“Old Blood and Guts” dies - Dec 21, 1945 - HISTORY.com “Old Blood and Guts” dies Share this: “Old Blood and Guts” dies Author “Old Blood and Guts” dies URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day, General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. 3rd Army, dies from injuries suffered not in battle but in a freak car accident. He was 60 years old. Descended from a long line of military men, Patton graduated from the West Point Military Academy in 1909. He represented the United States in the 1912 Olympics-as the first American participant in the pentathlon. He did not win a medal. He went on to serve in the Tank Corps during World War I, an experience that made Patton a dedicated proponent of tank warfare. During World War II, as commander of the U.S. 7th Army, he captured Palermo, Sicily, in 1943 by just such means.

Patton’s audacity became evident in 1944, when, during the Battle of the Bulge, he employed an unorthodox strategy that involved a 90-degree pivoting move of his 3rd Army forces, enabling him to speedily relieve the besieged Allied defenders of Bastogne, Belgium. Along the way, Patton’s mouth proved as dangerous to his career as the Germans. When he berated and slapped a hospitalized soldier diagnosed with “shell shock,” but whom Patton accused of “malingering,” the press turned on him, and pressure was applied to cut him down to size. He might have found himself enjoying early retirement had not General Dwight Eisenhower and General George Marshall intervened on his behalf. After several months of inactivity, he was put back to work. And work he did-at the Battle of the Bulge, during which Patton once again succeeded in employing a complex and quick-witted strategy, turning the German thrust into Bastogne into an Allied counterthrust, driving the Germans east across the Rhine.

In March 1945, Patton’s army swept through southern Germany into Czechoslovakia—which he was stopped from capturing by the Allies, out of respect for the Soviets’ postwar political plans for Eastern Europe. Patton had many gifts, but diplomacy was not one of them. After the war, while stationed in Germany, he criticized the process of denazification, the removal of former Nazi Party members from positions of political, administrative, and governmental power. His impolitic press statements questioning the policy caused Eisenhower to remove him as U.S. commander in Bavaria. He was transferred to the 15th Army Group, but in December of 1945 he suffered a broken neck in a car accident and died less than two weeks later. Related Videos Patton's Career A Brilliant One Patton's Career A Brilliant One By THE NEW YORK TIMES Gen. George Smith Patton Jr. was one of the most brilliant soldiers in American history. Audacious, unorthodox and inspiring, he led his troops to great victories in North Africa, Sicily and on the Western Front. Nazi generals admitted that of all American field commanders he was the one they most feared.

To Americans he was a worthy successor of such hardbitten cavalrymen as Philip Sheridan, J. E. B. Stuart and Nathan Bedford Forrest. His great soldierly qualities were matched by one of the most colorful personalities of his period. About him countless legends clustered--some true, some untrue, but all testifying to the firm hold he had upon the imaginations of his men. He went into action with two pearl- handled revolvers in holsters on his hips. He was the master of an unprintable brand of eloquence, yet at times he coined phrases that will live in the American Army's traditions. "We shall attack and attack until we are exhausted, and then we shall attack again," he told his troops before the initial landings in North Africa, thereby summarizing the military creed that won victory after victory along the long road that led from Casablanca to the heart of Germany. At El Guettar in March of 1943 he won the first major American victory over Nazi arms.

In July of that year he leaped from a landing barge and waded ashore to the beachhead at Gela, Sicily, thus beginning a campaign that, as he himself observed, out-blitzed the inventors of Blitzkreig. In just thirty-eight days the American Seventh Army, under his leadership, and the British Eighth Army, under Gen. Sir Bernard Montgomery, conquered all of Sicily. But it was as the leader of his beloved Third Army on the Western Front that General Patton staked out his strongest claims to military greatness. In ten months his armor and infantry roared through six countries--France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria. It crossed the Seine, the Loire, the Moselle, the Saar, the Rhine, the Danube and a score of lesser rivers; captured more than 750,000 Nazis, and killed or disabled 500,000 others.

