undiplomatic. Patton had a strong belief in God and always had a bible at hand. He also
believed in reincarnation. He believed that he had been on the battlefield when the
Carthaginians fought the Romans. He also believed that he had served under Napoleon
in a previous life. All of these were shown in the film. The movie shows the reality of
war. One of the opening scenes shows many of the dead Allies soldiers were being
stripped of the clothing, helmets and equipment by civilians. This scene in the movie
shows Tunisia in 1943, where this actually occurred. The movie also shows Patton with
his men in the snow making their way into battle ont their way for thre battle of the
bulge. Patton made many mistakes in diplomacy. The movie shows Patton making
comments that he believes are off the record. The press then printed these comments and
Patton is in trouble for insulting the Russians. Patton then has to promise to keep his big
mouth shut, or be left out of the war. Being part of the war was all that was important to
Patton. The movie also has a segment showing the Patton prayer. When the Third Army
headquarters were located in Nancy, France, they were bothered by bad weather. Patton
ordered the chaplain, whose real name was James H. O’Neill, to write a prayer about the
weather. The chaplain wrote a prayer. The prayer said, “Almighty and most merciful
Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate
rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously
harken to us as soldiers who call Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance
from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and
establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.” This is just one of the true
instances that showed Patton’s deep belief in God. Patton actually had copies of the
prayer made for each man in the Third Army, and when the weather cleared up, he told
the chaplain that he knew the prayer would work.
Historicals events Portrayed in the Movie
American and British Troops who fought together under General Dwight D.
Eisenhower began landing in Morocco and Algeria on November 8. The Germans sent
reinforcements into Tunis and managed to get the Fifth Panzer Army to stop Eisenhower
in western Tunisia by mid-December. Rommel went into the Mareth Line in southeastern
Tunisia in early February 1943 and started an attack against the Americans on February
14 that drove them back 50 miles and out of the Kasserine Pass. On June 6, 1944,
D-Day, the day of invasion for Overlord, the U.S. First Army, under General Omar N.
Bradley, and the British Second Army, established beachheads in Normandy, on the
French channel coast. The German resistance was strong. Allied air attacks over
northern France made it difficult for Rommel to move his reserves. Hitler became
convinced that the Normandy landings were a bluff and the main assault would come
north of the Seine River. Hitler believed this because Patton was being used as a decoy
and he did not believe that Patton would not be involved in a major offensive. As a
result of this belief, Hitler refused to release the divisions he had there and insisted on
drawing in reinforcements from more distant areas. By the end of June, Eisenhower had
850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles ashore in Normandy. Later that year, General Omar
Bradley gave Patton command of the Allied Third Army with which he pushes across
Western Europe to stop the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge. Bradley and
Montgomery sent their army groups north and east across the Seine on August 25.
Montgomery’s troops seized Antwerp on September 3, and the first American patrols
crossed the German border on September 11. Gasoline and ammunition were limited
and were being brought from French ports on the channel coast over 500 miles of roads
and railroads. The Battle of the Bulge was extremely important in winning the war. On
July 25, Bradley began the attack. Montgomery took over the British Second Army and
the Canadian First Army. Bradley took over command of the Twelfth Army Group which
consisted of the U.S. First and Third armies under General Courtney H. Hodges and
General George S. Patton. Following the Normandy invasion in June of 1944, Allied
forces went through France but became delayed along the German border in September.
On December 16, the Germans began a counteroffensive through the Ardennes country
and advanced 31 miles into Belgium and Luxembourg. They created a ?bulge? in the
Allied lines, but their advance was stopped near the Meuse in late December. The
Americans put up a strong opposition and were able to hold Saint-Vith and Bastogne.
The Germans managed to avoid being cut off by the Allies and withdrew in January. It
was not until the end of January that the last of the 50 mile bulge in the Allied lines was
removed. On the day that Patton’s Third Army had taken the German city of Trier,
Bradley sent orders not to try to capture it. The movie shows Patton sending him a
message saying that he already had captured it and asking if they wanted him to give it
back.
In early March, the armies moved up to the Rhine. The bridges were down
everywhere. By March 24, Montgomery sent members of the British Second Army and
the U.S. Ninth Army across the river. The U.S. First Army was occupying a bridge
between Bonn and Koblenz. On March 22 the U.S. Third Army, under Patton had seized
a bridge south of Mainz.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berardinelli, James, Patton- A film review.,The Patton Society, The Patton Web Pages,
1996-1997
Chandler, David G., Battle On Land, New York, Mallard Press, 1990
D’Este, Carlo, Patton: a Genius for War, New York, Harper Collins Publisher, 1995
Nye, Roger H., The Patton Mind, Avery Publishing Company, Garden City Park, NY,
1993
Patton, George S. Jr, Calvary Journal, The Patton Society, The Patton Web Pages,
1996-1997
Patton, George S. Jr, Address to the US 3rd Army, The Patton Society, The Patton Web
Pages, 1996-1997
Ziemke, Earl F., World War II, Encarta., Microsoft Corporation. Funk & Wagnall’s
Corporation,1994.
