CHAPTER 21
The Terrible Wait
“I know I am needed!”
MEETING AT CAIRO and at Teheran in November to coordinate their global strategy and postwar policies, the Allied leaders, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, reached a number o£ agreements and fixed the final effort against Germany. There would be a cross-Channel invasion of northwestern Europe in the spring of 1944 and a supporting and subsidiary invasion of southern France, named Anvil, later Dragoon. Operations in France were to be the main endeavor of the Western Allies, and the campaign in Italy was to sink to secondary importance after the capture of Rome.
Patton knew vaguely that the high-level conference was in session, and he hoped that the decisions reached there might “eventuate in some action” for him.
The President and his party visited Sicily, and everyone “was most afable to me.” Eisenhower “was very nice also, and said he felt sure I would soon get orders to go to UK and command an Army.”
“This waiting,” he wrote Beatrice, “reminds me of fishing. One always hopes for a bite but not by a shark.”
He thought about “my idea” for Italy – “I feel that with our air and navy superiority we can drive the Germans completely from that country, provided we have sufficient naval lift to move one reinforced regiment” in an amphibious end run.
This was the embryonic idea for the Anzio landings, which Eisenhower, Alexander, and Clark were considering. The German defenses across southern Italy, called the Gustav Line, were firmly anchored on mountainous terrain and extremely difficult to penetrate. The positions around Cassino were particularly strong, for they blocked the entrance to the Liri valley, which seemed, especially to Alexander, to be the best corridor for an advance to Rome. If the Allies could send an amphibious force on a seaborne hook or end run, they would go around the Gustav Line and thereby avoid the heavy fighting required to smash through the mountains. A descent in the German rear, say at Anzio, would compel the Germans to react to that threat behind their main front. They might have to release their firm hold on the Gustav Line, thereby give the Allies a better chance to break through, and make possible a quick drive to Rome.
This was the same concept that had motivated Patton in his march to Messina.
Unfortunately, even though Patton thought that a single reinforced regiment might turn the trick at Anzio, it was clear that a larger force was necessary. Unfortunately too, the Allies lacked sufficient ships to lift a force in the size deemed appropriate.
This was the problem that had confronted Patton in Sicily. The difference was that the Germans were withdrawing in Sicily but holding fast on the mainland.
It would take the power of Prime Minister Churchill – who fell ill in Tunis and who recuperated in Marrakech – to marshal the resources required for Anzio. In January, enough ships had been gathered to make the venture possible. John Lucas, VI Corps commander, would head that expedition.
Letter, Lucas to GSP, Jr., December 3, 1943
I am told that you have been subjected to a scurrilous attack in the United States by some SOBs who would rather vent their personal spite against a famous soldier than help the war effort by keeping their mouths shut...
If this is true, I know it has hurt you very much and has therefore hurt me too. I cannot believe that any harm can be done you, as your reputation is too assured for that.
I thought I had this all fixed up, but it looks like I didn’t . . .
I always try to figure what you would do in my place [as VI Corps commander] but know that I fall considerably short [in my operations] of the examples you have set.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, December 4,
I am now not so sure that my luck has held in view of all the bunk that seems to have appeared in the papers about me. Also if the war ends now, I hate to be out of the last act. Of course we still have Japan and that should be a nice fight...
I can now walk three miles in 42 minutes and never seem to get any faster, though I can make a mile in twelve and a half minutes – it is a gloomy sport.
He thought that demonstrations and unrest in Sicily came “from a too quick transition from a strong central government to our milder and more democratic system.”
Patton learned on December 7 that Marshall would remain in Washington as Army Chief of Staff and that Eisenhower would go to the United Kingdom to become Supreme Allied Commander of the Overlord and later the Anvil forces. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, commander of the British Middle East Command, would succeed Eisenhower in Algiers.
What was to become of him? Patton asked Assistant Secretary of War McCloy.
