Did you know that George S. Patton once battled fellow World War I veterans in the streets of Washington, D.C.? The Great
Depression of the 1930s spread economic misery, despair, and heartbreak across America. By 1932, nearly one-third of working
Americans were unemployed and desperate for relief. Many veterans of World War I felt that the federal government owed them
a particular debt for their sacrifice and service during the war. They began to organize and demand that Congress approve
an early payment of pension funds that was not due until 1945.
In the summer of 1932, about 20,000 unemployed veterans and their families traveled to Washington, D.C., from across
the United States to lobby Congress. Some of these "Bonus Marchers" camped out in shacks and tents, which they mockingly called
"Hoovervilles" after President Herbert Hoover. Others occupied abandoned and partially dismantled buildings near the Capitol.
Although the marchers were not disorderly or unruly, the Hoover administration and local officials feared this group of around
5,000 might turn into a mob. The tense situation exploded on July 28, 1932, when a marcher was killed during a scuffle with
police, and federal troops were called in to restore order.
One of the first federal officers to arrive in Washington, D.C., was Major George S. Patton. His cavalry troops met
up with infantry at the Ellipse, near the White House. Patton and the federal troops, equipped with gas masks, bayonets and
sabers, marched up Pennsylvania Avenue, firing gas grenades and charging and subduing the angry crowd. Later that night, Patton
and the federal troops cleared out the marchers' camp in Anacostia, with some tents and shacks catching fire in the process.
By the following morning, most marchers had left Washington, but the incident left bitter memories and affected Patton deeply.
He called it the "most distasteful form of service" and later wrote several papers on how federal troops could restore order
quickly with the least possible bloodshed
Funeral for a four star general General George Smith Patton Jr was not only one of the most colorful people but
also one of the highest decorated men from W.W.II.
"Officer's 201 File" at the War Department (Adjutant General's Office) contains the following details about General.
In 1942 Patton received the Oak Leaf Cluster to the Distinguished Service Medal with the citation: "For exceptionally meritorious
and distinguished service to the Government in a duty of great responsibility from August 1, 1944, to September 14, 1944.
As Commanding General, Third United States Army, Lieutenant General Patton inscribed his name in the annals of military history
by bold and brilliant leadership of his troops from the Normandy Peninsula across France. With zealous devotion to duty, indefatigable
energy and aggressive determination to engage the enemy with unremitting ferocity, he inspired his troops to the accomplishment
of any brilliant victories. By sound tactical knowledge, skillful, farsighted judgment and masterful generalship, he contributed
in the highest degree to the success of Allied operations on the Continent of Europe."
In 1943 Patton was awarded the Legion of Merit with the following citation: "For exceptionally meritorious conduct as
commander of the 2nd Armored Division and subsequently as commander of the I Armored Corps. By his leadership and indefatigable
efforts, General Patton welded the 2nd Armored Division into a seasoned and highly efficient combat unit, as evidenced by
its success on the battlefields of Sicily."
On April 14 1945 the War Department's press branch announced that "The President today recommended to the Senate the
temporary promotion of two lieutenant generals to the grade of general, and nine major generals to the grade of lieutenant
generals." Patton was one of them. The "Commanding General of the Third Army headed the Western Task Force in the initial
landing in North Africa in November 1942.
In the succeeding operations in southern Tunisia the II Corps, which he then commanded, cooperated with the British Eighth
Army in forcing Rommel's withdrawal to his final position in the Tunis-Bizerte area. Leading the Seventh Army into Sicily,
by his aggressiveness and initiative he contributed in major degree to the reduction of that stronghold in a matter of 38
days. Shortly after the breakout from the Normandy beachhead, General Patton led the Third Army into action in France.
In addition to occupying the Brittany Peninsula, his forces pursued the Germans across France to the German frontier at a
speed unprecedented for the tremendous number od troops involved. In thirty days the Third Army threw the enemy back more
than 300 miles, crushing all resistance and completely demoralizing any plans of the Germans for the defense of Northern France.
When the enemy broke through our lines in the Ardennes in December, 1944, General Patton responded with lightning rapidity
by launching a concerted attack on the southern flank of the salient. This operation stands as a superior example of tactical
and logistical maneuver.
Early in March, 1945, General Patton's Army broke through the German lines north of Trier and in four days reached
the Rhine. Promptly turning his effort southwards, he reached Worms and crossed the Rhine. Since that event, the Third Army
has swept some 200 miles across Germany to the borders of Czechoslovakia. General Patton has under his command today approximately
338,000 officers and men, and in the operations on the Continent since last June his Army has captured well over 400,000 prisoners."
