14. The probable reason for his poor score in pistol shooting is the gun he used. Because the events in which he competed were a “military pentathlon”, Patton insisted on using a regulation military firearm, a .38 caliber revolver. There were no requirements as to what pistol had to be used and the other entrants chose to use .22 caliber weapons. In the previous day’s practice, Patton had set a world record. On the day of the actual competition, Patton shot almost all ten’s and two nine’s. The problem arose when the judges called a “complete miss”.
15. Because of the .38 caliber bullets he was firing, Patton had almost torn out the center “bulls-eye” with his scores of 10. What must have happened was that a bullet had gone through the torn area without leaving a complete hole for the judges to witness. Even his competitors admitted this to be so, but there weren’t available then the exacting measuring devices as we have now, and the judges could only score the firing as they saw it; a “miss”, as difficult as it was to believe.
16. After WWII, Patton took a short leave and visited Sweden where he met with some of his old competitors. During a “re-match”, he scored much higher than he had in 1912. After the 1912 Olympics, Patton returned home, waiting for a “good war”. He went to Mexico in 1916 with General Pershing and ushered in the “age of motorized warfare” while killing three of Francisco “Pancho” Villa’s bandit followers.
17. He served in WWI initially on Pershing’s staff and then he almost single-handedly created the American Tank Corps. In WWI combat he was severely wounded and almost died from blood loss. For his performance during the “Great War” he received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Purple Heart.
18. The passive years between WWI and WWII were spent in unceasing military study, polo playing, and tank study. In 1932 he commanded troops at the “Bonus War” in Washington, D.C. He taught himself navigation, then bought and sailed his own schooner, the “Arcturus”. He learned to fly, then bought and flew his own Stinson Reliant airplane.
19. He was injured severely in accidents at least three times, and came close to death twice due of embolisms. It was an embolism, which finally killed him after he had been paralyzed in an automobile accident in 1945.
20. He was awarded the Congressional Lifesaving Medal for saving the lives of three boys off the coast of Salem Bay, Massachusetts. The boys had overturned their small boat during a heavy squall and while Beatrice sailed the Patton’s sloop, tacking back and forth, George swam back and forth three times through the choppy waters towing the boys to safety.
21. Patton was not just a remarkable man, he was a remarkable man who had lived his life to it’s fullest. His was a life filled to the brim with excitement, adventure, and danger; he enjoyed it all. In the words of Kipling, he had, “... filled the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run.”
MOTORIZED WARFARE IN MEXICO
22. In 1916, Patton was the officer in charge of the world’s first “motorized” military action. Benedict Crowell, assistant Secretary of War in 1919, submitted an official report in which he stated, “The Punitive Expedition into Mexico in 1916 in pursuit of Francisco Villa marked the real beginning of the use of motor transportation for the Army, although for many years the motor truck had received some attention for military purposes.”
23. Setting the stage for the future daring battle action of a commander who blazed a Sherman-like path across Europe in WWII, a young hell for leather Lieutenant by the name of George S. Patton, Jr. made military history in this same punitive expedition. The following is the story of Patton’s courageous charge against a bandit held stronghold. It made history because it was the very first instance on record of a motorcar being used in an actual combat situation by the American Army.
24. Lieutenant Patton was officially assigned to the 10th Cavalry, but had been attached to Troop H of the 11th Cavalry as an Aide de Camp to General Pershing. During the first week of May in 1916, troops had been deployed in at attempt to locate Julio Cardenas. Cardenas was Captain of the “Doradoes”, the “bodyguard” for Francisco Villa. In accordance with typical Mexican Revolutionary decorum, he called himself “General” Cardenas. During the operation, Patton succeeded in killing Gen Cardenas the Right handman of Pancho Villa with his personal gun (Type Colt) and this particular gun has become Patton’s personal identity.
25. He was then promoted to captain and became officer commanding in Gen Pershing control HQ in England. Once again Patton voiced out his wish to serve in the battlefield and this time it was granted. Patton became the first tank commander of American army that had just been established. Together with the British troop, Patton fought the Germans in the biggest and massive utilization of tank for the first time. When the war was over Patton was promoted to the rank of Major and returned to his Calvary unit.
