“I hate to think of leaving the Army but what is there!”
Diary, October 8
The train reached Bad Nauheim around 5.30 this morning. After breakfast General [Leven] Allen came to pick me up at 8.30 as had been arranged, and we drove at once to the office of the Fifteenth Army.
Allen gave me a good orientation [on the mission of the headquarters] . . .
I spoke to the Chiefs of the various sections telling them I proposed to make no changes for one week and that the best is the enemy of the good, by which I mean that something now will be better than perfection when it is too late to have any influence.
Mr. McDermott of the AP called, and I talked to him in the presence of General Allen and Lt. Lynch and, most of the time, Major Merle-Smith.
A stenographer took notes of the interview and recorded that Patton said:
My friend, I know nothing in a big way . . . I got here this morning . . . and at present I am completely bemused. There is an awful lot [of headquarters reports and studies] to be read [by me]. I have got to get some eyedrops. It is the most essential piece of equipment. This [assignment] is right down my alley because I have been a student of war since I was about seven years old . . .
(Off the record) I felt that perhaps I had not had quite a square deal because I believe it will be proven that Bavaria is more de-Nazi-fied and more reorganized than any section of Germany . . .
I had the same sentimental attachment to the I Armored Corps and the Seventh Army [as to the Third Army] . . .
If a man has done his best, what the hell [more] is there? I consider that I have always done my best. . . [My] conscience is clear . . .
Anyone who says there won’t be a future war is a God damned fool...
I won’t discuss American-Russian relations.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Truscott, October 8, 1945
Please let me thank you very much for your nice remarks yesterday and for all the arrangements for my departure. I sent the train back this morning.
So far, I have just got to the point of being wholly confused as to what is going on in this job.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, October 10, 1945
This is very much like . . . the old Historical section in Washington. We are writing a lot of stuff which no one will ever read.
The Fifteenth Army was a paper organization in more than one sense. The headquarters controlled no troop units except those necessary for its own housekeeping. And it had as its sole mission the preparation of historical and analytical studies on the tactics, techniques, organization, and administration of the war in Europe. Committees of officers wrote Theater or General Board Reports, as they were known, on a variety of subjects. Some were excellent. But the typed and mimeographed pages inevitably grew into mountains of paper.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, October 11, 1945
I hate to have you feel so badly about this last incident.
The whole thing is utterly unjust and the result of poor ‘Tear of They"...
Thanks for the clippings but I don’t read them. It does no good and keeps me awake at night.
The thing will change and I will be away out in front.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, October 12, 1945
DDE is full of friendship. We are dining ensemble this evening.
Diary, October 13
John Eisenhower told his father yesterday that since I had taken over the Fifteenth Army, people had begun to work.
During the course of the dinner which I had with Eisenhower on a purely social basis, I stated to him that I could not hereafter eat at the same table with General Bedell Smith. Eisenhower said that Smith said he had been misquoted and wished to apologize. Eisenhower was also quite anxious for me to run for Congress – I presume in the belief that I might help him.
To avoid having correspondents constantly telephoning about his feelings toward future wars and to prevent his being misquoted, Patton sent a statement to Eisenhower’s public relations officer:
I have studied and practised war all my life. Therefore I am utterly opposed to it but I am not an ostrich . . .
I am firmly convinced that we must have a universal training because the one hope for a peaceful world is a powerful America [with] . . . adequate means to instantly check aggressors.
Unless we are so armed and prepared, the next war will probably destroy us. No one who has lived in a destroyed country can view such a possibility with anything but horror.
To scotch a rumor that Patton might run for Congress, he sent another statement for release to the newspapers:
I am a soldier, have always been a soldier, belong to no political party, and have never even voted. I am not interested.
