Patton

[SgtRock]

I finished reading an old book on Patton, "Ordeal & Triumph", can't say it was a great but, it did answer some nagging questions.
A great take on Montgomery, Patton describes Montgomery as a fast thinker but, a slow mover.  Patton like Montgomery's plans but didn't like Montgomery's failure to carry them out.

Why did Montgomery always seem to get his way?
Montgomery would first sell his idea's to Marshall the head of the imperial war college, who would then include Churchill, so Ike would get it from three sides (Montgomery, Marshall & Churchill) all selling him the same plan. American Generals just didn't do this. The Brits & commonwealth had only 19 Divisions where the US had 41 yet Montgomery got more and more supplies, US divisions & air power as the war went on.

Surprised Patton never involved himself with logistics and always left it up to his 2nd in command.

Bradly and most of his staff were all infantry Generals that saw tanks as infantry support weapons, Patton was one of the few who saw Armor the way the Germans did, creating the spear head breakthroughs. Patton pioneered the idea of Armored Recon, using small groups of Armored cars and jeeps to probe the Germany front lines.

The allies had an odd way of fighting the War, they would task army groups to take an objective and then stop and not be allowed to advance beyond the objective, this made it easier on the SHAEF Staff to know where all of their forces were on map at the end of the day and logistics. This also allowed the Germans to regroup and form another defensive line. This drove Patton nuts, where an army group would advanced to a river and stop, never creating a bridgehead on the other side. Patton believed, never stop once the objective was taken, keep the enemy on the run.

Patton was stopped many times, from taking Paris & going into Germany more than once.

Patton at one time considered asking for a transfer to the Pacific, even after the war ended in Europe he wanted to transfer to the pacific but MacArthur didn't want him.

Patton sure was an odd duck and a pain in the ass but, I do believe the war in the west might have ended a little sooner with Patton leading the main advance vs. Montgomery.

[bayonetbrant]

Patton was stopped from taking Paris for political reasons - they wanted to let the French liberate their own capital.

[SgtRock]

Patton was stopped from taking Paris for political reasons - they wanted to let the French liberate their own capital.

Patton was a big fan of the French, fought WWI there, even some of the french generals felt sorry for him not being in on the glory of helping take Paris. Patton was stopped many times on following through on attacks, no reasons were every giving other than the habit of forcing advancing forces to stop after taking an objective, lots of missed opportunities.

[GDS_Starfury]

the old school like Monty's ideas and concepts.
they didn't understand the reality of Patton's real world successes.

[TheCommandTent]

Like you said Patton could be a pain and very blunt/direct and that put him on the bad side of alot of people.