McCloy went around the mulberry bush. As Patton recorded his words, McCloy said
[I] had in my makeup certain chemicals no other General had; that I was a great fighter and an inspiring leader, though probably not a Moltke, and must be used [in battle] . . . I was not to worry about what was said about me as that would hurt my efficiency. He also said that I look and act like a general and that no one else we have does . . . You have color, personality, and size. Men like to follow a man they can respect.
Then McCloy got to the point. According to Marshall, McCloy said, Patton would have an Army.
“I should have a group of armies,” Patton noted, “but that will come. I think that my luck is in again.”
Harry Hopkins took him aside and said, “Don’t let anything that s.o.b. Pearson said bother you,” because the incident was closed.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Nita, December 10, 1943
We have a very nice Episcopal minister here who holds 8:00 o’clock services in the British Church every Sunday morning. It is quite a high affair with full dress and much lighting of candels and so on but is very well done. The longer I live the more I am impressed with the fact that it is very advantageous to use a certain amount of formalism.
Your warning about the public jumping on its past heroes is apparently coming true, but . . . I am quite convinced that I will get more good out of it than harm. The American people want success and they want a fighting man, and my reputation as one who looks after soldiers is sufficiently well established to counteract any mistakes which I have made.
Further, you should remember that only half the story has been told. However, I do not want you or any other member of the family to make excuses for me or to mention anything. If I cannot stand on my record, very few people can.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, December 10, 1943
The thing for all of us to do is to do nothing and say nothing. Ike etc have been fine and so have all the others – I was unduly precipitate but . . . I picked my locality badly. But I am sure that victories still count for something ...
The weather here is cold and nasty and as we have no fires and no heat, the only thing one can do is to shiwer .. .
Send me some more pink medecin. This worry and inactivity has raised hell with my insides.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Frederick Ayer, December 10, 1943
Everybody and his brother visits Sicily and I have to feed them, so am ruining my digestion . . . I am taking very good care of myself and have found a mountain . . . where Hasdrubal defied the Romans, up which I walk three miles every day and do it in less than 45 minutes. It is a beastly bore, but healthy. I also ride in the hall, and believe it or not, drink hardly at all.
“Beadle Smith has been of great assistance,” he wrote Floyd Parks. “The more I see of him, the better I like him.”
In part to mislead the Germans on Allied intentions and in part simply because Patton wished to see Egypt and the Holy Land, he and nine members of his staff took off on January 12 for Cairo. They stayed with Wilson, who was
large, rather fat and seems stupid but is probably a good soldier. I liked him and he is more impressive than either Alex or Monty. There is a very definite effort on the part of all the staff except General Wilson, to run Monty down and to try to get me to agree with them, but needless to say, I did not commit myself. Apparently the Regular Officers of the British Army do not like Montgomery at all.
Patton found Cairo “really a disgusting place . . . The Egyptian peasant who abounds in large numbers, is distinctly lower than the Sicilian whom up until that time I had considered the bottom of the human curve” The Egyptian lower classes were “unspeakably dirty in their habits and also in their dress.”
He and his party flew to Jerusalem, following the line of Allenby’s advance in 1918. They entered the city “through the gate which Tancred stormed.” He obtained a rosary for Mary Scally and had it blessed. He believed that the sword on display at the Crusaders’ Chapel was a fake because the shape of the pommel was incorrect. The walls of the city were the best he had seen, and he judged their construction to date from around 1200.
Back in Cairo, Patton was disappointed in the pyramids, “not as big nor as impressive as those around Mexico City.” He made a talk on landing operations to all the officers, about 500, of the Middle East Command, and thought that it went well, “as contrary to the British custom, they applauded.”
General Anders, who commanded the Polish II Corps, struck Patton as
very much a man . . . He has been hit [wounded] seven times . . . He told me, laughing, that if his corps got in between a German and Russian army, they would have difficulty in deciding which they wanted to fight the most.
