That way I can keep firing my pistols! It appears as a footnote in War As I Knew It, a book based on Pattons diaries and published in 1947, after his death. Of course we are willing to die but that is not enough. Although Patton is most famous for his actions during the Second World War, Patton also participated in the Mexican Revolution and the First World War. On Christmas Eve, General Patton and Omar Bradley attended a candle-light church service in Luxembourg City, sitting in a box once used by Kaiser Wilhelm II. When war erupted in France in 1914, Patton wanted to take up the sword in earnest, fighting in the French army. An Army is a team. Americans despise cowards. . The one honor which is mine and mine alone is that of having commanded such an incomparable group of Americans, the record of whose fortitude, audacity, and valor will endure as long as history lasts. The Chaplain came up the next day. 1915 February 28 Pattons second child, Ruth Ellen Patton Totten, was born. The General rose, came from behind his desk with hand out-stretched and said, Chaplain, youre the most popular man in this Headquarters. Unsurprisingly, he didnt stay at his command post but roamed the field under fire, directing attacks; his tankers did well and showed plenty of fighting spirit. Patton joined the Second Armored Division at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1940. The vow of Poverty required him to give four-fifths of his then estate to the Order. . . After a vigorous debate, Bradley conceded. If the general would sign the card, it would add a personal touch that I am sure the men would like, said the chaplain. Throughout the speech (Appendix 1) General Patton emphasises certain themes (Appendices 2 and 3 . June 9 Patton and James Doolittle were honored at a parade in Los Angeles, California. Then if I make good and the T. do and the war lasts I will get the first regiment. In the glancing collision, Patton was thrown against the roof and fell forward into the glass partition behind the drivers seat. The shortest way home isthrough Berlin and Tokyo. By that I mean that the riflemanwants to shoot, the tanker wants to charge, the artillerymanto fire . Another codex which was interesting was one of the original printings of the Bible, using wood type. ), Patton also requested the help of the press corps in informing the Germans that four of his armored divisions were slashing away at them. Here he wrote much of the Knights of Malta and the rules of their order. He was zealous in his duties and got the action he sought. We are brave. I am afraid to admit it, but I do not believe that much praying is going on. He speaks and reads in script nine languages, so he is perfectly capable of translating the valuable collection of manuscripts in the library. He wrote to his wife from his hospital bed on 12 October 1918, saying, Peace looks possible, but I rather hope not for I would like to have a few more fights. General Patton Speech | 6th Armored Division | 31 May 1944 Alyosha 394 subscribers Subscribe 2.3K Share 92K views 4 years ago General George S. Patton speech to the 6th Armored. He was comforted by his unshakeable faith, a faith hehad held since childhood and that he had carefully nurtured everyday since. The Allies were really fighting three enemies, Patton told Bradleythe Germans, time, and the weather. Patton was known as "Blood & Guts" ("Our blood, his guts"), was a common gripe among his troops for his hard-driving discipline, which paid off in lower casualties and great success on the battlefield. My men dont dig foxholes. Pestilence and famine have not touched us. The reputation of our army, the future of our race, your own glory rests in your hands. Before heading tothe field hospital, he insisted that the ambulance driver take him tothe headquarters of the Thirty-fifth Division, where he began to dictatea report on the situation at the battle front. The shortest way home isthrough Berlin and Tokyo. The General Patton I saw there was the Army Commander to whom the welfare of the men under him was a matter of personal responsibility. The inexperienced American armys first major encounter with the Germans resulted in a resounding defeat at the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia. The 664th Engineer Topographical Company worked around the clock to reproduce 250,000 cards bearing the prayer for fair weather and General Pattons Christmas greeting. These rains are that margin that holds defeat or victory. Patton next prepared for the breakthrough to the River Rhine, a formidable natural obstacle to the invasion of Germany by the Allies. In many ways Patton and Eisenhower were strikingly different. He attended the West Point Military Academy but along with his friend, Courtney Hodges, was forced to leave after a year because of poor test results. It can be argued that he was one of the proudest Americans to ever live. He was laid next to a Third Army soldier who had been killed in combat during the Battle of the Bulge. Though he had been sidelined from the invasion, he played an important role in it by his absence. October 2 Patton was relieved for statements made to the press about former Nazi Party members. Beatrice flew to her husbands side after ordering that her children remain at home. . A man prays to God for assistance in circumstances that he cannot foresee or control. General Patton is best known for leadingtheU.S. Third ArmyinFrance and Germany in the wake of the Alliedinvasion of Normandyin June 1944. Therewas his grandfather Colonel George Patton, killed at Winchester inthe Civil War; and Colonel Waller Tazewell Patton, who died fromwounds received at Gettysburg. Many of his associates, including Eisenhower, felt that "Old Blood and Guts" showed increasing signs of mental imbalance. 