“I’m not supposed to be commanding this Army, I’m not supposed even to be in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddam Germans. I want them to look up and howl, ‘ACH, IT’S THE GODDAM THIRD ARMY AND THAT SONOF-A-BITCH PATTON AGAIN!’”
“I GUESS EVERY ONE will be surprised when the Day comes” Patton wrote Beatrice. “Of course I wish we were at it now. This waiting is hard on the nerves. I must go and exercise.”
There was much more to do than exercise and wait.
He had every sort of airplane fly over all his troops so they could better identify Allied and Axis aircraft.
He attended the demonstration arranged by Walker to illustrate the combined use of infantry and tanks. At the rehearsal Patton was dissatisfied.
The infantry advanced by rushes when defilated and failed to use their weapons. I called the officers together and explained errors to them . . .
In the second rehearsal. . . the support and reserve were so far back as to be wholly useless. The tanks did better but the officers and non-coms of the infantry just went along as members of the chorus and gave no orders. It was very sad.
When the tanks jumped off on the second objective, the infantry were slow [in] following. The occupation of the position was poor, and the employment of anti-tank guns awful.
I again assembled the officers and gave them hell. I hope they improve . . .
After dinner we had a very good conversation and I read them [18 armored officers, most of them generals] the draft of the paper I am writing on armored divisions and asked for comments. I got very few, as none of them know anything about armored divisions. Furthermore, very few officers ever project what they do in training into battle, which is a very sad commentary on our system.
The following day was the real demonstration.
We had all the regimental and battalion commanders of infantry and the separate tank battalion commanders of the [Third] Army assembled. The demonstration was a great success except that this time the reserve company was too close.
I was delighted and feel that I have at last illustrated the use of marching fire and of tanks and infantry.
It strikes me as a sad reflection on our state of preparation for war that I had to personally conduct and drive the rehearsals, but so it is. On the other hand it was depressing to realize that had I not personally practically commanded the [demonstration] battalion on the second rehearsal, the thing would not have come off. Our officers do not realize the necessity of utilizing all the means at hand, all weapons, to accomplish victory.
Diary, May 12
Eisenhower had a lunch at the Officers Club at Widewing to commemorate the African campaign. As many as possible of the British and American participants in that campaign were present . . . 32 in all. Ike made an excellent speech . . .
Ike asked me to come in for a chat. We had a very pleasant few minutes together. No lecture at all.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, May 13, 1944
I have got a lot of things done and feel very satisfied with the results as a whole.
Diary, May 15
All the senior commanders and their chiefs of staff assembled at St. Paul’s School for the final briefing for the attack. The King, the Prime Minister, and Field Marshal Smuts [of South Africa] were also present.
General Eisenhower started with a short talk emphasizing the fact that any existing disagreements between the Air, the Navy, and the Ground must be ironed out today.
Then Admiral Ramsey . . . told how difficult it was going to be to get troops ashore.
Air Marshal Leigh-Mallory followed, telling what the Air Force had done.
Then the Chief of the British Bomber Command [Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris] spoke and made what I considered very ill-timed arguments in favor of bombardment instead of attack [invasion].
Bradley and Spaatz made short and good speeches.
The King said a few words, but it was rather painful to watch the efforts he made not to stammer.
At lunch I sat opposite Mr. Churchill who asked me whether I remembered him, and when I said I did, he immediately ordered me a glass of whiskey.
After lunch there were more talks. Admiral Kirk [senior American naval commander] made a weak, stilted one, and the British opposite number made a fine fighting talk. Smuts talked a lot, but repeated himself and was not impressive. Finally the Prime Minister made a really great fighting speech, worth all that preceded it. He took a crack at overstressing Civil Government, and said that his views would hurt the feelings of his dear friend, General de Gaulle. Also that we were worrying too much about governing France before capturing it. It was a very fine fighting speech, and I intend to write him a letter about it.
It was odd that Patton made no comment on Montgomery’s presentation.
Diary, May 17
Made a talk . . . As in all my talks, I stressed fighting and killing.