Patton
World War II was the most destructive war in history. It began in 1939 as a
European conflict between Germany and a British and French alliance, but eventually
included most of the nations of the world. Most of the war was fought with the same
types of weapons used in World War I. The greatest advances were in aircraft and tanks.
Patton was the first soldier in the tank corps. He created the training procedures, the
regulations and the methods of instruction. At that time the American public saw Patton
as an arrogant man who enraged Americans because he slapped a soldier who was
hospitalized for post traumatic stress disorder, which at that time was called combat
fatigue. The movie portrays General George Patton as an intense, fanatical patriot who
arrogantly struts with a swagger stick, which was actually a riding crop with a hidden
sword inside of it, and ivory handled pistols in front of a huge American flag.
Difference Between the Real Patton and the Movie Patton
The real Patton was a dyslexic, who came from a wealthy background, and was
his own worst enemy. The real Patton had a high pitched voice, unlike George C. Scott’s
deep and rough voice. At the beginning of the movie, Patton’s delivering his famous
speech to the Third Army delivered on June 4, 1944. In the movie, during the opening
speech, Patton also makes the statement, “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his
country, you win it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!”. He
actually made this statement in 1941 at Fort Benning, Georgia to a small group of troops
in training. Obviously the statement was memorable enough for the writers of the movie
to include it into the opening scene. When Patton is wearing the uniform of a four star
general and has decorations that were awarded to him by various European countries.
However, in reality, at this point in time, he was still a lieutenant general and the
decorations were awarded to him after the war. Patton is shown in Morocco, where in
1941 he was the commander of the 2nd Armored Division. He was assigned to seize
Cassablanca, which he did. He went to the headquarters of Admiral Michelier with pearl
handled pistols and a tommy gun and impressed the Sultan of Morocco. One of the
beginning scenes inthe movie shows Patton being presented with the order of Ouissan
Alaouite. The citation actually says the memorable line in the movie, “The lions in their
dens tremble at his approach.” The changes in North Africa began on August 31, 1942,
when Rommel attacked through the southern flank of the British line west of
El-’Alamein. General Bernard Law Montgomery fought with Patton, and forced Rommel
into a retreat. Throughout the movie, Rommel and Patton are seen as major adversaries.
Three American, three British, and one Canadian divisions landed on Sicily on July 10,
1943. One of these divisions was General Patton’s army. They pushed across the island
and overcame the last Axis opposition on August 17. The movie does not mention,
however, that Mussolini had been stripped of power on July 25, and the Italian
government had entered into negotiations that ended in an armistice on September 8.
The movie does deal with the famous slapping incident. The movie does not
mention that the soldier later became an abusive alcoholic. Even though Patton
eventually gives in and offers a public apology, the incident keeps him out of action.
Because of the negative public reaction, he ended up being a decoy during the
Normandy invasion. The movie does not give an understandable background for D-Day.
The tanks used in the major battle scenes in the movie were post war tanks and they were
not the same type of tanks that were actually used. Ironically, the tanks used on the
German side in the movie are called Patton 1s. When the Germans had reached the
Meuse and lower Rhine rivers and the Americans were coming up against the west wall.
The Allies’ most serious problem was that they had run out of supplies. The movie does
discuss this problem and Patton’s frustration with it. Omar Bradley is shown to be
conservative and level headed. Bradley begins the film serving under Patton and ends the
film as Patton’s superior. The two are shown to be friends even though each finds fault
with the other’s methods. In reality, Bradley did not like Patton and Patton despised
Bradley. The interesting thing is that Omar Bradley was the military consultant for the
Patton movie and made sure that the movie portrayed him (General Bradley played by
Karl Malden) in a positive light. On March 22 the U.S. Third Army, under Patton had
seized a bridge south of Mainz. The movie shows Patton’s march across the bridge but
did not include the fact that he deliberately urinated from the middle of the bridge.
Alikeness between the real Patton and the Movie Patton
The real Patton was correctly portrayed as a motivating speaker. Patton, in real
life and in the film was a born leader. The movie was accurate in showing Patton as a
dedicated student of military history, a master tactician and an arrogant, foul mouthed
difficult man. Patton was not a friendly, easy going person. He was harsh stubborn and
undiplomatic. Patton had a strong belief in God and always had a bible at hand. He also
believed in reincarnation. He believed that he had been on the battlefield when the
Carthaginians fought the Romans. He also believed that he had served under Napoleon
in a previous life. All of these were shown in the film. The movie shows the reality of
war. One of the opening scenes shows many of the dead Allies soldiers were being
stripped of the clothing, helmets and equipment by civilians. This scene in the movie
shows Tunisia in 1943, where this actually occurred. The movie also shows Patton with
his men in the snow making their way into battle ont their way for thre battle of the
bulge. Patton made many mistakes in diplomacy. The movie shows Patton making
comments that he believes are off the record. The press then printed these comments and
Patton is in trouble for insulting the Russians. Patton then has to promise to keep his big
mouth shut, or be left out of the war. Being part of the war was all that was important to
Patton. The movie also has a segment showing the Patton prayer. When the Third Army
headquarters were located in Nancy, France, they were bothered by bad weather. Patton
ordered the chaplain, whose real name was James H. O’Neill, to write a prayer about the
weather. The chaplain wrote a prayer. The prayer said, “Almighty and