PATTON AND HIS THIRD ARMY: [ PART 2 ]

PATTON AND HIS THIRD ARMY:

[ PT. 1 ] - The powerful Third Army with its famous leader. General George S. Patton, Jr., which in ten months roared through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czechoslovak and Austria, crushing at every turn the German was machine which in 1940-42 was considered the most powerful army in the world, have now passed into history. Before the memorv of the great days of these campaigns as well as the close association with this famous American fighter grow dim, it might be interesting to jot down the story of the events as they unfolded and a few personal impressions of our leader. This therefore is the story of the Third Army and its great commander. General Patton had his neck broken in an automobile accident in Germany on 9 December 1945. Although almost completely paralized, he fought [ gamely ], "in a daring way" but finally succumbed on 20 December 1945--a year almost to the day after his Third Army's famous of over a hundred miles to the north to smash into the southern flank of Von Rundstedt's Ardennes offensive in Luxembourg and Belgium--the Battle of the Bulge.

[ PT. 2 ] - Shortly before his death he stated: This is a hell of a way to die. Although millions mourned his going, no one, including himself, would have wanted him to have lived a cripple. As someone so aptly said, he had finished his work. He, himself, felt and frequently said that America cannot escape her destiny, and that destiny is to be great. He certainly had helped in no small way to make this country fulfill its destiny. After his death eulogies were helped upon him, not only for Americans, but from all over the world. A typical editorial was that of 22 December 1945, in the Toronto, Canada, Evening Telegram: With the death of George S. Patton there passes from the scene one of the great soldiers of the last war and one of the most brilliant field commanders of all time. A leader of rare daring and impetuous energy, he showed around Metz and on the Moselle a tenacity that matched the audacity of his thrusts through France, Belgium and Germany. The success of his dazzling drives--as when he jumped the Rhine--was to be attributed as much to shrewd advance preparation as to the quickness of his eye for an opening. In the time to come his name will be a familiar one to all students of the military history that was made in the pre-atomic era.