There were times, in those great days when the tank spearheads of the Third were racing across France with almost unbelievable speed and again when they were cutting the dying Nazi armies to pieces in the final spring of the war, that not even Supreme Headquarters itself knew where his vanguards were. Driven by his iron will, his advanced units had to be supplied with gasoline and maps dropped by air. About such a leader it was inevitable that heroic myths grew up. One eager war correspondent wrote that he jumped onto the Normandy beachhead waving a $1,000 bill and offering to bet it that he would beat Marshal Montgomery to Berlin. When the tale caught up with him, he pithily remarked that he had never seen a bill of that denomination. One of his men brought back the story that he swam the icy, 150-foot Sauer River in January, 1945, under machine gun and artillery fire, to inspire the men of the Third to follow him. That, too, General Patton denied, but the extent to which the story was believed was eloquent testimony to General Patton's habit of being where the fighting was fiercest.

Called "Old Blood and Guts" His best-known nickname--"Old Blood and Guts"--was one that he detested, but his men loved. "His guts and my blood," his wounded veterans used to say when they were flown back here for hospitalization. His explosive wrath and lurid vocabulary became legendary wherever American soldiers fought. General Patton had a softer side to his nature, too. He composed two volumes of poetry, which he stipulated were not to be published until after his death. He was an intensely religious man, who liked to sing in church and who knew the Episcopal Order of Morning Prayer by heart. He seemed fated to be the center of controversy. Again and again, when his fame and popularity were at their height, some rash statement or ill-considered deed precipitated a storm about his head. The most celebrated of these incidents, of course, was the slapping of a soldier whom he took to be a malingerer but who was actually suffering from battle fatigue in a hospital during the Sicilian campaign. This episode resulted in widespread demands for his removal from the command of American soldiers, in Congress and in the press, and caused the Senate to delay his confirmation to the permanent rank of major general for almost a year.

General Eisenhower sharply rebuked him, but insisted that his military qualifications, loyalty and tenacity made him invaluable in the field. The turmoil over this incident had hardly died away when he caused another stir by a speech at the opening of a club for American soldiers in London. The original version of his remarks there quoted him as saying that the British and American peoples were destined to rule the world, but after this had evoked an outburst of criticism Army press relations officers insisted that he had actually said, "we British, American and, of course, the Russian people" were destined to rule. He raised another brief teapot tempest when he came home in June, 1945, and told a Sunday school class that its members would be the officers and nurses of the next war. But this was nothing compared to the furore he caused by an interview he granted American correspondents after his return to Germany. Discussing conditions in Bavaria, where the military government was under his command, he asserted that too much fuss was being made over denazification and compared the Nazi party to the losers in an election between Democrats and Republicans back home. General Eisenhower promptly called him on the carpet for these remarks.

General Patton promised that he would be loyal to General Eisenhower's orders and to the Potsdam agreements prescribing the complete and ruthless elimination of all elements of Nazism from German life, but ten days later, on Oct. 2, 1945, he was removed from the command of his beloved Third Army. Although reports were current that he might retire, General Patton took his transfer in soldierly silence. He assumed command of the American Fifteenth Army, a paper organization devoted to a study of the tactical lessons to be learned from the war just completed, and told friends that this was in line with what had been his favorite mental occupation since he was 7 years old: the study of war. Although he customarily signed himself George Smith Patton Jr., General Patton was actually the third in line of his family to bear that name. The original George Smith Patton, his grandfather, was a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, and became a colonel in the Confederate Army. He was killed in action at the battle of Cedar Creek. Expert Horseman From Childhood General Patton's father went through V.M.I., then studied law, and moved west. He married a daughter of Benjamin Wilson, who was the first Mayor of Los Angeles, and for whom Mount Wilson was named.

The future general was born on the family ranch at San Gabriel, Calif., on Nov. 11, 1885, and from childhood was an expert horseman. At the age of 18 he came east and entered V.M.I., but after a year there he entered West Point with the class of 1909. There is a legend at the academy that he boasted at his entrance that he would be cadet captain, the highest post in the cadet corps, and that he would also be the first member of his class to become a general. Actually, he was cadet adjutant, the second highest post, and was the second member of the class to become a general. He was a poor student--throughout his life he remained remarkably deficient in spelling--but an outstanding athlete at the Point. He excelled as a sprinter on the track team, and was also an expert fencer, swimmer, rider and shot. He continued his interest in sports and athletics after his graduation as a second lieutenant of cavalry.