The highlight of the trip came on the last day, at Karnak, King Tut’s tomb, the Temple, the Palace of Rameses II.
Anyone who is interested in ruins should see all the non-Egyptian ones first because the Egyptian ones make the other ones look like nothing. In the courtyard at Karnak there is a Roman Forum which if viewed by itself would be quite impressive, but which you have to have your attention called [to] in order to see on account of its being so much overshadowed.
Although most Americans regretted Patton’s action in the slapping incident, Stimson informed him, they retained faith in Patton’s courage, skill, and character as a battle commander. “Watch your step,” Stimson cautioned, and remember that the battlefield and a hospital were hardly the same places. Patton had conducted three major operations with distinction, and Stimson expected him to have even greater success in the future.
Eisenhower wrote Marshall a long letter on December 17, to discuss the organization for the invasion. Very directly and simply he said, “I would want Patton as one of my Army commanders.”
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, December 20, 1943
I have had twenty odd letters of commendation from all sorts of people and only three nasty ones . . . I hear that by the Gallup pole I am 77 good to 19 bad, 4 uncertain.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, December 21, 1943
I have not had a very happy time. I could not sleep except with pills and would wake up groaning but that is all over.
It has been a good experience and I am a better general as a result of it . . . I have a destiny and I shall live to fulfil it ...
I appreciate your loyalty and miss your aid, but your spirit is with me. I love you.
P.S. My own people have stuck like limpits. I told them I might be on the way out and that if any of them could find a better job I would try to get it for them. Not a man budged.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, December 23, 1943
The incident will still further frighten weak commanders and will even cramp my style for a while with new troops, but I have the gift of leadership and will get them on my side as I always do.
As you say, Destiny has never backed me up nor will it, but I manage some how...
When my turn comes, as it surely will, I will have no debts to pay. When the new set up comes out [for Overlord], you will be surprised how well our relatives have done. It is realy fantastic. How long Ohl Lord, how long?...
I still work on my phonograph daily [studying French] . . .
I am very well and sleeping fine. At the moment it seems that soon I shall be doing quite a lot of plan[n]ing. I will be glad to be busy again.
In a cable to Marshall on December 23, Eisenhower laid out the shape of things to come – as he wished it. He wanted Bradley to lead the assault Army in the Normandy invasion. When another American Army was committed, “probably” under Patton, Bradley was to move up and become the Army Group commander, with Hodges or William Simpson taking Bradley’s place. Eisenhower suggested that Devers be transferred from London to Algiers as Wilson’s deputy commander and as the senior American in the Mediterranean theater. He thought that Clark, “at the appropriate time” should take charge of Anvil and turn over the Fifth Army to Lucas.
Diary, December 24
I hope the war does not abort until I have a chance to put on another show in Europe so as to be the inevitable choice for Japan.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, December 24, 1943
The cardinal sent me a blessing which clears me to date and also a fruit cake which if I eat will make me need the blessing.
Things are looking up a lot and our next party will be bigger than the last.
He had a pleasant Christmas. Several members of his staff joined him that morning, and they all opened their presents “just as we would have at home, and had a lot of fun about it.”
Diary, December 25
My men are crazy about me, and this is what makes me most angry with Drew Pearson . . . My destiny is sure and I am a fool and a coward ever to have doubted it. I don’t any more. Some people are needed to do things, and they have to be tempered by adversity as well as thrilled by success. I have had both. Now for some more success.
Patton thanked Mrs. Marshall for being so nice to Beatrice “during the trying times incident to my unfortunate lack of tact.” For Marshall’s benefit he added:
There is a mountain here . . . which has a very steep road, and by walking vigorously up this road for three miles, one can overcome the evil effects of a Christmas dinner as well as keep oneself in good shape for climbing to observation points.
I also have a very bad horse which I ride in a very dirty riding hall, but between the horse and the mountain, I have never been healthier and have repaired my girlish figure.