'Old Blood and Guts', General Patton. Of the hundred andfifty soldiers, only six followed him, one of whom was his orderly,Private Joseph Angelo. The World War II general commanded the US 7th Army in its invasion of Sicily and the 3rd Army . War is a bloody business, a killing business. Alden Hatch's biography traces Patton's life from his California childhood to his accidental death in Germany shortly after the end of World War II. December 21 Patton passed away from pulmonary embolism as the result of an automobile accident. Confident in his own religious convictions and his knowledge of the Bible, Patton did not hesitate publicly to contradict a chaplains sermon, as this diary entry for Armistice Day, 1943, reveals: We went to a Memorial Service at the cemetery at 1100. It struck me as an anomaly that, during my entire visit to Jerusalem, I was guarded by four secret service men, and the oddest part of it was that, when I entered the Tomb, the secret service men came in with me. They were actually in the heart of England itself. It is here that he struck up a friendship with another young officer, Dwight David Eisenhower. Either He will give us good weather or the bad weather will hurt the Germans more than it does us. Patton was told that the attack could take place any time after November 5, and that aerial bombardment would be available before-hand. The Armistice came on his thirty-third birthday. We have never retreated; we have suffered no defeats, no famine, no epidemics. . August 3 Patton visited a field hospital in Sicily, Italy, and slapped Charles Kuhl for what he considered cowardice as Kuhl suffered no physical wounds. The vow of Obedience was rigidly enforced. He was dying, but he had nofear of death. The Chaplain preached a sermon on sacrifice and the usual bull, so as I put the wreath at the foot of the flagpole, I said, I consider it no sacrifice to die for my country. . Hands lifted up, said Bossuet, smash more battalions than hands that strike. Gideon of Bible fame was least in his fathers house. He ranked Bradley and Army Air Force GeneralCarl Spaatz atnumber one, with Walter Bedell Smith number two. We disregard the lessons of HistoryThe red fate of Carthage; the Rome of shame under the Praetorian guardand we go on regardless of the VITAL necessity of trained patriotismHIRING an army . . . Death, in time, comes to allmen. 157 Copy quote I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom. July 24 Patton served as Commanding Officer, 5th Cavalry, Fort Clark, Texas. So Patton sat down at his desk, signed the card, and returned it to ONeill. Patton's Speech to the Third Army was a series of speeches given by General George S. Patton to troops of the United States Third Army in 1944, prior to the Allied invasion of France. I am sure we will have great success. Patton personally oversaw the logistics of the tanks in their first combat use by American forces. In my mind we came here to thank God that men like these have lived rather than to regret that they have died.. . The crossguard and the shape of the blade were correct. . George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 - December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Look at the weather. But it was mostly over their love of tanks. December 8 Patton calls Chaplain James H. ONeill and asks if he has a good prayer for weather., December 1214 Prayer cards are distributed to Pattons troops, asking, Grant us fair weather for battle.. At the end of 1943, while Pattons commanders were deciding his fate, the allied leadersRoosevelt, Churchill, and Stalinmet in Tehran to discuss strategy for defeating Germany and plans for the postwar world. She, though Patton paid scant attention to this, came from a wealthy family. As one soldierrecalled: I am positive the Patton image was born on the first day hespoke in that bowl. I told them the attack would go on. That chance came at Saint Mihiel on 12 September 1918. Americans love to fight, traditionally. Two weeks later, one of the most severe storms ever to strike Normandy sank or disabled a number of Allied ships and wiped out the American Mulberry artificial harbor off Omaha Beach. If we die killing, well and good, but if we fight hard enough, viciously enough, we will kill and live. . An enemy machine gun bullethad torn through his body, entering his groin and exiting his buttocks,ripping open a wound the size of a teacup. Heblinked, then squinted his eyes, but the faces remained. How did General Patton die? . . In the hospital, Pattons mood alternated between profanity-laced anger and black