In recognition of his accomplishments the Sultan of Morocco presented Patton with the Grand Cross of Ouissan Alaouite.
Luxembourg decorated him with the Croix de Guerre and the Order of Adolphe of Nassau, Grand Croix, Belgium with the
Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold with Palm.
The British awarded Patton with the Order of the British Empire and the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, France granted
him the rank of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, Commander of the Legion of Honor, and it presented him with the Croix
de Guerre with Palm. Russia granted Patton the Order of Koutusoff,
1st Grade.
His American decorations included the Silver Star and the Congressional Life Saving Medal of Honor and an Oak Leaf Cluster
to the Distinguished Service Cross.
Among others, Major General J. C. Lambert, the Adjutant General, also listed the following decorations: the Bronze Star
Medal, a Purple Heart, the Mexican Service Badge and the Victory Medal with four stars; the Medal Commemorative of the V Olympiad,
the Navy's Distinguished Service Medal, American Defense Service Ribbon, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Ribbon with
one silver and one bronze service star. For military experts and commanders that was certainly an impressive list. But
for the broader public, none of these told the story.
The costs for the war were already outrageous, and the situation in the pacific was still at large. To sway the public,
heavy calibers were necessary. One week after Omar Bradley, commander of America's 12th Army Group, was presented to reporters,
it was Patton's turn.
On June 14 1945 at 10.30 am the secretary of war and General Patton gave a press conference. Apparently, it was meant
to promote the use of costly tanks and the airforce. Nudged by Patterson, Patton opened with a humorous note: "Tanks are nothing
but armed and armored groups of fighting men ... The advantage of the tank ... over the man on foot is that the
soldier ... doesn't get his feet wet so much. If he does, he can always put his extra pair of shoes over the exhaust and that
dries them. There are many places where tanks cannot fight; there are no places where Infantry cannot fight. We have
always tried to utilize, as Napoleon said, 'The means at hand for the accomplishment of the end.' If we wanted to get across
a river or through a mountain pass, we would make the breakthrough with Infantry; then develop the breakthrough with armor
because it can go faster, and because once having gotten through the crust, or the skin, it is very appalling to the troops
in the rear. I think, personally, we have racial instincts, like when we were pursued around the bush by the saber-toothed
tigers. In this racial instinct, when a man sees a tank heading at him, it becomes a saber-toothed tiger or elephant and he
gets out of the way ... In order to make these breakthroughs, you have to take losses. Whether you take them all one day or
spread them over a length of time is, in my opinion, a very important decision. It is much better, in my opinion, to loose
10,000 men in one day than to loose
5,000 men (a day) for 20 days ... If you can get a German back on his heels, he stays
there and eventually he keeps on going further and further until you bury him. ..." The fact that the Secretary of War
urged him to dig deeper into the story about the tanks indicates how much it meant to him. Patton understood and added:
"using armor in an entity ... You must have a tank that can keep going for a relatively long period of time without having
to be rebuilt. You must have a tank that weighs sufficiently little to permit you to transport it by sea and land it in landing
craft. You must have a tank with as low a ground pressure ... as it is possible to obtain. I believe in our light and medium
tanks we accomplished that. The score... proves it. We (Third Army) got something like 2,300-odd German tanks of which 890
were Panthers and Tigers." .. we lost just half that many. Furthermore, we were always attacking and the majority of
our losses ... were caused by dug-in antitank guns ... The Mark IV is more versatile than the Tiger. It can reverse speed
and go around and get the Tiger where he sits down. .. We have a new tank, this T-24. It is a light tank with a 75 mm gun
which is one of the greatest killing machines ever made. It can't take the blow from a Panther or antitank gun, but it can
take shell fragmentations and small caliber stuff. It goes like the dickens and can out talk the Tiger or Panther with its
cannon. It is a very deadly weapon. We also have the T-26, which is the new tank with the
90-mm. They can exchange
punches with anything ever built and punch any amount of armor that has ever been put on a tank and do it very easily. Also
it has the most lethal personnel shell yet devised. By that I mean the fragmentation of the 90-mm shell is non-armor piercing
- the HE shell is very lovely from our standpoint, but not from the enemy's.
I think an interesting commentary on the efficiency of American construction is this: When the Western Task Force left
here in October for Morocco I asked General Somervell to get me 80 self-propelled antiaircraft, antitank weapons. He produced
80 such vehicles mounted on a half track ... Seventy-eight of them got to Africa. At midnight of May 8-9 38 of them
were still running. They had fought from Morocco to Tunis, from Gela to all around Sicily and from Normandy to the far southeastern
corner of Germany ...