THE TANK COMMANDER
26. In late 1920, while serving in Washington he brought up the needs of strong Amour by the American Army. Since he had the knowledge and battle experience in Armour, Patton was given the task to setup an Armour Training School in Langres France with 500 men for starting.
27. In early 1935, he was promoted to Lt Col and his troop was involved in tank fighting in St Michel. The unit used the French tank (type Renault) to do recce and successfully infiltrated behind the enemy line. Later the unit again involved in another offensive operation near Meuse Argonne and Patton got wounded during the operation to pull out one of his tank from the muddy water. For this gallantry quality Patton was awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross. He was also recommended to the rank of Colonel.
28. Between the two world wars, Patton graduated from the Command and General Staff School as well as the Army War College. His assignments during the period included two tours in Hawaii, a tour in the office of the Chief of Calvary. War department and the three tours with the 3rd Calvary at Fort Myer, Virginia.
29. In July 1940, Patton was appointed as commander of a Armored Bde and in less than a year he was promoted to Major General and was given the command of the 2nd Armored Division. Early 1942 he became the first commander of American Armored Corps and started to train his troops to prepare for war.
30. This was a painful and extremely difficult decision for Patton. The Army was his life. He had lived as a soldier and warrior for over thirty years. Most certainly, if Patton felt that he must give up the Army to be able to speak freely, then surely there must have been some outstanding reasons. Reasons so important that he would be willing to withdraw entirely the only way of life he had ever known.
31. In December of 1945, Patton was scheduled to go home to Hamilton, Massachusetts to spend the holidays with his family. His plans were to fly to London where he would meet with and accompany Admiral Hewitt on Hewitt’s flagship to the United States.
32. Unfortunately, General Patton did not live to fulfill his decision. After he was injured in an automobile accident on the ninth of December 1945, he died on the twenty-first of December in that same year. He had received a broken neck as a result of the accident and never recovered. He was buried on December twenty-fourth, Christmas Eve, in the United States Military Cemetery located at Hamm, Luxembourg. To this day, there are thousands of visitors who make a special trip to the cemetery to see his grave among the graves of the men with whom he fought during the Second World War. Luxembourg observes “Patton Day” every year in commemoration of the great achievements of General Patton.
33. Patton felt that there were many things that had been withheld from the American public during the war and he strongly believed that they had a right to know the truth. He felt that someone had to stand up and fight for America and it might as well be him, since no one else seemed willing to do so. He was firmly convinced that the United States had an obligation to not only win the war they had just fought, but also to win the peace.
34. To him it was a confirmation that there was, indeed, in and out of the army certain malicious and envious forces that were determined to destroy and to discredit him. His greatness had inevitably brought about the jealously of his professional peers and rivals who, by virtue of their own great mediocrity, were unable to perceive the intrinsic quality of his ability and leadership.
35. Throughout Patton’s long and distinguished career, his perceptions, his military ability, his strategical and tactical ideologies were always excellent. There were none better. Had he not been continually slighted and ignored, it is certain, upon consideration of the information available to us today, that the war would have been over at least six months earlier. There would have not only been a great saving in untold lives, but also millions of dollars of property destroyed during that last six months would not have been destroyed.
36. These, then, are some of the reasons behind Patton’s decision to resign his commission in the Army. When viewed circumspectly, it is little wonder that Patton might be called “bitter”.
AN ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER BEHAVIOUR AND ETHICS
37. In the final analysis, then, what manner of man was Patton? Was he super-human with powers not attributed to mortal men? Certainly not. He was a man, merely another human being. Had a bullet shattered his brain, he would have died, as would any other man. In fact, the irony of his accidental death magnifies only too well his human frailty. These are the incidents and quotes made by Gen Patton as we trying to possess his character behavior and ethics.
AN AMBITIOUSMAN
38. What did make him different, what set him apart from the average person, was his ambition. He was willing to put his life on the line to defend his beliefs. He spent every waking moment concentrating every fiber of his being toward one end result, forcing him to be the warrior him so desperately desired and needed to be.
39. An excellent example of his driving ambition is explained in an entry made in the diary which he started when he entered his plebe year at West Point, a young man of nineteen. He writes, “By perseverance and study and eternal desire, any man may be great.”