It was probably about this time, a month or so before the invasion, that he began to give his famous speech to the troops. Since he spoke extemporaneously, there were several versions. But if the words were always somewhat different, the message was always the same: the necessity to fight, the necessity to kill the enemy viciously, the necessity for everyone, no matter what his job, to do his duty. The officers were usually uncomfortable with the profanity he used. The enlisted men loved it.
Men, this stuff some sources sling around about America wanting to stay out of the war and not wanting to fight is a lot of baloney! Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. America loves a winner. America will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise a coward, Americans play to win. That’s why America has never lost and never will lose a war.
You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you, right here today, would be killed in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all of us. And every man is scared in his first action. If he says he’s not, he’s a Goddam liar. Some men are cowards, yes, but they fight just the same, or get the hell slammed out of them. The real hero is the man who fights even though he’s scared. Some get over their fright in a minute, under fire, others take an hour, for some it takes days, but a real man will never let the fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty, to his country and to his manhood.
All through your Army careers, you’ve been bitching about what you call “chicken-shit drill.” That, like everything else in the Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is Instant Obedience to Orders and to create and maintain Constant Alertness! This must be bred into every soldier. A man must be alert all the time if he expects to stay alive. If not, some German son-of-a-bitch will sneak up behind him with a sock full o’ shit! There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily, all because ONE man went to sleep on his job . . .but they are German graves, because WE caught the bastards asleep! An Army is a team, lives, sleeps, fights, and eats as a team. This individual hero stuff is a lot of horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!
Every single man in the Army plays a vital role. Every man has his job to do and must do it. What if every truck driver decided that he didn’t like the whine of a shell overhead, turned yellow and jumped headlong into a ditch? What if every man thought, “They won’t miss me, just one in millions?” Where in Hell would we be now? Where would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be? No, thank God, Americans don’t think like that. Every man does his job, serves the whole. Ordnance men supply and maintain the guns and vast machinery of this war, to keep us rolling. Quartermasters bring up clothes and food, for where we’re going there isn’t a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the guy who boils the water to keep us from getting the G.I. shits!
Remember, men, you don’t know I’m here. No mention of that is to be made in any letters. The USA is supposed to be wondering what the Hell has happened to me. I’m not supposed to be commanding this Army, I’m not supposed even to be in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddam Germans. I want them to look up and howl, “ACH, IT’S THE GODDAM THIRD ARMY AND THAT SON-OF-A-BITCH PATTON AGAIN!”
We want to get this thing over and get the hell out of here, and get at those purple-pissin’ Japs! ! ! The shortest road home is through Berlin and Tokyo! We’ll win this war, but we’ll win it only by showing the enemy we have more guts than they have or ever will have!
There’s one great thing you men can say when it’s all over and you’re home once more. You can thank God that twenty years from now, when you’re sitting around the fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the war, you won’t have to shift him to the other knee, cough, and say, “I shoveled shit in Louisiana.”
Letter, GSP, Jr., to son George, May 19, 1944
Men are never beaten by any thing but their own souls when the latter curl up ...
Before I went to Sicaly I marked on my map the places I thought I would have battles and I was 100% right —I just got through marking a map of Europe to day. I hope I come out as well both in winning and picking – I am sure I will.
I am very proud of you.
Diary, May 18
The only worry I have about this show is how I am going to get the Army across [the Channel] and assembled on the other side. For the fighting I have no worry.
On May 20, Patton issued his fifth letter of instructions to all corps and division commanders:
Haste and speed were “not synonymous.”
Hasty attacks did not “produce speedy successes or speedy advances because hasty attacks are not coordinated attacks.”
When tanks advanced against the enemy, “they must use their guns for what is known as reconnaissance by fire; that is, they must shoot at any terrestrial objective behind which an anti-tank gun might be concealed.”
“The quickest way to get to heaven is to advance across open ground swept by effective enemy anti-tank fire”
Great and calculated risks were necessary when using armor, “but we must not dive off the deep end without first determining whether the swimming pool is full of water.”
A unit “must never halt because some other unit is stuck. If you push on, you will release the pressure on the adjacent unit, and it will accompany you.”
Troops were “never defeated by casualties but by lack of resolution – of guts. Battles are won by a few brave men who refuse to fear and who push on. It should be our ambition to be members of this heroic group. More casualties occur among those who halt or go to the rear than among those who advance and advance firing. Finally, all of us must have a desperate desire and determination to close with the enemy and destroy him.”