He was avidly reading anti-Russian literature, including letters from witnesses who described the horrors of life in the Soviet Union as well as various Communist plots and conspiracies designed to overwhelm the decent people of the world. Patton was fascinated.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, October 15, 1945
People don’t work here on Sundays so Saturday late I went to spend the night with Everett . . . Sunday we went to a football game . . . Ike was there and they put me right next to him. As usual a lot of soldiers with cameras, several hundreds, came and wanted to take pictures but the MP’s would not let them get close, so Hughes suggested that Ike let them come up. Instead he decided to go down in front near them. He waved his hand and “grinned” and they took a few pictures and he came back but the soldiers did not leave and presently they began to shout we want Patton, so I went down and there was realy an ovation. Lots of film was used up.
Then Ike came down a second time and we posed together . . .
Ike is bitten with the presidential bug and is also yellow. He has convinced him self that he did me a favor by getting me out of the realy grave risks entailed by being a governor.
He will never be president I . . .
I will resign when I have finished this job which will be not later than Dec. 26. I hate to do it but I have been gagged all my life, and whether they are appreciated or not, America needs some honest men who dare to say what they think, not what they think people want them to think.
Joseph Wilner of Washington, D.C., who had lost two sons in the war, one a captain in Patton’s command, telegraphed to make known his distress over the effect of O’Donnell’s allegations on Patton’s reputation. From his son’s correspondence, he was certain that Patton had never made derogatory remarks about Jewish soldiers. Would Patton please reassure him on what could only be O’Donnell’s misrepresentation of Patton’s attitude?
Patton’s response was rather stiff and official.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Wilner, October 1$, 1945
I am glad to have the opportunity of categorically denying that I have ever made any statement contrary to the Jewish or any other religious faith. I am a sincere believer in the Supreme Being and have never interfered with or even examined into the religious or racial antecedents of the men I have the honor to command. My sole effort has been to provide victorious soldiers who can serve their country and defeat the enemy with the minimum loss to themselves. With appreciation of and thanks for your interest, I am, Truly yours,
Diary, October 16
General Keyes flew up from Heidelberg to see me. I think his sole reason was to express in a very refined manner, as is always the case with him, sympathy. I was delighted to see him as I think he is one of the pleasantest companions and most loyal friends I have ever known.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, October 17, 1945
I read against my better judgment the clippings Codman sent. I got physically sick. But cheer up. The reaction has started. I will come out on top sooner than people think.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, October 19, 1945
Fan mail has just started, also telegrams. I think things will come out for the best and may result in my getting lined up with the Anti-Communists because it is they and the Jews who are back of it and successful due to the lack of spine of DD.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Codman, October 18, 1945
My present plan is to finish this job, which is a purely academic one, about the first of the year and then submit my resignation after which I can do all the talking I feel like . . .
My private opinion is that practically everyone but myself is a pusillanimous son of a bitch and that by continued association with them I may develop the same attributes.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, October 20, 1945
I know I am right and the rest can go to Hell or I hope they can but it is going to be very crowded.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Harbord, October 22, 1945
I have been just as furious as you at the compilation of lies which the communist and Semitic elements of our government have levelled against me and practically every other commander. In my opinion it is a deliberate attempt to alienate the soldier vote from the commanders because the communists know that soldiers are not communistic and they fear what eleven million votes [of veterans] would do.
It is owing to this fact that I have failed to raise any stink because, while I think General Eisenhower is most pusillanimous in yielding to the outcry of three very low correspondents, I feel that as an American it will ill become me to discredit him yet – that is, until I shall prove even more conclusively that he lacks moral fortitude. This lack has been evident to us since the first landing in Africa but now that he has been bitten with the presidential bee, it is becoming even more pronounced.
It is interesting to note that everything for which I have been criticized in the handling of Germans had been subsequently adopted: to wit – I stated that if we took all small Nazis out of every job, chaos would result. Military Government the other day announced that from two to five per cent of Nazis would be kept in.
He cited other facts, for example, that he “had removed from or deprived of office 49,088 Nazis.”
All the general officers in the higher brackets receive each morning from the War Department a set of American headlines and, with the sole exception of myself, they guide themselves during the ensuing day by what they have read in the papers. Personally I never read these headlines because I have perfect confidence that I do my duty as I see it and I do not need to be told how to do it by a number of very low type individuals.