Marshall questioned some of Eisenhower’s recommendations and proposed certain other combinations of commanders. Replying on December 27, Eisenhower said that if Marshall wanted Devers to take part in Overlord, Eisenhower would expect Bradley to head the Army Group with Devers and Patton under him as Army commanders. If, on the other hand, Marshall saw “no place for Patton in Overlord,” perhaps Clark could take the Mediterranean theater command and relinquish the Fifth Army to Patton. Or Patton could keep the Seventh Army for the invasion of southern France while Lucas took the Fifth Army. The important consideration was to be sure to use Patton as an Army commander somewhere.
Diary, December 27
I wish to God Ike would leave and take Smith with him. They cramp my style. Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Eisenhower, December 29, 1943
I did not know of your departure until I heard of it over the radio this morning. Had I known sooner I would have given myself the pleasure of flying to Algiers to bid you a personal farewell.
I sincerely hope that you appreciate my great admiration for you, my unlimited devotion, and my deep appreciation of the many benefits I have received at your hands, and of your unwavering loyalty to me . . . This question of loyalty is the sign of a great man. It is very easy to be loyal from the bottom up. It is more difficult to be loyal from the top down. I know you are, and I strive to be ...
We all hate to lose you, but we are delighted that the effort on what is going to be the major theater is under your direction. I am sure that you will continue your ever victorious career.
By then, Marshall and Eisenhower seemed to be in complete accord. Devers would go to Algiers. Clark would eventually move to the Seventh Army and leave the Fifth to Lucas. For Overlord, Hodges would understudy Bradley and succeed him in command of an Army when Bradley took the army group. Patton would have the follow-up Army.
Yet this was far from settled. There would be additional question of the command setup.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Stimson, December 29, 1943
Naturally I have suffered a great deal, but . . . just as iron is improved by fire so the soul of man is improved by suffering. I have also learned a great deal, and . . . I shall not again offend.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, December 29, 1943
I guess I am the only one who sees glory in war ...
I always wear a helmet when I am with troops. It is my symbol . . .
The radio has just announced that Jake Devers is coming here as deputy to Maitland-Wilson. I never seem to break clean but it is a wonderful character builder and good for tact...
Ike and Tedder will be some team? I am realy sorry to loose Ike. I wrote him a fine letter...
Over 80% of the letters I have received are for me. Only one letter by a person of education is hostile. The rest are cranks and unsigned mostly.
Diary, December 31
I hope I do bigger and better fighting in 1944 ...
Destiny will keep on floating me down the stream of fate.
Eisenhower rated him “Superior” for his performance during the preceding six months and recommended that he be utilized in command of an Army. Of 24 lieutenant generals Eisenhower knew, he would grade Patton Number 5 in effectiveness. Patton was, he concluded, “outstanding as a leader of an assault force. Impulsive and almost flamboyant in manner. Should always serve under a strong but understanding commander.”
Chaplain Gerald Mygatt, compiling a “Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Prayer Book,” asked Patton to write a prayer. Patton set out “those things for which I ask Divine assistance.”
GSP, Jr., A Soldier’s Prayer
God of our Fathers, who by land and sea has ever led us on to victory, please continue Your inspiring guidance in this the greatest of our conflicts.
Strengthen my soul so that the weakening instinct of self-preservation, which besets all of us in battle, shall not blind me to my duty to my own manhood, to the glory of my calling, and to my responsibility to my fellow soldiers.
Grant to our armed forces that disciplined valor and mutual confidence which insures success in war.
Let me not mourn for the men who have died fighting, but rather let me be glad that such heroes have lived.
If it be my lot to die, let me do so with courage and honor in a manner which will bring the greatest harm to the enemy, and please, oh Lord, protect and guide those I shall leave behind.
Give us the victory, Lord.