In 1912 he represented the United States at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, competing in the modern pentathlon, a contest which up to that time had been almost monopolized by Swedish Army officers. He finished fifth among more than thirty contestant, immediately after four Swedes. Of the five events, swimming, riding, fencing, running and shooting, he made his poorest showing in the pistol marksmanship competition, but he subsequently practiced until he overcame this weakness. Early in his Army career he established himself as a hell-for-leather cavalry man. His first post was at Fort Sheridan, Ill., but in December, 1911, he was transferred to Fort Myer, Va., where he was detailed to design a new cavalry saber. In 1913 he went to France to study French saber methods, and on his return was made Master of the Sword at the Mounted Service School, Fort Riley, Kan. He accompanied Gen. John J. Pershing as his aide on the punitive expedition into Mexico after the bandit, Pancho Villa, in 1916, and the next year he went to France with the general as a member of his staff.

He attended the French Tank School and then saw action at the battle of Cambrai, where the British first used tanks on a large scale. The new weapon was one to gladden the heart of a cavalryman, and from that time on his service was closely connected with tanks. He was assigned to organize and direct the American Tank Center at Langres. For his service in that capacity he was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. But he was not satisfied with a training command, and sought action. He took command of the 304th Brigade of the Tank Corps and distinguished himself by his leadership of it in the St. Mihiel offensive in September, 1918. Later that autumn, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive, he was severely wounded in the left leg while charging a pillbox, after 40 percent of the tanks in his command had been disabled. His life was saved by Pvt. Joseph T. Angelo of Camden, N.J., who dragged him to safety in a shell hole. After the first World War he served with tank units and then with the cavalry at various posts in the United States. He was graduated from the Cavalry School, the Command and General Staff School and the Army War College.

While on duty in the office of the Chief of Cavalry in Washington, he was detailed as aide to the Prince of Wales on one of his visits to this country. He told the Prince that a game called "craps" was very popular in this country, and taught him to play it. A Colonel in 1940 When this country began to rearm in the summer of 1940 Patton was a colonel. He was sent to Fort Benning, Ga., for duty as commander of a brigade of the Second Armored Division, then being formed. In April, 1941, he became its commanding officer and made the division famous as a tough and rough-and-ready outfit. Promoted to corps commander, he organized the Desert Training Center in California. When the North African invasion was planned, General Patton was placed in command of the American forces scheduled to land on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. One of the closest of the many narrow escapes for which he was noted came when a landing boat into which he was about to step was sunk. But he got ashore and after a brief but fierce fight took his objectives. During the Tunisian campaign that followed, General Patton became celebrated for the strictness of his discipline.

He punished men who failed to wear their helmets, even in back areas. After the American reverse at Kasserine Pass in February, General Patton took command of the Second United States Corps, which forced the Nazis back into a narrow corridor between the mountains and the sea, up which the British Eighth Army under General Montgomery pursued them. He won the battle of El Guettar in march, but not long thereafter disappeared from the public eye. On April 16 Gen. Omar Bradley succeeded him in command of the Second Corps. The reason for the shift was not made known at the time and there were rumors that General Patton had fallen into disfavor. Actually, General Eisenhower had withdrawn him from action in order to prepare the American Seventh Army for the invasion of Sicily in July. The invasion was brilliantly successful, and General Patton's troops cut clear across the island to Palermo; then fought their way along the north coast to Messina. This magnificent feat of arms was marred, however, by the slapping episode, which did not become generally known to the public until the following November.