It is my present thought . . . that when I finish this job, which will be around the first of the year, I shall resign, not retire, because if I retire I will still have a gag in my mouth . . . I should not start a limited counter-attack, which would be contrary to my military theories, but should wait until I can start an all out offensive . . .
The great tragedy of my life was that I survived the last battle. It had always been my plan to be killed in this war, and I damned near accomplished it, but one cannot resort to suicide . . .
The study [here] was progressing with remarkable exactitude and no speed until I assumed charge . . .
I am convinced we should avoid the error we made at the end of the last war of taking this war as an approved solution for future unpleasantnesses. We must use this factual account simply as a datum plane from which to annually build a new set of jiggs and dies.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, October 22, 1945
Did I tell you that on the 25 Du Gall is giving me a medal of some sort. General Giraud came to see me to say that France was shocked to the heart at the treatment accorded the greatest soldier since Napoleon . . .
How can one expect any backbone in a man [already] running for President.
Diary, October 23
Tomorrow . . . flying to Paris for the purpose of lunching with de Gaulle . . . and being decorated . . . A letter from General Juin . . . stated that France had always desired and that General de Gaulle, who represented France, also desired to decorate me for my preeminent part in the liberation of France but that, as a result of my recent change in command status, France was more than twice as anxious as before to do me honor.
Diary, October 25
To the Ministry of War . . . for a special luncheon given in my honor . . . by General de Gaulle . . . There were about 35 guests . . .
At the end of the luncheon . . . he compared me to everybody from Napoleon up and down. I replied . . . that the history of France’s great leaders had always been an inspiration to American soldiers and that in the room there were the busts of two such leaders and also the living presence of two others. The busts were those of Turenne and Conde, and the soldiers were de Gaulle and Juin. Apparently this did a good deal to impress the President-General.
After lunch we went to the Invalides and . . . to the tomb of Napoleon, and . . . downstairs where people are not normally allowed. It was very impressive, and we all enjoyed it.
At 8.00 o’clock Merle-Smith and I dined with Juin . . . As usual Juin got on the question of the Russians whom he distrusts and fears as much as I do.
Nothing was scheduled for the following day, so he and Merle-Smith visited Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle, “then drove to Versailles and had a quick look around. I had not been there since 1912, but it has not changed.”
On the 27th, he went to Rennes, where he met with dignitaries, drank champagne, attended a luncheon in his honor, and watched Breton folk dancing that ended with “a very fat and sweaty young girl [who] presented me with a large bouquet of flowers and then she demanded that I kiss her, and I found that she had certainly bathed recently because she tasted soapy.” With large crowds in attendance, he reviewed troops, listened to speeches by mayors who made him an honorary citizen of their towns, and gave a short address himself.
On to Angers for more champagne, an appearance on a balcony to wave to a “tremendous crowd,” and “the distinguished privilege of becoming a Citizen of Honor.” At the Franco-American Union, a woman talked exactly like the voice on his French-lesson phonograph records.
He met the daughter of his old friend General Houdemon, Madame Becourt Foch whose husband, the marshal’s grandson, had been killed, he thought, “by my troops in Africa. Aside from mentioning this fact, she did not bring the question up.” He must have misunderstood, for actually Becourt Foch had been in London with De Gaulle, flew with the RAF and later with the Free French, and was killed in a plane crash in 1944.
The ceremonies continued on the following day at Chartres, where Pat-ton was welcomed at the city hall, taken on a tour of the city, and escorted to the cathedral for a mass attended by “at least 5000 people” and “many more outside yelling ‘Vive Patton’ – and some of them, to the scandal and disgrace of religion, started yelling in the Church.” After lunch and a parade, Patton and his party returned to Paris.
I collected ten Citizen of Honor certificates, two plaques, and a tremendous case of indigestion . . . Went to the Folies Bergeres, which has gone steadily down hill since 1912.
“The whole damned world is going Communist,” he wrote Beatrice. “The last US troops to leave Europe will be fighting a rear guard action.” He thought it possible that “this last attack on me is another act of God definately lining me up against the Reds.” He had been in an automobile accident that had been reported in the press, but it “was nothing – just a bent fender, so your dream did not work.”