40. Here we will let Patton speak for himself. As done previously, we will assimilate some of Patton’s salient views for the reader and present them without editor’s notes or footnotes. We will blend some of the General’s most strongly felt opinions. Though they will come from numerous and various writings, they will be mixed together in an attempt to form a smooth, readable essay spotlighting the General’s most perceptive assessments about war, leadership, politics, and preparedness.
41. From general notes made by Patton to be made in short speeches to Divisions, from personal correspondence, from personal essays written to crystallize his own thoughts, and from magazine articles he wrote which were published in the Army’s “trade” publications, there come some very perceptive and valuable advice. Some thoughts proposed by Patton are simply age-old truisms that have yet to be learned by even today’s nations and politicians. To quote an old phrase, “Those who never learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
42. Patton was keenly aware that the United States government has the habit of dismantling the fine Armies that it had creates. He had personally seen it happen after the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918 and he knew that it was going to happen after the end of the war with the Axis powers in 1945. Knowing that it was far more expensive to be unprepared and have to build a new Army from nothing than it was to have a finely honed Armed Force in the event that it was needed, he correctly reasoned that, “... it is better and cheaper to have a strong Army and not need it than it is to need a strong Army and not have it.” A good analogy would be that an automobile kept in proper running condition by good maintenance practices is much cheaper in the long run than is purchasing a new automobile each year. He agreed wholeheartedly with the precepts of General Leonard Wood who wrote that “... ‘Panic patriotism’ appears from time to time when the clouds of possible trouble loom up heavier than usual. There is much discussion, but little accomplishment. Adequate national preparedness on sound lines will be secured only when there is a general appreciation of its vital importance for defense and of the further fact that it cannot be improvised or done in a hurry. In short, improvisation is inadequate and extremely expensive in both materiel and manpower.”
BOLD AND AGGRESSIVE
66. “I have used one principle in my operations which has been remarkably successful, and that is to “Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.” That is the whole art of war, and when you get to be a general, remember it!
67. Remember four basic principles;
a. Surprise. Find out what the enemy intends to do and it first.
b. Fire Power. Rock the enemy back on his heels. Keep him rocking. Never give him a chance to get his balance or to build up.
c. Relentless pursuit. “A l’outrance” the French say, beyond the limit.
d. Clean Up. Mop him up.
68. Three vital qualities in an officer are:
a. Imagination. To think what the enemy would do and beat him to the draw.
b. Unselfishness. Always give credit where it is due. If you win, give the credit. If you lose, take the blame.
c. Courage. To shoulder responsibility.
69. Do not regard what you do as only a “preparation” for doing the same thing more fully or better at some later time. Nothing is ever done twice. There is no next time. This is of special application to war. There is but one time to win a battle or a campaign. It must be won the first time.”
COMMAND AND LEADERSHIP STYLE
70. From the above analysis we can derive some few factors that contribute to his success. The command and method that Patton’s applied to accomplish his mission were as follows:
a. Tactical and Strategic Competence. His ability to turn up unexpectedly anywhere in the divisional training area becomes legendary. Using his stemson voyager, he often commanded on maneuvered while flying overhead where he could observe the entire area. His aggressive use of armor was the key ho his success as a brilliant tactician. His main tactic involved the use of armor advance must be complimented with an aggressive air campaign against the enemy to break their resistance. His idea in tactics were well a head of contemporaries of his time and were in essence to he fundamental of air, land battle doctrine in the US Army today.
b. Setting Model. Patton believed in leadership through example. There was a saying from American military study that suggested the leaders were made and not born. Patton must surely bo one of them. One example that demonstrated his leadership style was an incident on 9 November 1942. Patton was involved in helping his soldier to unload supplies at Fedhola Beach, which was always under constant attack from enemy aviation. Every time the aircraft came into strike the men would run into cover expect Patton. This type of courage and leadership by example really aroused the fighting spirit of his man.