General Patton, who drove himself as hard as he drove his men, visited a hospital not far from the front lines at a time when he had been under prolonged strain and was in an overwrought condition. There he encountered two men who showed no signs of visible wounds, but who had been diagnosed by medical authorities as suffering from battle neurosis. Losing his temper, General Patton called them "yellow bellies" and other unprintable epithets, and struck one of them so that his helmet liner flew off and rolled on the ground. General Eisenhower made an investigation and sharply castigated General Patton, although he did not formally reprimand him. General Patton made personal apologies to all those present at the time of the episode, and later sent public apologies to each division of the Seventh Army. General Patton did not appear during the campaign on the Italian mainland that followed, and some observers thought he had been relegated to a secondary role because of the storm of criticism that his action had caused in this country. Actually, however, General Eisenhower had picked him for a key role in the invasion of Western Europe, and he was then in England preparing for it.

Whereabouts a Mystery For almost two months after D-Day, June 6, 1944, General Patton's whereabouts remained a mystery. The fact that he was in England, at the head of an army, was well known, and the inability of the Nazi intelligence to locate him forced their High Command to retain the German Fifteenth Army in the Pas de Calais area, far from the Normandy beachhead, lest he head a landing there. Instead, the Third Army landed on the beachhead in great secrecy, and deployed behind the First Army. When the First Army broke the German lines between St. Lo and the sea on July 25, the Third Army poured through the breach to exploit it. The opportunity was ideal for a dashing, driving leader of General Patton's talents. His spearheads roared clear across the base of the Breton Peninsula, then turned east toward Parish. While the Nineteenth Tactical Air Command of the Ninth Air Force protected the right flank along the Loire Valley, General Patton's armor and motorized infantry forced the line of the Seine and smashed clear across France after the badly disorganized Nazis.

The pursuit went all the way to the Moselle, with planes dropping supplies to the leading units, before lack of gasoline finally halted the chase and gave the Nazis a chance to make a stand. In the bitter autumn that followed, General Patton's men made slow but steady headway against the entrenched Nazis. For almost two months--from Oct. 3 to Nov. 22--they carried on a sanguinary attack against Metz, which in 1,500 years of history had never before been taken by assault. They had to fight their way in, fort by fort and street by street, but they eventually took the city. Early in December the Third Army began an attack on the Saar Basin, but the unexpected success of von Rundstedt's offensive against the First Army's lines to the north forced a swift change. General Patton was ordered to go to the rescue of the crumbling American positions on the south side of the "bulge." He broke off his attack and redeployed his forces with astonishing speed. Within three days the Third Army had begun to pound at the southern flank of the Nazi wedge. Some of its divisions had traveled 150 miles in open trucks in freezing weather, but they were still full of fight.

By Dec. 28 they had fought their way to the relief of Bastogne, and the worst of the danger was over. For another month they hammered away at the bulge, until it was no more. In February the Third Army broke through the Siegfried Line between Pruem and Echternach and then crossed the Moselle into the triangle bounded by that river, the Rhine and the Saar. Working in perfect cooperation with Lieut. Gen. Alexander M. Patch's American Seventh Army, the Third cut to pieces the Nazi forces in the Saar-Palatinate region. On March 17 it seized Coblenz. The Third seemed headed for Leipzig when it was diverted to the south toward the so-called Alpine redoubt, where, it had been rumored, the Nazis planned their last stand. On April 18 the Third crossed the border of Czechoslovakia and nine days later it passed the Austrian frontier. Its advance units were in the vicinity of Linz when the cease-firing order came. On May 26, 1910, General Patton married Miss Beatrice Ayer of Boston. They had two daughters and a son.

In a characteristically brilliant operation, General Patton led the Third Army across the Rhine north of Ludwigshafen on March 22. Attacking without air or artillery preparation at 10:30 P. M., the Third took the Nazis completely by surprise and landed on the east bank without the loss of a single man. General Patton's "Blood and Guts" Speech the Troops (Warning Language) General Patton's "Blood and Guts" Speech the Troops (Warning Language) Posted on 03/17/2003 5:26:05 AM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour The Speech Given somewhere in England on June 5th, 1944 "Be seated." Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self-respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else.

Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, every one of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American. You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire.

For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being "He Men" and they ARE "He Men." Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. Because they are not supermen! All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling." That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!