humor. He purposely cultivated what he called his "war face." He was aware that his men were watching him constantly, and he strived to lead by his words as much as he did by his actions. By constant study General Pershing knew to the minutest detail each of the subjects in which he demanded practice, and by physical presence and personal example and explanation, insured himself that they were correctly carried out.6, Patton followed Pershing to France as his aide. The Third Army has no roster of Retreats. We have no intention to reduce our vast striking force. From here we went to the place where the Cross had stood. We are advancing constantlyand we are not interested in holding onto anything except the enemys balls! Who is with me? he yelled. All real . A man has to have intake as well. Making the situation even more painful, it was the practice in the U.S. Army to reduce returning officers to the rank they held before the war. He personally led a troop of tanks into Germany lines near the town of Cheppy. France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia bear witness to your exploits. Thebilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for theSaturday Evening Post dont know any more about realfighting under fire than they know about f***ing! Some men are cowards but theyfight the same as the brave men or they get the hellslammed out of them watching other men fight who arejust as scared as they are. Suddenly desperation and fear stripped away Pattonsveneer of bravado, and he began to shake with terror. Some officers found his use of obscenities in the speech disappointing, viewing it as unprofessional conduct. The leadership had no interest in making room for a new weapon in the shrunken army. . Patton's speeches typically included humor, almost always profane and often self-deprecatory: I do not know of a better way to die than to be facing the enemy. In proudly contemplating our achievements, let us never forget our heroic dead whose graves mark the course of our victorious advances, nor our wounded whose sacrifices aided so much in our success. It is time for another Patton to die, he saidaloud. General Pattons religious beliefs, like the man himself, were unique and defy easy characterization. Im sure you can make your point in that time. The following Sunday Patton sat in the front pew. . living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. He stood up, grabbed his walking stick, and turned to the soldiersbehind him. Patton read it and directed that it be circulated without change to all of the Third Armys 486 chaplains, as well as to every organization commander down to and including the regimental level. On or about the fourteenth of December, 1944, General Patton called Chaplain ONeill, Third Army Chaplain, and myself into his office in Third Headquarters at Nancy. Pattons communication was not limited to his speeches; he alsoprojected strength in his demeanor and in his dress. She also read to him from John Bunyans Christian allegory, The Pilgrims Progress. It was soon knownas the Patton Bowl. The earliest versions of his soon-to-be-famousblood and guts speeches were delivered there. But General Patton could not control the weather, which affected weapons, aircraft, and the movement of troops. Uncertain of the role, if any, he might play in the coming invasion of Europe, Patton took a sightseeing trip to the Holy Land and Malta. I want to talk to you about this business of prayer. Patton rubbed his face in his hands, sat silently for a moment, then rose up and walked to the high window of the office where he stood with his back to ONeill, watching the falling rain. . 1928 October 6 Pattons mother, Ruth Wilson Patton, died. He then commanding the U.S. tank school in France before being wounded while leading tanks into combat near the end of the war. Famed World War Two general George S. Patton commanded theU.S. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stayalive. George Campbell Scott, portraying Patton, standing in front of an immensely huge American flag, delivers his version of Patton's "Speech to the Third Army" on June 5th, 1944, the eve of the Allied invasion of France, code-named "Overlord". Thirty years from now, when youare sitting around the fireside with your grandson onyour knee and he asks what you did in the great WorldWar II, you wont have to say, I shoveled shit in Louisiana.. 1912 June 14 Patton sailed for Europe to participate in the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. General Patton knew his entrance into German-occupied territory was of monumental historical importance. At 1900, Eddy and Grow came to the house to beg me to call off the attack due to the bad weather, heavy rains, and swollen rivers. . I wouldnt give a hoot in hell for aman who lost and laughed. It was useless to try to move from the relative safety ofthe small hollow blown in the earth. November 14 Discharged from the hospital, sick in quarters. Remember that these enemies, whom we shall have the honor to destroy, are good soldiers and stark fighters. George S. Patton. Between the bursts ofmachine gun fire Patton could hear the excited conversations of Germansoldiers who had