c. Good Relation With Staff. Patton was interested in one thing, result. His man work night and day when necessary to get a job done. They were on call 24 hours a day. But when the work was done they were relaxed. In running his staff, Patton believed that “staff should work in harmony and as a united family”. Eisenhower gave 3rd Army credit during his visit in March 1945 when there was no single mistake during the operation in Normandy largely due to the work of his brilliant staff.
d. Authoritarian. Patton believed in telling his subordinate what to do and not to tell them how to do. He had little patience with Div Commander who did not follow his orders. In one occasion he received report what that Div Commander had gone around a town instead of thought it, where by it was vital for that particular town to be captured. For violating his orders the Div Commander was ousted.
e. Accountable Person. When it comes to recognition for excellent performance, Patton believed that a general officer should assume the responsibility for failure, weather he deserves it or not. If things well he should invariably give the credit for success to others, weather deserve or not. His reasoning was that a general must take all the blame and gave everyone else the credit. Therefore he would get more out of his subordinates. This as the policy Patton practiced.
LESSON LEARNT
71. It was understood that Patton greatest quality, as a leader was his ability to infuse his troops with his own martial order. How did Gen Patton lead? How did he stamp his dynamic personality on his troops, accomplish the impossible and hypnotize his men? The answers is through his word, example, training and discipline, personal leadership and concern for the soldier’s welfare.
72. When he spoke to his officers and men his high-pitched, almost feminine sounding was harsh. As he continued, it grew harsher and more penetrating. He spoke of reality in violent words. “War is a killing business. You ‘ve got to spill their blood, or they’ll spill yours. Rip `em the belly or shoot `em in the guts. Death must not be feared. We don’t want the yellow coward in this army.”
73. Exercise Command To Complete The Mission There was a reason behind this kind of talk. “ The only quality”. Patton attempted to create a fanaticism through salty, raw, profane and improper exhortations. He was trying to build hatred towards the enemy. He acted on the principle that it was his mission to kill Germans Quickly, violently and ruthlessly.
74. The most challenging job that Patton face and other American military leaders in 1941 was the changing ordinary, peaceful civilians into disciplines, bellicose fighting men. This transition Patton accomplished by training with the objective of instilling discipline and creating a killer instincts. This had to be done at the expense of their bodies, minds and soul, to the point where they could, if necessary, fight like automatic machines in spite of physical and mental exhaustion. Patton said in a speech, all through your army career, your men have bitched about this chicken drilling. That drilling is all for one reason, instant obedience to orders. It creates instant alertness. I don’t give a damn for a man who is not always on his toes. A man to continue breathing must be alert at all times”.
75. Exercise Good Qualities and Staff Method. Qualities and staff methods were been posed by Patton throughout his career still remain applicable in today’s environment. Other good qualities in Patton that today’s commanders should have a leadership by example, physical and morale courage, knowledge and professionalism.
76. Patton’s method in directive control is worth applying in today’s environment. The commanders in Patton’s outfit had great freedom in developing ideas and exercising their ingenuity in training units for combat. They should try and did everything in line of training as long as they worked hard at it and got good results. As one of the Division Commander put it, “ He was always reasonable in his attitude as long as you delivered the good, but god help you if you didn’t “ He would sometimes assign tasks to his that seemed impossible, realizing that they had enough intelligence to try for the objective to the best of their ability.
77. He studied his manner of conducing himself, judging his subordinates and reaching decisions. He would insist on strict discipline, strong loyalties up and down the chain of command, absolute revolution to duty, complete attention to military courtesy, cleanliness on the part of his troops and faultless dress. He was entirely pragmatic in his outlook and practices and he believe that hardworking and miraculous attention to detail would ensure success.
CONCLUSION
78. A final note, one gets the impression that Patton was one of the last great American warriors. Patton lived to fight in World War II. It was his last but only chance to fulfill his destiny. Patton’s final act is like to play, except Patton was the play right, the principal actor, the director and the producer, all at once. Europe was his stage and the world was his audience. He alone knew how to play (his war) was going to unfold. Such traits in a human being are indeed unique.
Internet website, Biography of the Great Tank Commander, http://www.fas.org/irp
Defense News, Motorized Warfare, Edition April 1-7,2002
Martin Libicki, What Is Command and Leadership, Army Defense Journal, Volume 121 No 3, July 1998.