There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily, all because one man went to sleep on the job. But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did! An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horseshit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking! We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world. Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do! My men don't surrender, and I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bullshit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Nazi Kraut poking a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet.

Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man! All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, 'Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands.' But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war.

The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits.' Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats! If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious firefight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that.

He answered, 'Fixing the wire, Sir.' I asked, 'Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?' He answered, 'Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed.' I asked, 'Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?' And he answered, 'No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!' Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the rode to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts! Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost.

All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable. Don't forget, you men don't know that I'm here. No mention of that fact is to be made in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell happened to me. I'm not supposed to be commanding this Army. I'm not even supposed to be here in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddamned Germans! Someday I want to see them raise up on their piss-soaked hind legs and howl, 'Jesus Christ, it's the Goddamned Third Army again and that son-of-a-fucking-bitch Patton.' We want to get the hell over there. The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit! Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it! The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo.

And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake! When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with just sitting back and taking it! My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket! War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours! Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts.

When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it's the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you'll know what to do! I don't want to get any messages saying, 'I am holding my position." We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that! We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls! We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn! From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don't give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties.

I want you all to remember that. There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, 'Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.' No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, 'Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!' "That is all." To: The Magical Mischief Tour Brave men are going to die soon. I pray our victory is swift and our causulties are very light. 4 posted on 03/17/2003 5:36:12 AM PST by Semper Paratus To: The Magical Mischief Tour Whew!! What a tonic. Put me in coach.

5 posted on 03/17/2003 5:37:11 AM PST by speedy [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ] To: xsrdx I think that you have to be a bit unhinged to be able to wage war the way that it has to be fought in order to win. 6 posted on 03/17/2003 5:40:18 AM PST by MJM59 To: The Magical Mischief Tour Worth Bookmarking bump... 7 posted on 03/17/2003 5:41:29 AM PST by CanisMajor2002 (Annoy a liberal...judge them by the content of their character) To: The Magical Mischief Tour Excellent speech. Taught me how to cuss with more proficiency. Patton is a classic. 8 posted on 03/17/2003 5:45:33 AM PST by Manic_Episode To: The Magical Mischief Tour Awesome. Thanks for posting it.

(hoping this will work...) My boss's dad served under him too, and was a tank commander. Apparently his dad used to say the same thing. 14 posted on 03/17/2003 6:11:34 AM PST by Constitution Day (** RALLY FOR AMERICA: Raleigh, NC ** [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies ] To: The Magical Mischief Tour .....Many thanks for posting this wonderful speech....I was in the Army in the late 60s and served with men who had fought in WW2, Korea and VietNam, but yet those who had been with Patton were proudest of that period of their Army career.....they never forgot it.....Patton was fond of making impromptu visits to units in the field to encourage the troops....the men loved it....they would crowd around him just to be in his presence....they loved him for who he was and he loved being George Patton..... Good luck to everyone and pray for our troops!

Stonewalls [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ] To: The Magical Mischief Tour Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. Well that would pretty much take care of Americas "Arteest" population.... The universities, the liberal press, and at least half of our govt. employees and politicans.. hmmmm 16 posted on 03/17/2003 6:25:26 AM PST by joesnuffy To: Iscool I wonder what his casualty rate was? 17 posted on 03/17/2003 7:00:53 AM PST by Valin (Age and deceit beat youth and skill) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies ] To: xsrdx Patton saved lives. Patton mastered both tank warfare and close in air support while most of the Army's thinkers were still fighting WWI all over again. Most generals came up through the infantry ranks. Most believed that tanks ought to support infantry advance at 4 MPH.

Patton took the time to understand air support, and got to the point where he allowed AA generals to commit his forces to battle without his prior say so. One of my good friends served in his Third Army and thanked God every day after the war that he did. He could have been under the command of Brit generals in Anzio, or Monty's forces as they slogged their way through France or Africa. Patton knew what Sherman knew - war is about taking all ability to make war out of the enemy. About forcing the enemy to eschew war ever after. Japan's been a pretty good ally, and Germany? Well, what can you say except they are awfully antiwar at this point. Patton was as sane as you or I, but he was right about Russia too. Too bad you can't freeze dry generals like that and break them out for use in days like the one tomorrow.