Diary, January 1
Received an “eyes only” radio from Natousa saying that I will be relieved from command of the Seventh Army today and report to Algiers for further instructions; that the Seventh Army will plan Anvil and that when Clark thinks he should quit Italy, he will . . . be assigned to command the Seventh Army ...
I feel very badly for myself but particularly for the staff and headquarters soldiers who have stood by me all the time ...
I suppose that I am going to England to command another Army, but if I am sent there to simply train troops which I am not to command [in battle] I shall resign ...
I cannot conceive of anything more stupid than to change staffs on a General, nor can I conceive of anything more inconsiderate than not to notify him where he is going. It is just one more thing to remember when the time comes to pay my debts.
A Hell of a “Happy New Year.”
Diary, January 3
On the face of it, the thing [Anvil] looks like an attempt to save Clark from the onus of his utter failure in Italy ...
I cannot see how any normally intelligent person could inspire this fool change of staffs. It is unfair and insulting to me, but is heartbreaking for the staff of Seventh Army who have been utterly loyal, and now find that their efforts get them nowhere. It is damnable . . .
I have contemplated asking to be relieved but will stick it at least for the present...
Wellington . . . had many adversities. His staff also changed several times. Fate.
Field Marshal Lord Gort invited Patton to visit Malta, so on January 4, he, Codman, and Stiller took off. They flew over the old battlefields in Tunisia, and “hundreds of memories surged up and all were of success.” Every trace of troops had been obliterated – nothing remained of the dumps at Tebessa, the tanks, the guns, the tents, and the command posts.
Had it been possible for me to have looked over the battlefields from an airplane . . . it would have been a distinct advantage. Certainly had either myself or Eddy been up, we would not have made the mistake of attacking the wrong half of Djebel Berda . . . The gum-tree road which penetrated our position [near El Guettar] and over which I spent many anxious hours, is not anywhere as dangerous an avenue as it shows on the map, and had I been able to look at it from the air, I might have slept better ...
On the other hand, too intimate a knowledge of the terrain difficulties of the mountains might have made me less bold. In any case, El Guettar was a great school, both in regard as to what to do and what not to do, and also as a means of producing self-confidence.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, January 7, 1944
On the way [to Malta] we flew over a large Roman city not even shown on the map. It had a fine temple and a theater in an excellent state of preservation ...
We stayed in a palace built in 1620, which is a realy wonderful building wholy devoid of plumbing and cold as an ice box.
The forts used by the knights in the great siege of 1528 are different from any I have ever seen. They are pre-Vauban, but are artillery forts with walls up to 16 feet thick and very high. All built by slave labor, Saracen slaves. Roger the Great Count captured it from the Saracens in 1192 ...
I saw a cortex of 1420 on velum which was an illustrated life of St. Anthony ...
One illustration . . . showed an armorers shop with suits of armor, helmets, etc. displayed on sorts of coat hangers. The interesting thing is that armor of all types from 1000 to 1400 was on sale. This shows that we are wrong in attributing definate dates to certain sorts of harness. The librarian did not know this and was much impressed by my wisdome.
To be a knight, one had to have 16 crosses of nobility. These records are complete for all the thousands of knights from 1100 to 1792, so they provide the greatest genealogical record in the world.
I kept thinking how you would have enjoyed it. You are one of the few people sufficiently educated to appreciate it.
Diary, January 5
The knights had to vow poverty, chastity, and obedience. They only kept the last vow.
Diary, January 6
[Palermo] I called all the chiefs of sections in . . . and had Gay read the order relieving me from Seventh Army. I told them not to worry, but to be as loyal to Clark as they have been to me, and I thanked them for their loyalty and then choked up and quit.
Patton flew to Naples, then drove to the Fifth Army headquarters at Caserta.
Both Gruenther and Clark were most condescending and treated me like an undertaker treats the family of the deceased. It was rather hard to take, especially as I am certain that they pulled the wires which got me removed from Anvil, but I had to be nice as I want my men [those staying with Seventh Army and eventually coming under Clark] promoted and decorated ...