There was “a ridiculous and wide-spread fear among all our troops that they will run out of ammunition . . . In my experience this has never happened.”
In this Letter, as in those preceding it, I am not laying down inflexible rules. I am simply giving you my ideas. I must and I do trust to your military experience, courage, and loyalty to make these ideas tangible. There are many ways of fighting, all of which are good if they are successful . . .
It is the duty of all commanders to see that their men are fully aware of the many vile deeds perpetrated upon civilization by Germans, and that they attack with the utmost determination, ferocity, and hate.
I am sure that every man will do his duty, and I am therefore sure that victory is simply a question of when we find the enemy.
Diary, May 22
I memorized the map for quite a while and can almost draw it from memory now.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, May 22, 1944
Every morning I think that I have nothing to do and then around six in the evening I find I have been so busy I have not written you...
I will even up with some people if I live and if I die my spirit will get them. I still believe in fate and I have been pretty well tempered in the fires of adversity – I probably needed it ...
Anger is the thing that saves souls all right, that with imagination and a sense of honor are needed and are very rare.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, May 24,
My Public Relations officer . . . just came and I told him I did not want publicity except from the Germans and he was to see that I did not get it.
If I hit the Huns as hard as I hope to, they will tell the world.
Things are all so buttoned up and quiet that I realy find time hanging heavily on my hands . . .
We are still so secret that we cant sew our shoulder patches on ...
There is a great vogue here for generals to send each other signed pictures. I have a most touching one from Beedle signed April 28, of all days [the height of the Knutsford incident]. It reminds me of the pink tree that grows in the Virginia woods [the Judas tree].
Diary, May 25
Just read in the Daily Mail that the Senate Military Affairs Committee has tabled my promotion. I hope they let the others through. If I get no more out of this war but a permanent Major Generalcy, I will be a failure.
On May 29, a week before the invasion, Patton had his corps commanders – Middleton, Haislip, Walker, and Cook – and their chiefs of staff, as well as Weyland, Gaffey, and Gay, to dinner. It was a family get-together, designed to promote good feeling among them, unity, solidarity, and team spirit. He noted that all were southerners. “After dinner we had quite an informal talk.” He enlarged upon the policies and principles he had set out in his letters of instruction, but “The only point I tried to stress was that, in case of doubt, follow the old Confederate maxim of ‘Marching to the sound of guns.’ “
His classmate William H. Simpson, who commanded the Ninth Army, came for a visit. He brought his chief of staff with him.
We gave them the short briefing [on the projected invasion], and as Colonel Maddox was absent, I took the G–3 part on myself. I did this with malice aforethought because I know that Simpson trusts too much to his staff and does not know what is going on, so I thought it was a good idea for him to see what I did. It had the desired result. He was quite impressed by the fact that I could also be my own G–3 – of course, I always am.
Diary, June 1
Bradley went over all his final plans with me /this morning. He is much more cheerful than he was, and if everything moves as planned, there will be nothing left for me to do. Naturally, I hope something turns up.
Since Montgomery had invited the four Army commanders to spend the night with him,
Bradley and I left at 1530 and flew to Portsmouth to see General Montgomery who lives at Southwick. Montgomery, Bradley, and I had tea, and then we went to his office, and without the aid of any staff officers, went over the plans.
Montgomery was especially interested in the operations of the Third Army, and it was very fortunate that, two nights ago, I had rehearsed the whole thing for Simpson, so I was very fluent.
He said twice to Bradley, “Patton should take over for the Brittany, and possibly for the Rennes operation.”
This would actually happen.
After supper Dempsey and Crerar arrived.
The official meeting of the four Army commanders, and De Guin-gand, Montgomery’s chief of staff, took place at this time.
General Dempsey had the corps in Sicily which failed to take Catania. He is not very impressive looking, and I take him to be a yes-man. The Canadian is better, but not impressive. De Guingand is very clever but is extremely nervous and continuously twists his long, black oily hair into little pigtails about the size of a match. Montgomery was very anxious to get the exact location of all command posts on D Day, and also the succession of command down to, and including, the third generation ...