Beatrice’s dream, whatever it was, was premonitory but premature.
Patton too had dreamed that “when I got home you met me with your hair all shaved off but a scalp lock and your scalp painted white.” He had to read so many Theater Board reports “that I am almost nuts.” He mentioned the pleasant prospect of shooting grouse with Gay. “Destiny relieved me simply in a state of funk and because he has no moral cour-age.”
“The staff is having a big party for me on the eleventh – what a sad day [to be sixty years old].”
Diary, November 2
In the Russian occupied zone the Russians materially augment the food allowances to all Germans who become Communists. This is reminiscent of Mohammed’s method of securing Mohammedans . . . There is very little new under the sun . . .
The utter folly of the Potsdam Convention which contemplated the ability of four antagonistic nations, one of which is not even civilized, to govern by unanimous consent is . . . being admirably justified [in Berlin].
Letter, GSP, Jr., to son George, November 3, 1945
It is quite natural that my speeches should sound like Napoleon’s because, as you know, I have studied him all my life. You are wrong in saying he fought a different type of war – he and I fought the same way but my means of progress were better than his.
On November 4, Patton issued what would be his final “Notes on Combat,” ten single-spaced typed pages devoted to divisions and their organizations, formations, and tactics. Among his comments:
Violent and rapid attack with the marching fire is the surest means of success in the use of armor . . .
The length of a command is measured in time, not in miles . . .
A great deal has been written and a great many maps have been drawn to show where various units have gone during a war or a battle, but there is very little information available as to how they went or what formations were employed . . .
A cursory glance at the foregoing recommendations may lead to the belief that there is practically no difference between an infantry division and an armored division. The difference is very real and two fold. First, the purpose of the tanks in an infantry division is to get the infantry forward, while the purpose of the infantry in an armored division is to break the tanks loose.
Second, the mental characteristics of the commander of an infantry division who has to conduct the slow bitter slugging tactics essential to that arm may not, and probably will not, have the attributes essential to the commander of an armored division where rapidity of movement and reckless operation are the criteria of success . . .
In considering the foregoing or any other organizational scheme we must remember that it is simply the datum plane from which new ideas and new formations must be developed. The primary function of war has not within historic time been materially changed by the advent of new weapons. The unchanging principle of combat is to inflict on the enemy the maximum amount of wounds and death in a minimum of time and as cheaply as possible. If future leaders will remember that nothing is impossible, that casualties received from enemy action in battle are a function of time and effective enemy fire, and that any type of troops can fight any place, they will not go wrong.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, November 5, 1945
I doubt that I will be home for Xmas but I fully intend to leave here shortly after the 1st of Jan. and we can have a belated celebration ...
As everything I do gets in the press I had better tell you that I had a wart or some such thing cut out of my belly – the outside skin —this morning. It was done with a local [anesthetic] and only needed two stitches.
Diary, November 5
Yesterday while driving to Mannheim for a shoot and looking over the utter devastation of Frankfurt and Mannheim, it occurred to me that the only possible salvation for a country so completely destroyed as Germany is another Messiah – whether he serves God or the devil. Nothing conceivable could be more apt to bring back a Hitler than what we are doing.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Gerow, November 6, 1945
Owing to the rapid reduction of personnel due to redeployment and owing to the fact that the majority of people with adequate information are in America, we have decided that this Board’s Report should be and probably will be completed by 1 January.
To receive a decoration, Patton drove to Brussels via Cologne, Aachen, and Liège, which he had never seen. Cologne and Aachen were badly destroyed, and he “kept wondering how Charlemagne would have felt about his former capital [Aachen], could he see it today, which he probably can.” At the outskirts of Brussels, a motorcycle escort took him to the Embassy, where many Belgians were waiting “for the ecstatic privilege of seeing me.”
We were met by a full Colonel wearing a DSM, who was nothing but a God damned interpreter in the last war and probably never heard a gun go off in anger.