" Since Patterson prodded him to talk about horse Cavalry, Patton mentioned instantly Tunisia and Sicily. "With
reference to , it is my considered opinion... Had we had the horse Cavalry there, those two operations would have been successful.
In Sicily we had 900 immortal heroes mounted on jackasses and bulls and horses and everything. One of the surprising things
was the magnificent ignorance of young America as to animals. Any American can run an automobile - I have never seen one that
couldn't - but very few Americans can even saddle a horse. I was going up a hill and saw a very military soldier riding
downhill on a very tall mule, and he had the saddle up on the neck of the thing. He saw me and stopped to salute - he didn't
know he could salute while moving. The mule put his head down and the soldier slid off his head. I said, 'My goodness, does
that happen often?' he said, 'Every time it stops.' I said, 'Why do you put the saddle there? Why don't you put it on his
back?' He said, 'On his back?' He said the only thing he ever rode before was an elephant and he sat on his head. You see,
in extemporizing horse Cavalry you have certain difficulties." The Secretary jumped in again, with another agenda: "What
can you say about ... the importance of cooperation and the actual success of cooperation between your tank forces and the
Air Forces?" Patton replied: "In open country ... fighter bombers moving ahead of any Army give you an almost unbeatable team
because the fighter bomber gets the fellow, the enemy, when he is on the road and the capacity for relatively rapid speed
on the part of the Army prevents the enemy from getting off the road. So you really have a very good combination ..."
To maximize on Patton's ingenuity, the Secretary goaded him: "General Bradley ... said one of the crossings of the Rhine was
made with the loss of 27 men." When Patton joked: ".. He made an underestimate, it was 28." Someone from the press inquired:
"For two divisions?" Patton tried to shrug it off: "No, 28 men in the 5th Division, which was the first across. I doubt if
the 90th had more .." But the Secretary was not ready to let go. Patton was not where he expected him to be: "Was the
place of the Rhine where you crossed historic by any chance?" Patton tried to please: "Not that particular place, but the
76th Division did cross over at Lorelei Rock and afterward captured Rheingold, which I think is German mythology backwards.
And the 20th Division crossed the scene at the same spot that Labienus did in 52 B.C." Afraid the press had no clue and might
loose patience, Patterson challenged him to explain. Patton did: "He was to Caesar what General Walker was to me. General
Walker commanded the XXth Corps that crossed there and Labienus commanded the 10th Legion." "In other words", the Secretary
prodded for simplicity: "that was the famous crossing that Caesar made across the Rhine in how many days?" But Patton had
to correct, without loosing his humor: "That was the other one. When we built the bridge at Oppenheim it took nie days, 22
hours and 15 minutes, thereby beating Julius by one day. He didn't go down to minutes in his figure." Finally somebody
in the press section dared to jump in: "May I ask a question?" Patton responded: "If you make it short and snappy." But as
soon as the reporter wondered: "Does the designation of the Third Army as occupation force in Germany effect your hopes to
go to the Japanese war?" the Secretary of war cut him off: "I will rule that out. We are talking about past operations." Subsequently
the "press" obliged: "What kind of magic did you use to get the spirits of the Third Army so high? We heard all about that."
Patton: was permitted to answer that. He defected very diplomatically: "I just had the happiness of commanding some very great
men and had some very great, great commanders." When somebody from the press inquired: "You referred to the plan of
crossing the Rhine at Oppenheim with
250 cub planes and you preceded that by planning the greatest airborne operation.
Were you being facetious, or .." Patton shot back: "Facetious! I am sorry I have such a pretty wit people don't realize it."
The next question from the press indicated what a hot potato it was: "General Bradley said last week there was a crossing
planned by two airborne divisions .." Patton admitted that: "Yes, ... . but that .. was thrown out of kilter by this
fellow that attacked us and we had to go up and lick him." And then he quickly changed the subject: "There is one thing that
I would like to have you gentlemen and ladies correct for me. I don't know just what has ben said but it is alleged I said
'a lot of damned fool soldiers got killed .. or some such remark .. The situation is as follows ..." Over Christmas
Patton meant to join his wife Beatrice in Boston. On December 9th, one day before Patton was scheduled to return to the United
States, he and General Hobart R. Gay, his loyal chief of staff, were picked up to hunt pheasants. As usual for that time of
the year, it was a wet, hazy morning. According to the Adjutant General's Office a signed statement by Horace L. Woodring
from 1952 indicates that he "was the driver of the car ... At the time he was Gen(eral) Patton's assigned driver ...