During our first conversation with General Montgomery, he called someone in London on the telephone – I think it was General Ismay [Churchill’s military secretary] – and told him to dissuade the Prime Minister from visiting him on Sunday. Referring to this conversation, he said, “If Winnie comes, he’ll not only be a great bore but also may well attract undue attention here. Why in hell doesn’t he go and smoke his cigar at Dover Castle and be seen with the Lord Mayor? It would fix the Germans’ attention to Calais.”
At dinner General Montgomery produced a betting book and asked me whether or not England would be at war again in ten years after the close of the present war. He bet she would not, therefore, to be a sport, I had to bet she would. Also his Quartermaster offered to bet me $40.00 that an American horse would not win the next Grand National. In order to stick up for my country, I had to risk the $40.00...
When the port was passed, General Montgomery toasted the four Army commanders. Nobody did anything about it, so I said, “As the oldest Army commander present, I would like to propose a toast to the health of General Montgomery and express our satisfaction in serving under him.” The lightning did not strike me [for the lie].
After dinner we gambled in a simple way. At first I won too much but finally succeeded in finishing a slight loser. I have a better impression of Monty than I had.
Diary, June 2
At breakfast told Monty goodbye. He said, “I had a good time and now we understand each other.”
That evening Bradley’s First U.S. Army command post opened aboard the U.S.S. Augusta.
Diary, June 3
We have to provide 2,000 men for prisoner of war escort. Apparently Lee and Company were caught wholly flat-footed.
Diary, June 4
All of us went to church. I am awfully restless and wish I were leading the assault.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, June 4, 1944
Don’t get excited when the whistle blows. I am not in the opening kick off.
Diary, June 5
Today might be D Day . . . but no news . . . I called Hughes and asked him to get off a radio of congratulations to Alexander, Keyes, and Clark on their success in Italy.
They had captured Rome.
Eisenhower postponed the invasion one day because of bad weather.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to son George, June 6, 1944
At 0700 this morning the BBC announced that the German radio had just come out with an announcement of the landing . . .
This group of unconquerable heroes whom I command are not in yet but we will be soon – I wish I was there now as it is a lovley sunny day for a battle, and I am fed up with just sitting.
I have no immediate idea of being killed but one can never tell and none of us can live for ever so if I should go, dont worry but set your self to do better than I have.
All men are timid on entering any fight. Whether it is the first fight or the last fight, all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood. You will never do that because of your blood lines on both sides . . .
There are apparently two types of successful soldiers. Those who get on by being unobtrusive and those who get on by being obtrusive. I am of the latter type and seem to be rare and unpopular; but it is my method. One has to choose a system and stick to it. People who are not them selves are nobody.
To be a successful soldier, you must know history. Read it objectively . . . You must read biography and especially autobiography . . .
In Sicily I decided as a result of my information, observations, and a sixth sense that I have that the enemy did not have another large scale attack in his system. I bet my shirt on that and I was right . . .
What success I have had results from the fact that I have always been certain that my military reactions were correct. Many people do not agree with me; they are wrong. The unerring jury of history written long after both of us are dead will prove me correct . . .
The intensity of your desire to acquire any special ability depends on character, on ambition. I think that your decision to study this summer instead of enjoying your self shows that you have character and ambition – they are wonderful possessions.
Soldiers, all men in fact, are natural hero worshipers. Officers with a flare for command realize this and emphasize in their conduct, dress, and deportment the qualities they seek to produce in their men . . .
The troops I have commanded have always been well dressed, been smart saluters, been prompt and bold in action because I have personally set the example . . . The influence one man can have on thousands is a never ending source of wonder to me . . .
Well this has been quite a sermon but dont get the idea that it is my swan song, because it is not. I have not finished my job yet.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, June 6, 1944
Ike broadcast to occupied Europe and did it well.
None of the troops of this Army are in yet and in fact I doubt if the enemy knows of its existence. We will try to give him quite a surprise . . .
I can’t tell when I will go in . . . However I have had my bag packed for some time just in case.
It is Hell to be on the side lines and see all the glory eluding me, but I guess there will be enough for all . . .
I guess I will read the Bible.