Evening star., 1947-11-04
By Edword D. Ball
Assoeioted Press stoff Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn, Nov. 4.-For
slapping a battle-shocked soldier in
Sicily Gen. George S. Patton, jr.,
apoloeized - under orders to a
whole Army but in his own mind
therelnever was any doubt about the
justification of this act which kicked
up a storm back home.
The impetuous Gen. Patton lived
down that incident of 1943, as he
did others in his stormy career, and
went on from Sicily to lead his Sd
Army to undeniably brilliant victory
in Europe two years later.
But he did not live down the feel
ing that battle fatigue" was in
reality cowardice and he often ex-
pressed his contempt for it in off,
the-cuff conversation during his
European campaign.
Put Feelings in Book.
This feeling, and his account of
the soldier slapping, are put into
writing in his book, War as Knew
IT," which he wrote in 1945 after
the wars end and which was pub
iished posthumously this week by
Houghton 'Miff1in Co.
War as Knew It" is pure Patton
In the language as he spoke it
crisply and colorfully-eXcept that
In print he all but closed the spigot
on his usual fountain OF cavalry
mans profanity.
His book makes good and interest
ing reading but doesn't add much to
what a lot of people already knew;
it does bring into sharper focus
some of the Patton temperament
and characteristics:
/. That while doing spectacu-
larly successful job of fighting Ger
mans he was at the same time al
most continually feuding and fuss
ing with SHAEF, the headquarters
of Gen. Dwight D. EisenhoWer's AL
lied high command which Gen. Pat
ton accuses of having kept him
under wraps" all the way, and
2. That Gen. Patton, man of
great military talent, chafed under
the notion that his superiors failed
to appreciate his talent to the
fullest and that he in turn held
low opinion of the way SHAEF ran
the war in general and his 3rd
Army in particular.
SIapping Incident.
Gen. Patton gave his account of
the Sicilian incident in four para
graphs of his 425-page book. 1t
was during the attack on the ST.
Gillian town of Troina, he related.
He was driving back to the head
quarters of Gen. Omar N. Bradley,
then I'd Corps commander, when he
saw a hospital in valley and
stopped to inspect it,
There were some $50 badly
wounded men in the hospital all of
whom we're very heroic under their
sufferings and all of whom were
interested in the success of the
operation" the general said.
'"Just as I was leaving the hos
pital, I saw a soldier sitting on
a bed near the dressing station.
I stopped and said to him, What
is the matter. boy?' He said Moth
ing; I Just can't take it, I asked
what he meant. He said, I just
can't take being shot at. I said,
You mean that you are malinger-
ing here?' He burst into tears and
I Immediately saw that he was an
hysterical case. I, therefore, slapped
him across the face with my glove
and told him to get up, join his
unit and make man of himself,
which he did. Actually. at the
time, he was absent without leave.
Action Called Correct.
II am convinced that my action
in this case was entirely correct
and that. had other officers had
the courage to do likewise, the
shameful use of battle fatigue as
an excuse for cowardice would have
been infinitely reduced"
The greatest weapon against So
called battle fatigue" Gen. Patton
said in another chapter, lis ridi-
cule."
Gen. Eisenhower conducted an
inquiry of the incident and
found that Gen. Patton actu-
ally had slapped two men, both
of whom had a nervous dis
order. One also had a temper
ature. The supreme command
er's report said Gen. Patton
was guilty of reprehensible