In August this year, I was at American cemetery in Luxembourg where General Patton is buried. The black car stands at roughly the position of the USArmy truck, prior to it turning left into a depot, denoted by the cobblestone driveway. This article appears in: November 2007 By Major General Michael Reynolds The commander of the U.S. I am afraid that our foolish and utterly stupid policy will certainly cause them to join the Russians and thereby ensure a communistic state throughout Western Europe. You seem to have forgotten that you lost the war! However, Hubert Meyer, the ex-Chief of Staff of the Hitlerjugend, recalled that on the occasion of Pattons visit things had been very different. He goes on to say, however, that we shall never know, for after his death Beatrice refused to allow an autopsy on the body despite a request from the Army. The bureaucrat military elites wanted Patton forgotten lest people find out how Eisenhower bungled the handling of the war after D-Day from which General Patton was excluded for slapping a soldier. If its a choice between them and the Russians, I prefer the Germans., Worse was to follow. Patton's final resting place is in Luxembourg American Cemetery in Luxembourg. He married his first wife Ramona Yorba in 1844. He is the author of Pattons Photographs: War As He Saw Itand Patton: Legendary World War II Commander(with Martin Blumenson). When his wife asked about birthday plans he curiously responded: 'No Glenice. By V-E Day (May 8, 1945), Pattons Third Army had fought for nine months since becoming operational, capturing more than 80,000 square miles (more than 200,000 square km) of territory. After the tragic death of her husband in 1945, Mrs. Patton became a forceful and persuasive speaker advocating universal military training. Beatrice is said to have declared, I can hardly speak, Im so overcome. He had just been removed from his command of the Third Army, which was in charge of governing the American sector of Germany . Woodring was unable to stop in time, and the two vehicles collided at a 90-degree angle, with the right front bumper of the truck smashing the radiator and bumper of the Cadillac. Pattons forces continued to push the Germans back, and by the end of January 1945, the Third Army had reached the German frontier. She asked her brother, Fred Ayer, to set up the meeting. Dead and buried in Europe, few will look back at what went on in 1944, which is when the war could have ended had they of listened to him. Patton desperately wanted to complete an encirclement of the Germans, but his commander, Gen. Omar Bradley, feared that such an attack would leave Pattons flanks weak and exposed to counterattack. [4] A Cadillac similar to that in which General George S. Patton was traveling when struck by a waiting 2.5 ton U.S. Army truck. 1945 General George S. Patton dies General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. 3rd Army, dies from injuries suffered not in battle but in a freak car accident. His wife is Beatrice Banning Ayer (26 May 1910 - 21 December 1945) ( his death) ( 3 children) George S. Patton Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2022-2023. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Pershing was made the commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), and Patton, promoted to captain, joined him in France. Mark . We already had atomic weapons and had used them on Japanese cities twice-perhaps some historians have suggested as a demonstration and warning to Moscowbut I am interested in the details of how we would have lost to the Russians, in some detail of course ie our objectives vs theirs and precisely how wed have failed in ours while they suceeded in defeating an American armed forces at the apogee of their war potential and still in Europe prior to Operation Magic Carpet. A 12-man squad raised its rifles, and a three-round volley of salutes echoed into the Luxembourg hills. Patton made a respectable showing, coming in fifth out of 42 contestants. This picture of Willie, Patton's dog, was taken a few days after the General's death as preparations were made to send home his effects. Too bad it should have been the future President who really did do as much as Patton but got the credit. Those who knew the Pattons were aware of the vital role Beatrice played in his reaching his destiny, but few others . funny. No comparison to Ike or Bradley. Eisenhower returned to Bavaria a week later following reports of bad conditions in some of the DP camps there. I especially liked the excerpts from his diary which shows Patton NOT to be the person that many have said, to have had too many bumps to the head, but a man of common sense who was derailed by political academists. Then, before a crowd of up to 50,000, he made a speech in which he said, My name is merely a hook to hang the honors on. Salute to such a great man! Dead from injuries sustained in a car crash after the close of WWII, General George S. Patton, Jr. left in his wake a tremendous legacy. His formal education did not begin until age 11, but, in time, he became a voracious reader and later in life published numerous articles on military subjects. He had learned fencing at West Point and continued his study of swordsmanship while in Europe. Maybe because the Americans saved Europe (yes, but that was way before my time, I was born in 1965), maybe because they delivered Bxls and a tank stayed in my Moms courtyard for over a week, or maybe because every time I would