The ceremony was very simple. I walked into a room where the Ambassador and His Royal Highness were standing. HRH spoke excellent English and said he wanted to give me a medal, which he proceeded to pin on – namely, Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold and the Croix de Guerre of the same Order with Palm; also a Belgian 1940 Croix de Guerre with Palm. Either the Belgian protocol on decorations is wrong or the Prince is ignorant, because he pinned the sunburst on my left breast where, according to my understanding, only Grand Cross sunbursts should go.
“Well now I am a Grand Officier of the Order of Leopold” he wrote Beatrice, “one more sun burst. Also I got a bad cold.”
Bernard Baruch wrote Patton that he resented the unfair criticisms being made against “a great soldier.” He was sorry he had been unable to persuade the authorities to send Patton to the Pacific to fight the Japanese. He particularly regretted not having seen Patton during his visit to the United States, for he had wanted to warn Patton of some of the dangers of the occupation. He enclosed a newspaper clipping, which quoted Lieutenant K. E. Wallach of Galesburg, Illinois, who was recuperating from wounds in a hospital:
The attacks on General Patton as an anti-Semite sound strange to a Third Army soldier. Our general was on the record as knowing only good soldiers or bad soldiers and not soldiers of different religious preference . . .
It will be the pride of my life that I had the honor to serve under a man like General Patton.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Baruch, December 3, 1945
My sincere thanks for your nice letter ...
I was particularly interested in the clipping . . . which is exactly in accordance with the facts. I cannot understand who had the presumption to attribute to me anti-Semitic ideas which I certainly do not possess.
With warm personal regards, and looking forward to the pleasure of seeing you on my return to America,
Adolph Goldsmith, “Old Blood and Guts Idol of his Men” Arkansas Democrat Sunday Magazine, Little Rock, November 16, 1945
Patton is a soldier’s general. He did not ask his men to fight for him; he asked them to fight with him ..
Much has been written about Patton’s ruthlessness and disregard for the individual. True, he was daring, rough, and brutal, but so were his soldiers. They would not have defeated the Nazis if they had been otherwise. He expected the impossible from the Third Army – and got it.
You probably have read the incident when a higher general sent a message to Patton to bypass Trier, since it would require four divisions to take it. Patton answered, “Have taken Trier with two divisions. Do you want me to give it back?”
As for Patton’s most recent transfer to the doghouse, we are as much confused as the American public. He certainly has no love for the Nazis ...
The soldiers of the Third Army are practically unanimous in their belief that “their boss” got a d——ed rotten deal.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Goldsmith, December 4, 1945
I am deeply moved by the fact that one of my soldiers who, so far as I know, I did not have the pleasure of meeting personally should take this much interest in my career.
Kent Hunter, former public relations officer, wrote to say that he had talked with hundreds of Third Army soldiers since returning to civilian life. Their reaction to Patton was always the same: “Goddam that old sonofabitch! Wasn’t he swell?”
On his birthday Patton wrote Beatrice: “For a man of my advanced age I feel fine and every one says I look the same way.” He was sixty years old.
Several days earlier he had written to Beatrice:
In a day or so, Ike leaves and I command [the theater] – some joke – if he comes back I will just sit, if he don’t I will have a grand house cleaning.
Beadle and I will have some fun any how. He has never apologized but sent word he had been misquoted. I have never seen him. In my hope he will be investigated by Congress.
Diary, November 13
In my capacity as Acting Theater Commander, I visited USFET Headquarters at Frankfurt and was present at the morning staff conference . . . The gentleman representing the President on behalf of the Jews is apparently using grapevine methods to induce a large number of Polish Jews to migrate from Poland into Bavaria. Since these Jews have to cross two frontiers, it is very evident that they are being assisted by the Russians and Poles and Czechs who are probably as anxious to get rid of them as the Jews are to change domicile. It seems possible that the New Jerusalem may occur in Bavaria rather than in Palestine.
However, since I am simply pinch-hitting during the brief absence of General Eisenhower, I do not conceive it to be my duty to make any radical changes pending his return.
