Robert Orlando - The Tragedy of Patton a Soldiers Date With Destiny: Could World War IIs Greatest General Have Stopped the Cold War?

The Tragedy
of Patton

The Tragedy
of Patton

A Soldiers Date with Destiny

ROBERT ORLANDO

Humanix Books

The Tragedy of Patton

Copyright 2021 by Robert Orlando

All rights reserved

Humanix Books, P.O. Box 20989, West Palm Beach, FL 33416, USA

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ISBN: 978-1-630-06175-3 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-630-06176-0 (E-book)

Printed in the United States of America

10987654321

Vincent Orlando, my uncle, US Army SFC, a pilot,
buried at West Point, veteran of World War II,
Korean War, and Vietnam War

January 26, 1925August 9, 1999

Ralph Orlando, my uncle, US Army, Sergeant, World War II

March 11, 1923October 9, 2000

Raymond Orlando, my father, Korean War veteran,
who at an early age introduced me to war movies

Contents

Glossary of Names

ALEXANDER THE GREAT (356 BC 323 BC ), ruler of the Greek kingdom of Macedonia who set out to rule the world and conquered what is now the Middle East. He was a brilliant military tactician, although thats not all. He was taught by Aristotle and spread Greek culture, beginning the Hellenistic Age. Patton, while commanding the Third Army in Europe, was clearly inspired by Alexander when he wrote the poem Through a Glass Darkly.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE (17691821), military leader, emperor of France between 1804 and 1814, after which he went into exile on Elba. He was a military genius who conquered most of Europe. Escaping from Elba, he tried to take back power. He was finally, and famously, defeated at Waterloo. During World War II, as the Allies left Africa, British General Sir Harold Alexander told Patton that Napoleon would have made him a marshall if he had been alive in the nineteenth century.

OMAR Nelson BRADLEY (18931981), four-star general, commanded the Twelfth Army in World War II, and served as the first chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. He served under and above Patton. They were joined in their successful mission to defeat the Nazis but differed vastly in style: Patton, charismatic and harsh; Bradley, diligent and compassionate.

JULIUS CAESAR (100 BC 44 BC ), general and dictator of Rome, put an end to the Roman Republic but created an empire. Perhaps Patton felt a kinship with this formidable soldier because they both served in Africa and because Caesar also was besieged by self-doubt on occasion.

WINSTON Leonard Spencer-CHURCHILL (18741965), army officer, writer, politician who sounded the alarm early and often about the dangers of Nazisms rise. He became prime minister in 1940. As France and other European countries fell, he led the British with unvarnished honesty and soaring words, fighting alone until America finally entered the war.

MARK Wayne CLARK (18961984), youngest major general in World War II, promoted to four-star general in 1945, replaced Patton in the 1945 invasion of Italy. He was a controversial figure; he managed with skillwinning over Eisenhower and Churchillbut was disliked by the men under his command.

DWIGHT David EISENHOWER (18901969), supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, led the D-Day invasion, president of the United States 19531961. An affable character who possessed strong administrative and leadership skills. He called on Patton for advice before the Allies hit the Normandy beaches. When news of Pattons mistreatment of soldiers became public, he fired Patton.

JAMES Vincent FORRESTAL (18921949), went from Wall Street to Washington, became undersecretary of the Navy and helped build a peacetime navy into a juggernaut. Appointed U.S. secretary of defense in 1947. Like Patton, he was deeply suspicious of Soviet motives and was an important defender of Patton. He died of a reported suicide, which to some observers was suspicious.

LLOYD FREDENDALL (18831963), major general, who had more experience training troops than serving in combat. The general in command during the battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, where Panzer divisions under Gen. Rommel pierced the thin line of Allied troops, leading to the highest casualty rate in World War II. Eisenhower relieved him of command and replaced him with Patton

William AVERELL HARRIMAN (18911986), son of a railroad baron, the aristocratic Harriman had a long career in public life as a politician and a diplomat. Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed him ambassador to the Soviet Union, where he served from 1943 to 1946. His deep knowledge and distrust of Stalin, although noting his wartime prowess as well as his brutality, were only later acknowledged to be right by Roosevelt.

ADOLF HITLER (18891945), leader of the Nazi Party, came to power in 1939 when Germany was economically shattered and politically splintered and turned the government into a vicious dictatorship that roiled Europe. The final days of his promised 1,000-year Reich were hastened by Pattons leadership role in the Battle of the Bulge, which Churchill said will be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.

HARRY Lloyd HOPKINS (18901946), New Deal Democrat, FDRs secretary of commerce, became the presidents most intimate and trusted adviser. He was the diplomatic back channel to Churchill and was first sent to London in 1941. The prime minister was so taken with Hopkins that he had him stay at 10 Downing Street. Hopkins helped arrange the Potsdam Conference in Moscow. Rumors circulated that he was a communist.

DOUGLAS MacARTHUR (18801964), five-star general who commanded the Allies in the Pacific in World War II, accepted the Japanese surrender, was recalled by President Truman when he wanted to widen the war in Korea. He was the only equal of Patton in military brilliance and success. MacArthur did not want Patton in the East, but Patton saluted him in a letter written after they were both in battle in World War I: General MacArthur never ducked a bullet.

BENITO Amilcare Andrea MUSSOLINI (18831945), politician, journalist, head of the fascist party, became Italys youngest prime minister in 1922. By 1925 he declared himself a dictator, Il Duce. He signed the Pact of Steel with Hitler in 1939. His downfall came in 1943 when Patton led the successful American invasion of Sicily, alongside Britains troops, led by Gen. Montgomery. In 1945 Italian partisans captured and killed him by firing squad.

BEATRICE Ayer PATTON (18861953), the generals wife, daughter of a millionaire, novelist. She was an expert equestrian. Much of what is known about the generals innermost thoughts were revealed in his letters to her, which are included in his diaries. The diaries were entrusted to her and have since been made public.

ERWIN Johannes Eugen ROMMEL (18911944), general, hero of World War I, appointed by Hitler to head the Afrika Korps. Authoritative and courageous, he won respect from the Allies and from his men but, like Patton, provoked his superior officers. He was a hero to many Germans, but in the end he ran afoul of Hitler and ended his life with poison.

FRANKLIN Delano ROOSEVELT (18821945), governor of New York State, then U.S. president during World War II, forging a bond with his British counterpart Winston Churchill. He lived long enough to see the war end in Europe. Despite Pattons immense contribution to victory, it is presumed that FDR acquiesced in the generals firing by Eisenhower.