George S. Patton

George S. Patton.

George Smith Patton, Jr. (11 November 1885 – 21 December 1945) was an early supporter of the importance of armored warfare and a leading U.S. Army general during World War II, in campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany.

Controversies

Dwight D. Eisenhower and others, including Patton, inspect an improvised crematory pyre at the Ohrdruf concentration camp, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, one of the Western Holocaust camps. Wikipedia displays the photo in articles such as "Nazi concentration camps" and "Holocaust denial", possibly as supposed evidence against Holocaust revisionism. Regarding this, see the article on the Western Holocaust camps.

Biscari massacre

The participants in the Biscari massacre stated that Patton had given an order that they interpreted as that certain POWs could be killed. After the massacre, Patton at first argued that the massacre should be covered-up. An investigation ultimately cleared Patton of any wrongdoing.

Chenogne massacre

Regarding the Chenogne massacre, Patton in his diary stated that "...also murdered 50 odd German med [sic]. I hope we can conceal this".

Dachau massacre

Patton has been stated to personally have destroyed documents related to the Dachau massacre and to have prevented a court-martial. See Western Holocaust camps: Allied atrocities at the Western Holocaust camps.

Death and argued assassination

Patton died in December 1945 (at the start of the International Military Tribunal), allegedly after having suffered injuries in an accidental car crash. A 2008 book presented detailed evidence for that Patton had been killed in order to silence him. One example of this evidence is a confession by the argued assassin. The argued motivations include that Patton was about expose secrets of the war that would have ruined careers, including that of the future president Dwight Eisenhower.

Statements

• "After spending some months fighting in the Mediterranean Theater, Patton "told his staff that he could not understand how the Arabs could share their hovels with animals. Arriving in Sicily, he added that he could not understand how the animals could live with Sicilians in their yards." By the end of the war Patton was expressing serious doubts about the results of the conflict. In a letter to his wife, he confessed: "Berlin gave me the blues. We have destroyed what could have been a good race and we [are] about to replace them with Mongolian savages." And in another letter, Patton admitted: "The stuff in the papers about fraternization is all wet... All that sort of writing is done by Jews to get revenge. Actually, the Germans are the only decent people left in Europe... I prefer the Germans. So do our cousins [the British]." After touring refugee camps he came to see Jews as "lower than animals.""

• „The noise against me is only the means by which the Jews and Communists are attempting and with good success to implement a further dismemberment of Germany. I think that if I resigned as I threatened to do yesterday, it would simply discredit me to no purpose ... This august lady [Fifteenth Army] ... has the job of reviewing the strategy and tactics of the war to see how the former conformed to the unit plans and how the tactics changed. Were it not for the fact that it will be, so far as I am concerned, a kick up stairs, I would like it much better than being a sort of executioner to the best race in Europe. Later when people wake up to what is going on here, I can admit why I took the job. Am I weak and a coward? Am I putting my posthumous reputation above my present honor? God how I wish I knew ... P.S. No one gives a damn how well Bavaria is run. All they are interested in now is how well it is ruined.“ – Original from Patton's letter to his wife Beatrice dated September 29, 1945, in "The Patton Papers" (1996) by Martin Blumenson, Volume 2, p. 786

External links

Encyclopedias

• Encyclopedia Britannica: George Patton
• Encyclopedia.com: George Smith Patton Jr

Argued assassination

• General George S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders claims new book
• American Pravda: Was General Patton Assassinated?
• General George S. Patton assassinated in order to silence criticisms of the Allied war leaders

Other

• Book Reviews: The War Between The Generals, Overlord: D-Day And The Battle For Normandy
• Israeli evaluation of the armies (WWI and WWII), in German