After the meeting I signed a number of court-martial cases and discovered that it is the policy of the Theater commander not to give death sentences to any American soldier accused of raping a German woman. This seemed somewhat at variance with Anglo-Saxon customs.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, November 15, 1945
It is very evident that Beadle realy runs the show in so far as it can be said to be run . . . The chief interest seems to center on doing nothing positive and never going counter to what the papers say.
Some one proposes something and Beadle makes a speech against it and ends up by saying that while he is against it in principle he will go along with it just this once.
Of course since we don’t get on and are pretty nearly on official terms, it is not very plesant. But since Ike will be back – so it is said . . . I am not being much worse than a rubber stamp. If I had the job permanently – which God forbid – I would certainly drive things. It is not a Headquarters, just a chatequa. I go down there about three times a week mostly to sign court martial sentences.
Diary, November 16
I again visited USFET Headquarters at Frankfurt and at the Staff Conference brought up the point that in view of the critical housing shortage existing in Germany, which will unquestionably get worse, I doubted the expediency of blowing up factories, because the ends for which the factories are being blown up – that is, preventing Germany from preparing for war – can be equally well attained through the destruction of their machinery, while the buildings can be used to house thousands of homeless persons. I therefore directed that inquiry be made to see if the machinery could not be removed and destroyed and the buildings made available for housing – the buildings to be destroyed in the spring, should it be found that the Control Commission believed such action necessary.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Frederick Ayer, November 17, 1945
I quite agree with you that we are getting not older but damned old in spite of the fact that I do not feel that way. It is therefore my firm determination to spend all the money which you can provide or which I can borrow, beg, or steal on a life of continued amusement as soon as I can get rid of my present job . . .
I further suggest that you look into the possibility of hiring, buying, or otherwise securing a quail shooting preserve in either Florida, Georgia, or the Carolinas . . .
I do propose to hunt six days a week in Virginia whenever I am not engaged in shooting or sailing.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to George Murnane, Jr., Syosset, New York, November 17, 1945
I do not consider the episode leading to my transfer to Fifteenth Army so much an attack on me as a lack of intestinal fortitude on the part of others. However, I feel that I have obligations to my profession which, for the time being at least, outweigh personal emotions and I therefore do not propose to take any personal action because I am convinced that just as in the case of the slapping incident and the Knutsford affair, the final reaction is more favorable to me than to the other parties.
Furthermore, and this is very frank and personal, there is one job which would cause me to contemplate remaining in the Army. This job would be President of the War College . . . Therefore, it would be inexpedient for me to start throwing my weight around until I find out.
I trust this does not shock your opinions of my high motives which, after all, are not too high.
Diary, November 17
The other day Beedle Smith brought up the fact that General Eisenhower will take a final farewell of his troops . . . The question of a proper farewell entertainment was discussed . . . I stated that we should go all out to make a very appropriate and solemn ceremony in order to honor the greatest General who had ever lived.
To day I have been working on my thoughts as to how to reduce the human expense of war by a judicious increase in mechanization. Americans, as a race, are adept in the use of machines, and also in the construction of machines. The people whom they will have to fight will be the Russians and the Japanese, neither of whom are adept . . . but both have a large manpower which they are willing to expend recklessly. It therefore behooves us to devise military formations which will exploit our natural aptitude for machines and at the same time save our somewhat limited and very valuable manpower.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, November 18, 1945
I hope to leave here by boat around the 1st of the year. I am going by boat so I can keep my numerous boxes of papers with me in my state room and not have them lost in transit . . .
At the moment retirement seems the only solution but we can
never tell . . .
I realy shudder for the future of our country.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Handy, November 23, 1945
I would like to ask some advice . . . What is your suggestion as to my personal course? . . It would seem to me that the best thing I could do is ask for retirement. I am sincere in asking your advice because, as you know, I have a very high opinion of your ability.
What he was really asking Handy was, how good were his chances for becoming Commandant of the Army War College or of the new National War College?
Diary, November 23
Attended the meeting at USFET . . . was handed a telegram stating that General Eisenhower, owing to a cold, will not be able to return [from the United States] and that General McNarney was coming to the ETO to take command . . .