visit my Godfather by Spangdahlem, I would pass the base and later on learn English, meet an airman, marry him and be stationed there for 4 yrs then go to Leipheim for 4 yrs? After knowing how our Soldiers were treated in Japanese Prison Camps, old Gutless left our boys to rot. Twelve days before his death, on December 9, 1945, Patton was sitting in the back of his limousine when his driver, PFC Horace Woodring, sped too fast over a railroad crossing in Manheim, Germany, and plowed into the passenger-side of a left-turning Army truck headed into a depot. Professor of Adolescent Health at the University of Melbourne and the Director of the CAH, as well as Patton's wife. On April 4, 1941, he was promoted to temporary major general, and a week later he was made commander of the 2nd Armored Division. Patton noted in his diary that after a bout of heavy whiskey drinking during and after the meal, the Russian went out cold, while he himself walked out under my own steam. He briefed Ikes chief of staff, General Walter Bedell Smith, who sent the report of the incident to Eisenhower who was on leave in the South of France. Greg Wehner. washingtonpost.com Gen. George Patton's wife put a curse on his ex-mistress. Great read. Many historians have written about the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, who fought with distinction during World War II. When asked why Nazis were being retained in governmental positions in Bavaria, he replied, I despise and abhor Nazis and Hitlerism as much as anyone. They talked until three in the morning, but there is no record of any discussion about Pattons military governorship. YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS MINE. I was born and raised in Brussels (Bxls), Belgium until I got remarried for the 2nd time to an Air Force aircraft mechanic from Spangdahlem, Germany. He died from his injuries on December 21, 1945. From now on we will get . When it became clear to Eisenhower that the press reports were basically accurate, he was aghast and ordered Patton to report to him in Frankfurt. His offensive minded spirit may have rubbed his G.I.s the wrong way as he did not want to let up on a beaten enemy in NW France, but his Third Army, in France and especially the brilliant pre-planning and performance before and during the Germans Wacht am Rhein Ardennes attack, no doubt saved many G.I.s at Bastogne. Patton was a "true leader in every sense of the . Shortly after Beatrice Patton buried her husband, Gen. George S. Patton Jr., on Christmas Eve 1945, she summoned a woman named Jean Gordon to her hotel room in Boston. All he did was help defeat the remnants of the Afrika Korps after it had already been defeated by British and Commonwealth forces. Courtesy of The National Archives and Records Administration. THIS ARTICLE WAS MOST INTERESTING AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND IT SEEMS QUITE LIKELY IT WAS A TRAGIC ACCIDENT. Very Deep story. He always said Patton saved my life, I would not be home by now, but a war prisoner in Russia. Rather surprisingly, Patton chose to return the governors hat-doffing salute by removing his own helmet, complete with its four stars and the emblems of the Third and Seventh Armies and I Armored Corps. He graduated with distinction from the Army War College in 1932, and he remained a vigorous proponent of tank warfare throughout the interwar years. While I knew little of this great man save what minor things that I had learned in my youth I was moved to silence. Too bad he died. She was discovered on the floor of the kitchen with the oven gas turned on, and had committed suicide. The cemetery belongs to and is gifted to USA by Luxembourg and hence he is buried on American soil. General William H. Simpson, commander of Ninth Army, has received little attention in the historiography of World War II. He toured France collecting, according to his aide, enough certificates of honorary citizenship from cities like Avranches, Rennes, and Chartres to paper the walls of a room, and he had lunch with the unanimously elected president of the provisional French government, Charles De Gaulle, and dinner with the chief of staff of the French Army. The complaint landed on the desk of Ikes civil affairs officer, Brig. Patton spent a year at the Virginia Military Institute and then transferred to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he was forced to repeat his plebe (freshman) year because of poor grades. A comment now that time has given historians a bit more perspective. Of German origin, he was determined to rid Germany of all vestiges of Nazism. That limousine we know from pictures and records was a 1938 Series 75 Cadillac sedan, a rare type. Military career. Nobody would have thought anything unusual about it, and even would have thought it to be proper. I feel they would have fought anyone, even us, as fiercely as they fought the German Heer and the SS.) His career climaxed with World War II, where he led corps and armies from North Africa, to Sicily, to the continent of Europe. A first-generation American of Lebanese descent, James Jabara was intent on being a fighter pilot. On the 22nd, the day Stars and Stripes carried the headline PATTON DIES, she drove to Bad Nauheim to oversee her husbands effects being prepared for shipment back to their home in Massachusetts. fiserv holiday calendar 2021, brookline country club initiation fee, 1 bedroom trailer for rent,

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