18 posted on 03/17/2003 7:33:12 AM PST by RinaseaofDs [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies ] To: The Magical Mischief Tour A caller/emailer to Fox & Friends a few weeks ago said: "The last movie I saw was Patton and the next movie I'll see will be Son of Patton." Absolutely perfect! So when did Patton say "We're going to use their intestines to grease our tank treads." That's my favorite, perhaps it's just from the movie. 19 posted on 03/17/2003 7:47:08 AM PST by PfromHoGro (Boycott all things liberal ('cept Islands of Adventure)) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ] To: Iscool My father-in-law also served under him. I guess he was a Captain at the time. He was a briefing officer and had to give Patton the "news" on the progress of the war. This was not a one on one deal. There were lots of senior staff present.

He always said that he thought life at the "front" would be far safer than briefing Patton. The one thing that really got him was that, despite his intimidating presence, Patton had a high pitched, squeaky voice. I think the "artistic license" taken for the movie "Patton" was well advised. George C. Scott was a better choice than Pee Wee Herman. 20 posted on 03/17/2003 8:23:59 AM PST by VMI70 [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies ] To: everyone I'm 17 and I have just finished basic training. First thing it was too easy. but this speech makes me want to fight everyday. specially about the killing off the cowards. I've been bred to fight and i love the feeling. but people who get jittery shouldn't even join. Patton is a general that will live forever. 21 posted on 08/22/2006 5:37:37 AM PDT by PFC-Moake George S. Patton, Jr.

(Old Blood and Guts) | eHISTORY Home » Biographies George S. Patton, Jr. (Old Blood and Guts) Brilliant but controversial World War II general. No U. S. General was more controversial during World War II than George S. Patton. He served in the cavalry in the early part of the 20th century and was an early convert to tank warfare, and served as a tank brigade commander in World War I. He commanded a Corps in North Africa and planned the invasion of Sicily in 1943. He was known as a harsh commander (his nickname was "old blood and guts"), even slapping a soldier whom he thought exhibited cowardice, an incident that nearly got him fired. In 1944, Patton was the commander of a fake U. S. Army group used to trick the Germans into believing he would be leading the invasion of Europe at the Pas-de-Calais. The trick worked, and Allied forces successfully landed at Normandy on June 6, 1944. After the Normandy Invasion, Patton led the U. S. Third Army in France advancing rapidly and keeping the pressure on the Germans.

At the Battle of the Bulge, he disengaged his entire army, turned them, and marched to the relief of the besieged Americans at Bastogne---a feat that is still considered one of the greatest in military history. His Army crossed the Rhine in March 1945, and would be in Czechoslovakia when the war concluded. He died in December 1945 from injuries sustained in a car accident. Birth Date: General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" | Crossword Puzzle Clue | CrosswordGiant.com General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" Clue: General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" We have 1 possible answer for the clue General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" which appears 1 time in our database. General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" - crossword puzzle clue Help Clue: General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" is a crossword puzzle clue that we have spotted 1 time. There are related clues (shown below).

Referring crossword puzzle answers Likely related crossword puzzle clues Sort A-Z General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" - Crossword Clue Answer | Crossword Heaven Last Seen In: LA Times - May 30, 2010 Found an answer for the clue General nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" that we don't have? Then please submit it to us so we can make the clue database even better! George, American general nicknamed 'Old Blood and Guts' - Crossword clues & answers - Global Clue Useful website for every solver George, American general nicknamed 'Old Blood and Guts' Let's find possible answers to "George, American general nicknamed 'Old Blood and Guts'" crossword clue. First of all, we will look for a few extra hints for this entry: George, American general nicknamed 'Old Blood and Guts'. Finally, we will solve this crossword puzzle clue and get the correct word. We have 1 possible solution for this clue in our database. Related clues

Question: Which general was nicknamed Old Blood and Guts?
Answer: Patton