Prince Bernhard of Holland decorated a number of USFET officers, including . . . Lieutenant Summersby. The last was in a high state of nerves as a result of hearing that General Eisenhower is not returning.
Diary, November 25
To Metz . . . first to the house of General Dody, the Governor, where we had champagne. We then went to the Mairie and from there walked to the Cathedral through quite a large crowd . . .
The service lasted a long time in a zero temperature, which gives some reason for the upper bracket clergymen wearing ermine capes...
We drove to the Town Square . . . walked around the troops . . . participated as a decoratee and decorator in a ceremony . . . a march past and then a luncheon which lasted four hours, with much oratory...
I was made a Citizen of Honor of . . . Metz, Toul, Reims, Luxembourg, Chateau Thierry, Saargeumines, Thionville, Eperney, and Verdun.
At the Mairie I met General Houdemon, and after the luncheon I drove him back to Pont-a-Mousson, where I met his wife and was presented by them with two much treasured porcellain figurines of the Grenadiers of Napoleon’s Army, in which Houdemon’s grandfather was a general. I tried to persuade them not to give them to me, but had no success.
Letter, Weyland to GSP, Jr., November 26, 1945
I feel that the Third Army has died. To me, the Third Army meant Patton. When you left it, it ceased to be a thing alive. In a way I’m glad – a fighting Army and a peacetime Army are two different things.
Harbord replied to Patton’s request for advice by saying that he would feel bad if Patton resigned from the army, especially if he announced that he was doing so in order to be able to speak freely. The public would expect and listen for something sensational and, no matter how true the allegations that Patton might express, would be disappointed. The reaction was sure to be unfavorable to Patton in the long run. Besides, why would Patton, at that stage in his life, want to start a “backfire” against Eisenhower? Harbord thought that Patton should defer his decision until he came home and discovered what job he would have in the postwar Regular Army.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Harbord, November 26, 1945
Your advice is very good and, having gotten over my rage, I had almost reached the same conclusion myself . . .
I am not at all discouraged about the treatment I personally have received but I am terribly worried about the situation in America and in Europe . . . It may well be that V-E Day is misnamed and simply marked the beginning of a relatively short armistice. I bet Monty a hundred pounds to that effect and he gave me a ten-year limit, so I fear that his Scotch soul is worrying. I hope it is . . .
This afternoon I am leaving for Copenhagen and then Stockholm and then probably to a coffin as a result of acute indigestion from overeating.
Patton, Merle-Smith, Meeks, and Duncan departed Frankfurt on a special six-car train that he “considered quite unnecessary for four people.” But he learned that it cost no more to move six cars than the two – formerly Hindenburg’s – they actually occupied.
After a short stop in Copenhagen for a cocktail party at the American Embassy, he traveled to Stockholm, where he called on the King, had an audience with the Crown Prince, and lunched with Count Bernadotte. At the Olympic stadium he watched a special ice carnival and hockey game put on for him. Then with eight men who had competed with him in the 1912 Pentathlon events, the pistol shoot was re-enacted; Patton came in second.
There were ceremonies, visits, and dinners, and several times Patton noted in his diary that he “ate and drank steadily for some two hours.” At various military installations he was impressed by a Swedish submachine gun, a field stove that had a combination chimney and tent pole, and an 81-mm. mortar. He would later recommend that the Ordnance Department in Washington look into these items.
At a banquet given by the Swedish-American Society, “which was the ostensible reason for my going to Stockholm,” he addressed the 500 guests. He was distressed to receive
three telegrams and a letter from interned Baltics and Germans requesting my intervention to prevent their return to the Russians, where they very rightly anticipated elimination. I could do nothing about this.
Having returned to Copenhagen, where he had an audience with the King, Patton flew to Frankfurt. “It is my considered opinion,” he later wrote in his diary, “that anyone who can survive a trip to Metz and one to Sweden within a week is apt to live forever or die of a stroke.” He loved it all.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Frederick Ayer, December 3, 1945
The main thing is that I wish to have sufficient money to be very extravagant for the next fifteen years because, as I told you, it is my intention to do that.