The left corner of Clark’s mouth is slightly drawn down as if he had been paralyzed. He is quite jumpy and so is Gruenther.
After visiting Truscott and Keyes, he drove to see Lucas, who was fine but
worried. He is in charge of the Shingle operation [the landings at Anzio]. He does not think he will get the Fifth Army when Clark leaves and thinks that some hometown boy from Washington will get it . . . I hope he is successful at Shingle, but I am not sure that he has sufficient drive.
The last was a perfectly perceptive remark.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, January 11, 1944
Geoff, his aid, Codman, and I climed up to a ruined tower to have a look. At the foot of the rise was a cave with its mouth headed towards the enemy and full of ammunition and sleeping artillerymen . . .
After half way [down] one of our [artillery] batteries near by cut loose so I stopped to take a picture and then started back to the road. Just then a salvo of four German shells hit. Two were in the road where we would have [been] had I not stopped to take the picture and the other hit the place we had just been standing to take the picture ...
Codman got a fragment or a rock on the helmet. Half the nose of a shell landed about nine inches from my toe but it must have already hit something as it had no force left and just spun around . . .
Mathematically I should be dead as none of the four craters was more than 30 feet from me, but I am not dead or even hurt. It gave me great self confidence. The Lord had a perfect cut for me and pulled his punch.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, January 12, 1944
My present status is so confused asto be unexplanable – it is confusion doubly compounded and no one has told me a thing. However I have had hints from Tom Handy and others that the future is O.K. My guess is that I will end up under Omar who will command the [army] group. Well I have been under worse people and I will surely win. You have no idea how much that near miss . . . cheered me up. I know I am needed!
Rabbi B. R. Brickner spent an hour with me just now and was much impressed with my prayer ...
Well some day I will know what I am to do.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Frederick Ayer, January 14, 1944
The Catholic Church has been very much on my side, as have the veterans and the war mothers. I think I could run for office on the strength of ri17 misdeeds.
I am not the first General to catch hell; Wellington had plenty of it, as did Grant, Sherman, and countless others.
I am quite worried over the reaction after the war. I have already met several quite intelligent men who say “Now we will have no more wars” . . . The avowed purpose of the treaty of Vienna in 1814 was to see that that was the last war. Around 1700 b.c, the Hitites, Cretans, and Egyptians had a tri-party treaty to avert wars, and we lerned about it in 1914. Some explorers discovered the Hitite captial and in the library discovered the bricks with the treaty on them – yet before the mud had dried, the Egyptians and Cretans had ganged up and destroyed the Hitites.
If we again think that wars are over, we will surely have another one and damned quick. “Man is WAR” and we had better remember that. Also, we had better look out for ourselves and make the rest of the world look out for themselves. If we try to feed the world, we will starve and perhaps destroy America ...
My own officers have been wonderful in their loyalty to me throughout the trouble . . . I had to loan some of them recently [to other headquarters] and they all begged me to be sure and get them back, and two of them cried. So did I.
Diary, January 15
No news of what will happen to me.
Diary, January 17
Came to office and am either coming down with some disease or else have “cafard” very badly. I simply don’t feel like doing a thing, so am going home. I do wish something would eventuate about myself.
Diary, January 18
Feel all right this morning. Sgt Meeks told me after breakfast that he heard on the radio last night that General Bradley has been made commander of all the [American] ground troops in England. I suppose that this means that he will command the American army group. I had thought that possibly I might get this command. It is another disappointment, but so far in my life all the disappointments I have had have finally worked out to my advantage, although at the time it is hard to see how they will. If I am predestined, as I feel that I am, this too will eventually be to my advantage.
