid remarks after the war was ended.
Hmmm.
I once met Gen. Bruce Clarke, whom fought under Patton as the comander of a Combat Command (large, highly mobile armored taskforce). He had only a few things to say about Patton, mostly about the morale he brought with him, which was very high. In his book, Clarke of St.Vith, there is more detail about the results of Patton’s generalship as viewed by a combat officer, which was pretty impressive.
Glory hound or not, personally concerned about casualties or not, his armies did very well indeed in doing their job: beating the hell out of the enemy.
[Grampa Simpson]You march 'em off a cliff, you can send them off to die, but you can’t hit 'em.[/GS]
Ah yes, I’m glad to hear that Grampa Simpson and military experts here agree that the way to prevent malingering and establish discipline is for a General Officer to go into hospitals and, without knowing any of the facts, assault patients who displease him.
I guess I’ve been living in ignorance all this time.
David, I posted that because it does seem a bit strange to us non-military types at first glance that such a law exists. I do understand that there’s a very good reason for the law, and I meant no offense by my remark. I apologize if I upset you or anyone else.
'Salright.
I’m still pissed that Bradley wrote that “technically” Patton had committed a courtmartial offense by hitting an enlisted man. Technically hell! It was and is a serious crime and if a lieutenant had done it Bradley would have authorized a court martial without hesitation. That is one of the few things that I hold against Bradley.