just taken up a position in a trench a mere fortyyards away. He lost more men to cold, famine, and disease than to Russian bullets. Americans will not tolerate aloser. I should think the distance is less than half a mile. This is a helluva way to die, General Patton told Gay. The Allied war effort was virtually shut down for five days. Patton was thirty-two years old. He sought topresent the striking image of a leader, an image that demanded attention and inspired his troops by its swagger. Even in the heat of combat he could take time out to direct new methods to prevent trench feet, to see to it that dry socks went forward daily with the rations to troops on the line, to kneel in the mud administering morphine and caring for a wounded soldier until the ambulance came. One month after the disaster at Kasserine Pass, Patton led the American army at the battle of Gafsa and El Guettar. We are better-equipped, bet-ter fed, and in the place of his blood-gutted Woten, we have with us the God of our fathers known of old. By Tim Shipman in . His new commander in the Tank Corps, as of December 1917, would be Colonel Samuel D. Rockenbach, a VMI graduate with an aristocratic wife, a taskmasterly way with subordinates, and the massive responsibility of creating the Tank Corps from scratch, including acquiring tanks from the French and the British. He saw action in the Pancho Villa Expedition of 1916 and served with American forces in the First World War, notably at the tank . 1911 March 19 Pattons first child, Beatrice Ayer, was born. When he reached the other side of the river, Patton pretended to stumble, imitating William the Conqueror, who famously fell on his face when landing in England but transformed the bad omen into a propitious one by leaping to his feet with a handful of English soil, claiming it portended his complete possession of the country. Urge all of your men to pray, not alone in church, but everywhere. July 26 Patton served as Commanding Officer, 2d Armored Brigade of 2d Armored Division, Fort Benning. . When the war ended, Patton said, 'You don't know what Hell looks like from the top, but that's what Germany looks like'. There is something in every soldier that goes deeper than thinking or workingits his guts. It is something that he has built in there: it is a world of truth and power that is higher than himself. Foxholesonly slow up an offensive. . At eleven oclock on the morning of December 8, General Patton telephoned the head chaplain, Monsignor James H. ONeill: This is General Patton; do you have a good prayer for weather? . December 16 Germany launched offensive in the Ardennes known as the Battle of the Bulge. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get thebastards who started it. . July 1 Patton was promoted to the permanent rank of major. July 6 Patton secretly flew into Normandy, France, while the Germans still believed he would lead the main invading force at Pas de Calais. A heavy ivory-handled revolver rested in a shoulder holsterdraped under his left arm. Patton of the brisk, purposeful stride. In 1941, on the day the menof the Second Armored Division completed their orientation at FortBenning, Patton appeared wearing a new uniform, which, characteristically,he had designed himself. . The American public embraced a pacifism inspired by a vision of the future in which war was a relic of the barbaric past. We reached Cairo just at dark, having completed in one day the trip which took the Children of Israel forty years to accomplish. His disarming smile charmed everyone who met him. The conversation went something like this: General Patton: Chaplain, I want you to publish a prayer for good weather. . We had about 486 chaplains in the Third Army at that time, representing 32 denominations. . November 21 Journalist Drew Pearson publicized George Pattons slapping incident of Aug 3, 1943. An armored division is the most powerful organizationever devised by the mind of men . . My men dont dig foxholes. The way profanity was used Rugged Brave Unique Inspiring Determined Speech to the 3rd Army Quotes: "We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-b******s, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use It gives you a thrill and my eyes filled with tears . One account of what happened after Pattons telephone call to ONeill is related by Colonel Paul Harkins, Pattons deputy chief of staff. General Patton : A Soldier's Life (2002) by Stanley P. Hirshson, . In this eviscerated post-war army, trying to build support for the tank proved an impossible task. Whenat last the men got five tanks across the breach, Patton exhorted themto advance again, yelling and cursing and waving his walking stick. Pattons army was victorious at El Guettar, and the Germans learned that the United States Army, led by its new commander, was no longer to be taken lightly. Even if you arehit, you can still fight back. When Patton Enlisted the Entire Third Army to Pray for Fair Weather, How Did Patton Die? I do not believe that much praying is going on his dress flew to her husbands after. In earnest, fighting in the French Army it was useless to try move. 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