Patton's Gap

Author: Richard Rohmer

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category: Normandy (France)

Page: 240

View: 4470


Patton's Vanguard

Author: Don M. Fox

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 078643094X

Category: History

Page: 497

View: 7930


Stirring accounts of the almost legendary campaigns of the United States Fourth Armored Division, universally recognized as "Patton's Best," from its pre-World War II origins up through its famous relief of the 101st Airborne Division during the Battle of the Bulge are presented in this book. The break out of Normandy at Avranches, the isolation of the Brittany peninsula, the armored thrust across France, the tank battles at Arracourt that cemented the reputation of the Fourth Armored, the brutal struggle in Lorraine, and, ultimately, the legendary drive to Bastogne are among the topics. The accounts were assembled through the use of original unit combat diaries and after-action reports, memoirs of key historical figures and abundant supplementary documents and correspondences. But the essence of the book are the first-hand recollections from members of the division gathered by the author. With maps, drawings and photographs.

Patton's War

Author: Kevin M. Hymel

Publisher: University of Missouri Press

ISBN: 0826274633

Category: History

Page: 416

View: 1466


During his life, George S. Patton Jr. starred as an Olympic athlete in the 1912 Stockholm games, chased down Mexican bandits, and led tanks into battle in World War I. But he is best remembered for his exploits on the field of battle in World War II. Patton’s War, the first of three volumes, follows the general from the beaches of Morocco to the fields of France, right before the birth of Third Army on the continent. In highly engaging fashion, Kevin Hymel uncovers new facts and challenges long-held beliefs about the mercurial Patton, not only examining his relationships with his superiors and fellow generals and colonels, but also with the soldiers of all ranks whom he led. Through extensive research of soldiers’ memoirs and interviews, Hymel adds a new dimension to the telling of Patton’s WWII story.

Patton's Madness

Author: Jim Sudmeier

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

ISBN: 0811768988

Category: History

Page: 160

View: 3894


Dwight Eisenhower called General George S. Patton “mentally unbalanced” and “just like a time bomb,” and indeed, the egotistical, mercurial, aggressive Patton is perhaps as well known for his daring battlefield exploits as for his questionable behavior and eccentric beliefs. In a brief but probing assessment of Patton’s life based on strong research in primary sources and knowledge of psychology, Jim Sudmeier considers the mind of Patton: what made this military genius tick? To what extent was Patton’s boldness and brilliance as a general, his willingness to welcome risk and danger, connected to his unstable personality? Sudmeier presents a myth-shattering reconsideration of one of military history’s most famous commanders.

Patton's Payback

Author: Stephen L. Moore

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 0593183428

Category: History

Page: 368

View: 7925


A stirring World War II combat story of how the legendary George Patton reinvigorated a defeated and demoralized army corps, and how his men claimed victory over Germany’s most-feared general, Erwin Rommel In March 1943, in their first fight with the Germans, American soldiers in North Africa were pushed back fifty miles by Rommel’s Afrika Korps and nearly annihilated. Only the German decision not to pursue them allowed the Americans to maintain a foothold in the area. General Eisenhower, the supreme commander, knew he needed a new leader on the ground, one who could raise the severely damaged morale of his troops. He handed the job to a new man: Lieutenant General George Patton. Charismatic, irreverent, impulsive, and inspiring, Patton possessed a massive ego and the ambition to match. But he could motivate men to fight. He had just ten days to whip his dispirited troops into shape, then throw them into battle against the Wehrmacht’s terrifying Panzers, the speedy and powerful German tanks that U.S. forces had never defeated. Patton, who believed he had fought as a Roman legionnaire in a previous life, relished the challenge to turn the tide of America’s fledgling war against Hitler—and the chance to earn a fourth star.