Diary, December 3
General Smith gave a luncheon for General McNarney, the new Theater Commander, at which were present all the youth and beauty of the ETO. With the exception of Generals Keyes, Truscott, Allen, Gay, and myself, and a limited number of others, I have rarely seen assembled a greater bunch of sons-of-bitches . . .
I had a good deal of fun at luncheon quoting from recent articles on the Military Government of Germany, which I had the forethought to take with me, and which removed the appetite from Bob Murphy and the new Commanding General . . . The trouble with both of them is that their answer is that they could not do anything about it as they were carrying out orders. My answer is that a man who receives a foolish order should not carry it out – but such is not the breed of cats in authority. It is certainly quite a criticism of our form of Military Government to find that the Deputy Theater Commander, General Clay, and the Theater Commander, General McNarney, have never commanded anything, including their own self-respect, or if that, certainly not the respect of anyone else.
The whole luncheon party reminded me of a meeting of the Rotary Club in Hawaii where everyone slaps every one else’s back while looking for an appropriate place to thrust the knife. I admit I was guilty of this practice, although at the moment I have no appropriate weapon.
Had he known that this was to be his last entry in his diary, would he have ended thus in such bitterness and resentment?
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Cook, December 4, 1945
God willing, I shall leave this Theater sometime around the first of the year and I look forward to seeing you and having many long arguments.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Truscott, December 5, 1945
I expect to leave here on the 12th for a month’s leave and therefore take this opportunity of bidding you goodbye and wishing you and all your staff a very merry Xmas.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Col Harry Whitfield, Middleburg, Va., December 5, 1945
Your munificent present of cigars which I have stopped smoking arrived a few moments ago with the result that I have resumed smoking.
Please accept my sincere thanks and also look up a few reliable foxes because I expect to go hunting around the first of January.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, December 5, 1945
I just sent you a paragraph on the daily radio that I leave South Hampton on the USS New York, 45,000 ton battle ship on December 14 and should arrive where ever it lands on December 19. I have a months leave but don’t intend to go back to Europe. If I get a realy good job I will stay in [the army], otherwise I will retire . . .
I hate to think of leaving the Army but what is there?
We can get a chance at the visiting foxes any how . . .
I was going to shoot pigs to day but it was too snowy . . .
I may see you before you see this.
That was his last letter to Beatrice.
A USFET Order dated December 7, 1945, directed Patton to proceed on or about December 14 to Paris for subsequent air travel to the United States and a leave of absence of 30 days. He was authorized a baggage allowance of 165 pounds.
On December 8, Patton wrote his last letters – to Miss Coughlin of Brewer, Maine, and Miss Mary Jane Krieger of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, thanking them for their “constant support,” clippings, and Christmas boxes; to Ed Fansler saying that he was “leaving in a day or two for thirty days leave in America”; and to Emil Ludwig of Switzerland thanking him for sending Patton Ludwig’s article about him “which I very much enjoyed reading.”
A prolific writer who had produced several best sellers, including a biography of Napoleon, Ludwig had come to visit Patton late in April, when the war was nearing its end. They talked, of course, and Ludwig spent the night at the headquarters. Enchanted by Patton, he put his impressions into a short article that was beautifully done, perceptive, and gracious.
Ludwig found Patton “slim and elegant, the born gentleman in every movement, ‘Grandseigneur’ at his table, sportsman as he walks with a whip in his hand.” His face was full of contradictions and as complex as his character. His eyes were critical. His mouth sometimes smiled, then suddenly became hard. He seemed to Ludwig like a gallant and high-strung horse at the gallop, unwilling to be reined. He was a poet, a Lord Byron, with imagination and pride “the governing traits of his nature.” Above all, he was an artist of war, “a sort of genius.”
“What made a great general?” Ludwig asked.
“Not to be beaten,” Patton replied.
Great decisions, Patton said, were improvised. There was no strategy, only inspiration. Yet, inconsistently, he revealed that his plans for crossing the Danube had been made long in advance of the actual event.
Ludwig’s sharp eyes photographed Patton during the war, during his glory, and no doubt this was the best time to see the general at his best.