Bradley is a man of great mediocrity. At Benning in command, he failed to get discipline. At Gafsa, when it looked as though the Germans might turn our right flank . . . he suggested that we withdraw corps headquarters to Feriana. I refused to move. In Sicily, when the 45th Division approached Cefalu, he halted them for fear of a possible German landing east of Termini. I had to order him to move and told him that I would be responsible for his rear, and that his timidity had lost us one day. He tried to stop the landing operation #2 east of Cap d’Orlando because he thought it was dangerous. I told him I would take the blame if it failed and that he could have the credit if it was a success. Finally, on the night of August 16-17, he asked me to call off the landing east of Milazzo for fear our troops might shoot at each other. He also failed to get word to all units of the II Corps on the second paratroop landing.
On the other hand Bradley has many of the attributes which are considered desirable in a general. He wears glasses, has a strong jaw, talks profoundly and says little, and is a shooting companion of the Chief of Staff [Marshall]. Also a loyal man. I consider him among our better generals.
I suppose that all that has happened is calculated to get my morale so that I will say “What the Hell! Stick it up your ass, and I will go home” but I won’t. I still believe [in my destiny].
Patton had no way of knowing that Devers had upset, at least temporarily, the command arrangements. Devers said he preferred to have Clark keep the Fifth Army, while Simpson, Hodges, or Middleton took the Seventh Army for Anvil.
Marshall then asked Eisenhower what he thought of keeping Patton with the Seventh for the southern France landings.
Eisenhower acknowledged on January 18 the logic of this suggestion. If Alexander and Devers wanted Clark with the Fifth Army, “then I am of the opinion that Patton would be the best man to plan and lead the Anvil affair.” Patton’s prestige, his excellent relations with the French, and his presence in the area favored this decision. On the other hand, Eisenhower had the impression that Devers and Patton were “not congenial,” although both were “sufficiently good soldiers that possible personal antagonism should not interfere with either one doing his full duty.”
What Eisenhower was doing was insuring Patton’s assignment to his command. He wanted the most experienced and hardest driving Army commander for Overlord.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, January 19, 1944
I feel very much the way I did at Rabat last winter with nothing to do and no place to do it in.
Also the news about Omar was most disconcerting but I am pretty hard to beat down ...
Sunday I felt so low that I just stayed in bed but I am all right now and just charging the batteries ...
If I did not believe in fate . . . I would tell them all to go to Hell and put the When and If in commission and sail...
[At Cerami] the filth of the town was worth the trip. Gay said he did not see how the animals could live with such dirty people . . .
I am having a bronze tablet made to put up in the British [Episcopal] Church here in memory of my late Army . . . We had to melt up a broken propellor to get the material...
Am in fine shape but rather on the thin side.
I am not dead or buried yet by a long way.
Diary, January 20
Shingle [the Anzio landings] is pretty dubious as the beaches are bad and largely unknown . . . This is always a difficult operation . . . At a rehearsal some nights ago, 40 Dukws were lost [in the sea] . . . If the thing is a success, Clark will get the credit. If it fails, Lucas will get the blame.
It seems inconceivable that the Boche will not guess that we are coming [ashore at Anzio] but he has made so many foolish mistakes that we may get ashore unopposed after all.
Which was exactly what happened.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, January 22, 1944
I have had two most interesting days ...
I have been looking for Himera, a city . . . destroyed in 405 bc by the Carthaginians. I knew where it was on the map but could see nothing of it. All that remains is the foundation of a temple built in 468 b.c. We looked at it and then went up the hills to the site of the city. There is not even a rock left. Termini was built by the survivors after they were run out of Himera ...
Flew to Castelvetrano . . . to Silonicus . . . destroyed by the Carthaginians in 405 bc . . . There are three of the largest Greek temples I have ever seen there, simply huge ...
I am still getting fan mail but it is all highly favorable . . .
I hope I am as successful in 1944 as I was in 1943 and suffer less.
