Great movie, good commander and a born soldier. His biggest weakness was his mouth! Carl, I would pick Gerneral Lee over Patton
Scott refusing the Oscar -- ha-ha! I remember that! It caused a furor at the time. Back OT... WRT the slapping incident: Patton, like all other men, was human. He did hate cowards, but the widespread reporting of the incident caused huge waves in the US civil population, which in turn increased problems on the government's attempts to keep the civilian morale as high as possible. The good thing to come out of the incident was the very public chastising of Patton, which turned into a timely misinformation campaign on the part of the US.
A couple of people have referred to Patton slapping 'cowards' now. He did not slap 'cowards', the 2 better known of his 'slapping incidents' (Kuhl & ??, can't remember the other name) were suffering from battle fatigue, a condition largely accepted by that time; thankfully things had moved on somewhat since the first war. Patton's behaviour towards these men, damaged but with no external sign of wounds, caused widespread contemporary indignation and offense, and in my opinion rightly so. It was an idiotic thing to do by any officer, let alone one of General rank and Patton's apologies, forced or otherwise, reflect this. Cheers, Adam.
I´m sure Ike was later on truly happy he did not let go of Patton...although a couple of times Mr Mouth did make some unwise comments...
The thing that bothered me about Kuhl was that post bellum he seemed to relish in the "fame" of having been slapped around by GSP, from what I have read. It was as though he took great pride in being involved in the incident. I don't think the other wanted anyone to know of his involvement.
Imagine a modern version of the same incident. The slapped could probably do rather well from the ensuing circus, and the General would immediately be in exceptionally serious trouble.
Exactly, Adam -- sorry that I wasn't more specific in my post. It was exactly the fact that these men were not cowards that caused the furor and resulted in Patton being "punished" for his action.
I just want to know whats up with the recent women craze for you avatars Von? Little house on the prairie? Little Women? You got me guessing!!!
"On August 17, 1943, General F.A. Blesse, the Chief Surgeon at AFHQ brought to General Patton a letter from Eisenhower. It read, "I am attaching a report which is shocking in it's allegations against your personal conduct. I hope you can assure me that none of them is true; but the detailed circumstances communicated to me lead to the belief that some ground for the charges must exist. I am well aware of the necessity for hardness and toughness on the battle field. I clearly understand that firm and drastic measures are at times necessary in order to secure the desired objectives. But this does not excuse brutality, abuse of the "sick", nor exhibition of uncontrollable temper in front of subordinates." In regards to the soldier. "The soldier was immediately picked up by corpsmen and taken to a ward tent. There he was found to have a temperature of 102.2 degrees F and he gave a history of chronic diarrhea for about one month, having at times as high as ten or twelve stools a day. The next day his fever continued and a blood smear was found to be positive for malarial parasites. The final disposition diagnosis was chronic dysentery and malaria. This man had been in the Army eight months and with the 1st Division since about June 2d."
Whoops! I had overlooked the posts on the thread. A carelessness on my part. I apologize for that. There shouldn't be any need for the statement I had provided.
My main gripe about the film Patton was the tanks that were used to simulate the battles. But, I'm a tank nerd.
he was the best western allied cavalry general imo,i dont know about the russian ones though,so i cant comment on those. general bradley was not too happy about pattons appointment to command 3rd U.S.Army,i read that in bradlleys diaries,but both monty and ike insisted on his appointment. i think i remember he was involved in an affair with his niece too?,i maybe wrong?.cheers..
Definitely. That he was. Scott was great in his portrayal in Patton that in the sequel that was made in the 80s which chronicled his last days before his death from an auto accident, Scott was still the actor cast to play that role. Even if he was older. One thing about the movie, you'll never get tired of watching it. Only two Allied generals come to my mind when it comes to matching or getting close to Patton's tendency to be theatric. These two are Monty and Mac.
Actually, that's not true. Most Germans were NOT members of the Nazi Party. The Party was actually a very small group, per capita. Unless you started out early (1920s), you had to prove your loyalty to party, have joined the Hitler Youth, etc., and there was no guarantee that you would be accepted.
Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that I read Patton's wife was given a choice on where to bury him and she decided it would be an injustice to bury him stateside instead of alongside the third army. (Think I read this in Alan Axelrods Patton)