Woodring states that he was driving a 1938 Cadillac 75 Special limousine. There was a jeep preceding the car carrying the
hunting dogs & other equipment but nothing said about the driver of this vehicle." The Cadillac collided with a
truck. A note from November 23 1953 in "Officer's 201 File" at the War Department adds: "Accident occurred at 11.15 am, 9
Dec(ember) 45 when car in which he was passenger collided with a truck." At 12.45 pm Patton was admitted at the 130th Sta
Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. He was paralyzed from the neck down On Monday December 10 1945 a news story in the
New York Times stated that neither Pfc. Harris Woodring or Thompson, the driver of the truck, was held after military police
ascertained the truck was traveling at
10 mph and General Patton's car was proceeding at only
30 mph. From then on,
the legend began to grow. A note from the Adjutant General states that "Woodring also claims he has a letter from Gen(eral)
Gay absolving him of any blame for the accident." On December 21, Patton died of an embolism. On Christmas Eve, in pouring
rain, Patton was buried at the American Cemetery in Hamm , Luxembourg, among the men who fought under him in the Battle of
the Bulge. Colonel Reed from 2nd Cavalry commanded the guard of honor at his funeral. But on November 18 1953 the Gary
Post Tribune in Indiana sent a telegram concerning the death of General George S. Patton, stating that ADC Atchinson and a
Horace Woodring claim to have been the driver.
Major General Wm. E. Bergin, the Adjutant General, clarified that Patton "died on 21 December 1945 after being
hospitalized for injuries incurred in an automobile accident near Mannheim, Germany, on 9 December 1945 when the car in which
he was a passenger collided with a truck. When the accident occurred, General Patton was riding in a Cadillac limousine which
was driven by Horace L. Woodring." Lieutenant Colonel George Dyer wrote in the XII Corps chronicle on p. 502: "It is
doubtful if the forward-going spirit instilled into XII Corps by Gen 'Doc' Cook and carefully fostered through combat by Gen
'Matt' Eddy could have found its full expression if somebody besides Gen 'Georgie' Patton had been the army commander under
whom XII Corps went forward to attack. Gen Patton commanded Third Army throughout its crucial 281 days of battle; XII Corps
was one of only two corps which were parts of his army continuously during that period. In all that time he never failed to
furnish the maximum possible support for XII Corps' operations, or to show an audacity which complemented and sustained the
instinctive boldness of the corps' command and staff, just as the corps leadership backed up and nurtured the fighting courage
of its units. .. A part of XII Corps' heart lies in the unadorned grave at Hamm, Luxemburg, where Gen Patton was buried .."
The car was repaired and remains on display at the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor at Fort Knox, Kentucky; with other Patton
artifacts. General Gay became Commander of the III Corps at Fort MacArthur in California. On April 3 1946 the
war department issued a statement that "Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson, foreign and U.S. Army officials, and government
dignitaries left Washington today by plane to attend the dedication of Patton Hall at the Cavalry School in Fort Riley, Kansas,
which will be held tomorrow. In an elaborate ceremony, the former Academic Building at the school where General George S.
Patton, Jr., served for many years will be renamed in honor of World War II's most famous cavalryman. Secretary Patterson,
who will be the principal speaker at Fort Riley, was accompanied by two enlisted men who were wounded in the fighting in Europe
while arriving with General Patton's Third Army forces ...
The sergeants are patients at the Walter Reed General Hospital.
General Jacob L. Devers, Commanding General of Army ground Forces and a classmate of General Patton at West Point,
will participate in the ceremony along with representatives of two allied nations. Colonel Kenneth Mackassck of Great Britain
and Colonel A. J. P. Le Bel of France will be present for the event. General Patton's family will be reunited at the
ceremony. Mrs. Beatrice Patton, widow of the famed general, will unveil bronze lettering above the entrance to Patton Hall.
With he will be her two daughters, Mrs. John K. Waters and Mrs James Totten, and her son, George S. Patton, III, a first-classman
at Westpoint. General Patton's sister, Miss Anne W. Patton, and his son-in-law, Colonel Waters, will also attend. Governor
Andrew Schoeppel of Kansas is expected to head the list of civic and state leaders at the dedication.
Master Sergeant Williams G. Mecks, General Patton's orderly for more than seven years, was brought back from the European
Theater of Operations to be a special guest of the Cavalry School."