Patton's Third Army at War

Author: George Forty

Publisher: Casemate

ISBN: 1612003168

Category: History

Page: 225

View: 7875


The story of Gen. George S. Patton’s magnificent Third Army as it advanced across Nazi-occupied Europe and into Hitler’s redoubt. Includes photos. As America’s own answer to the Blitzkrieg, Third Army’s actions from the Normandy coast across France and Germany to Austria gave a new dimension to the term “fluid warfare.” They only needed one general order—to seek out the enemy, trap, and destroy them. This they did, relentlessly overcoming every obstacle thrown in their way. Third Army’s story is one of teamwork, of armor, infantry, and aircraft working together with a perfection that amazed even the Germans, who’d always considered themselves the masters of the mobile offensive. Though Third Army is often remembered for its tank spearheads, like the 4th Armored Division, these pages also give credit to the brave infantry divisions which butted their heads against fortresses such as Metz with ultimate success. It is also the story of a triumph of administration as thousands of trucks carried forward the vital supplies to keep the army on the move and fighting. When a German counteroffensive nearly burst through the US lines in the Ardennes, it was Patton’s Third Army that turned on its heel and immediately drove in the “Bulge,” ending Hitler’s last great hope for success in the west. Afterward nothing could stop it as it crossed the Rhine and overran the Reich. Much of Third Army’s greatness, driving force, and will to win, was owed to one man—Gen. George Smith Patton Jr.—and a significant part of this book is devoted to him alone. In these pages, a renowned military historian gives a vivid impression in words and pictures of what it was like to live and fight with Patton’s men. Full of eyewitness accounts, photographs, and maps, it relates the full story of how America’s most dynamic fighting formation led the Allied effort against the Nazis’ seemingly invincible European empire.

Final Battles of Patton's Vanguard

Author: Don M. Fox

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 1476638993

Category: History

Page: 319

View: 1247


By January 1945, Nazi Germany's defeat seemed inevitable yet much fighting remained. The shortest way home for American troops was towards Berlin. General George S. Patton's Third Army would carve its way into the German heartland, the Fourth Armored Division once again serving as his vanguard. This companion volume to the author's Patton's Vanguard: The United States Army Fourth Armored Division covers the final months of combat: the drive to Bitburg; the daring exploitation of the bridgeheads on the Moselle, Rhine and Main Rivers; Patton's ill-fated raid to rescue his son-in-law from a prisoner of war camp deep behind enemy lines; the first liberation of a concentration camp on the Western Front; the drive toward Chemnitz; the controversial push into Czechoslovakia; and the little-known encounter with General Andrey Vlasov's turncoat Russian Liberation Army.

Air Power for Patton's Army

Author: David N. Spires

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category: Close air support

Page: 404

View: 3506


Presents a case study of one air-ground team's experience with the theory and practice of tactical air power employed during the climactic World War 2 campaigns against the forces of Nazi Germany.

The Ghost in General Patton's Third Army

Author: Eugene G. Schulz

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

ISBN: 1477141448

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 344

View: 7020


Eugene G. Schulz was born on a farm in Clintonville, Wisconsin in 1923. He graduated from high school in May, 1941, and worked on his father's farm and at a truck manufacturing plant until he was drafted into the army in January 1943. Schulz received his basic training at Camp Young, California at the Desert Training Center, and later at Camp Campbell, Kentucky. He was assigned to the IV Armored Corps (later named the XX Corps) where he was a typist in the G-3 Section. His duties included the typing of battle orders developed by Colonel W. B. Griffith, the G-3 of XX Corps Headquarters. The XX Corps sailed to England in February 1944 on the Queen Mary with 16,000 soldiers on board, completing the voyage in five days. After final training in England, the XX Corps landed on Utah Beach in Normandy on D+46. His unit was attached to General Patton's Third Army and spearheaded the drive across France, through Germany and into Austria where they met the Russian Army on V-E Day. Schulz was awarded the Bronze Star medal when the war ended. He served in the Army of Occupation in Germany, then returned to the States and was discharged on December 1, 1945. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Madison taking advantage of the GI Bill of Rights, and earning Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Business Administration. Schulz met his wife, Eleanore, at the University and they were married in 1949. Schulz worked as an investment research officer at the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in Milwaukee for 36 years. The Schulz's have been retired since 1988 and continue to live in Milwaukee. They are world travelers. They have five sons, all married, and sixteen grandchildren.