On January 22, he finally received word on his future. A cable ordered him to report to the United Kingdom via Algiers. Now that it had come,
Looking back at it in retrospect to the chain of events, this sounds logical, but . . . why have they been so slow about it and why have they taken all of my staff? It makes it most difficult for my people and for me,
He was pleased to note that the VI Corps landing at Anzio, under John Lucas, “is a success and unopposed.”
The new command arrangements were finally set. Wilson replaced Eisenhower as Allied Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean theater at Algiers. Devers shifted from London to Algiers to become Wilson’s deputy at AFHQ and the senior American in the theater at the head of NATOUSA.
Montgomery moved from Italy to the United Kingdom to take command of the 21 Army Group and the British troops in Overlord. Under him, Dempsey would have the Second British Army, Crerar the First Canadian Army.
Clark was supposed to depart Italy upon the capture of Rome, expected in the following month or so. But when the Anzio landings failed to dislodge the Germans holding the Gustav Line, and when the attack on the main front – to get across the Rapido River near Cassino, to penetrate the Gustav Line, and to enter the Liri valley – failed also, the seizure of Rome receded into the distant future. Upon his request, Clark would receive permission to remain in Italy at the head of the Fifth Army.
Alexander Patch, coming from the Pacific to take command of a new corps headquarters in Italy, would be assigned to the Seventh Army in Sicily. Instead of Clark, Patch would prepare and lead the invasion of southern France. Devers would subsequently take command of the Sixth Army Group and direct Patch’s Seventh Army as well as De Lattre de Tassigny’s First French Army.
But all this still lay far ahead.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to son George, January 23, 1944
Inspite of what the papers say, I do not think that this war will end soon enough to cheat you out of some of it. Besides this is not the last war, and the prestige of being a graduate {of the Military Academy] is worth a lot. Remember Ike did not get into the last war and look where he is now.
If I were you, I would cultivate the Soup [Superintendent] and especially the Mrs. Soup. I did when I was a cadet...
If you meet the Com.fmandant] socially, do the same for him. It is even more important.
I am about to move in the morning but I will be damned if I know where to. Cadets are not the only people who don’t know everything...
Get as high a stand in math as you can before you hit the stuff you flunked on. In that way you will have further to retreat. It is just like war. In a delaying action, meet the enemy as far out as possible.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, January 23, 1944
I have just finished cleaning out my desk. This is the fourth time since I left home. I now feel much like we did when we quit Sheridan for Myer in 1911 – “Oh God how young we were,” and started into the unknown for the first time. Well, we have done it a lot of times since and have always ended up well known. I will do it again but wish I had some definate information asto where I was headed. All I know at the moment is that I leave in the morning to visit Everett and possibly get some dope .. .
By the way Beedle Smith is now a Lt. Gen. God Bless us all ...
When Nelly [Richardson] got three stars it almost took the pleasure out of mine. I just can’t see him any more than I can Pink [Bull] . . .
I am sure that the “incident” was far harder on you than on me, as I simply did the ostrich act and would neither see nor hear any evil though I did a hell of a lot of thinking.
Diary, January 25
Left Algiers at 1200 in a C-54 . . . Arrived in Marrakech . . . and went to Taylor Villa, which is run by the Air Corps for visiting strangers...
Brigadier Dunphie who Was with me in Tunisia and who was wounded the day Major Jenson was killed, happened to be in the house. I asked him why he was not wearing his Silver Star, and he told me he had never received it. I had recommended him for it on April 1, 1943, but since he went to the hospital and I left the corps shortly afterwards, the paper apparently never reached him. Colonel Codman took off his own Silver Star Ribbon, and we decorated Dunphie on the spot. I will have to see that he gets the citation when I get to England.
Left for Prestwick [Scotland] in C-54 at 2400.
The terrible time of waiting was over. There would be more waiting, but it would hardly be so terrible, for Patton had a specific job, role, and function. Additional challenges as well as additional adversities lay ahead of him. But he was moving toward his greatest adventure, his greatest success, and – he was sure of it – the fulfillment of his destiny.