Merry Andrew wrote:I think, Set, that Patton was a victim of the Peter Principle and had already been promoted to a post above his abilities when he was named to command the 3rd Army. He was a brilliant tactitian, a voracious reader and highly imaginative (he wrote poetry for his own amusement). As commander of the 2nd (?) Armored Division in North Africa, he did outstanding work in opposition to Field Marshal Rommel (whom he admired). However, I believe that any command above Corps level required way too much teamwork, diplomacy and politicking to be suitable to ol' "Blood & Guts." He despised Field Marshal Montgomery (quite rightly, I might add). (emphasis added)
He commanded the Second Armored division, then the First Armored Corps--but the latter organization was scrapped after the near disaster of Rommel's attack at Kasserine Pass. He then commaned II Corps, and drove the Germans back into Tunisia (which Rommel is alleged to have acidly described as the largest self-supporting prisoner of war camp in history). Patton's armored troops had been taught self-reliance, and he fully inculcated the Frederician notion of initiative at all levels being encouraged into his officers. He is quoted as telling a junior officer who was willing, but expressed doubts about his ability to command a reconaissance force: "Just drive down that road, until you get blown up." In
The Rommel Papers, edited by Rommel's widow and B. H. Liddel-Hart, Rommel complains that his own officers lacked initiative and were too cautious (stopping just short of blaming the climate created by OKH), and praised the American junior officers for seizing local initiative and fighting hard, even in retreat.
Given Seventh Army for the invasion of Scicily, he sailed to the invasion beaches in a troop transport, sneering at Montgomery for taking "an ocean liner cruise." When he could not get what he wanted in the way of coherent reports as to why his troops were not advancing inland, he ordered up an assault boat, and then is reputed (perhaps apocryphally, but in character) to have asked: "Which son of a bitch is running this boat? You, take this thing in there and put me on dry land." Going ashore, he learned that German armored units (the Hermann Goering "Airborne" Panzer Division) had stopped his troops, so he joined the Rangers, and lead them in an assault on the lead reconaissance units of the Germans, and when the armored columns paused, he called on the Navy to plaster the road intersections. Montgomery slammed head-on into the German defenders, and slugged his way through mountain passes to Messina. He arrived to find his nemesis, Patton, in possession of the city. Patton had driven northwest and then east, along coastal roads, with a fast column racing north through the center of the island. When faced with a strong point, Patton would send units along the coast in landing craft to get behind the Germans. He covered three times the distance Montgomery had in three days less time.
Then he slapped the soldier in the hospital. Told to apologize, he made public spectacle of it, and after haranguing the assembled doctors, nurses and patients for nearly an hour with his brand of American patriotism, grudgingly offered an apology. He was out of a job for a long time, and Omar Bradley, who had been his subordinate, was passed over him for command of the Army Group. Just before and during the Normandy landings, Patton was given teams of jeeps and radio operators who ostentaciously drove around the countryside using sloppy radio techniques to help convince the Germans that the real target of the invasion was the Pas de Calais--the most heavily defended area on the planet at that time. This is what Hitler wanted to believe, more proof, if any were needed, that Hitler was no kind of military thinker. Finally given Third Army and unleashed, Patton lost no opportunity to lambaste Montgomery. Informed of Montgomery's Market-Garden operation (which proved to be a costly disaster), he is reputed to have said: "Monty is preparing to fall upon the wiley Hun like a ferocious rabbit."
When the German surprise offensive erupted in the Ardennes in what became known as the battle of the Bulge, Patton disengaged from a very active front (he did not consider winter a good reason for a modern army to slow down), and moved three divisions across his rear to slam into the weak lines behind the main German thrust and relieve Bastogne and the 101st Airborne Division. He then proposed that his divisions be relieved, so that they could strike at the juncture of the new German line and their previous position, so as to "bag" them. Montgomery threw another of his fits, and Eisenhower gave him command of the counter-offensive. In his typical style, or lack thereof, Montgomery hit the Germans head on, and drove them back, mile upon painful mile, to the German border. That entire counter offensive is one of the most nightmarish and unreported operations of the war. Montgomery had a detailed plan on a map, complete with day-by-day objectives, and "phase lines." Patton refused to allow his units to be committed to Monty's command, and received permission to return to his previous operations. Matthew Ridgeway, in command of the Airborne Corps, complained bitterly that his regiments would break through German positions, and push on past them, compromising the entire German line, and then be withdrawn to one of Montgomery's "idiotic phase lines" (his term).
I can think of few officer less qualified to hold high command in that war than Bernard Law Montgomery, unless it would be George S. Patton.
And.......he enabled George C. Scott to win an oscar!