Killing Patton

“Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men.” 

In his speech to Third Army in June 1944, Patton argues that as death is inevitable, one should not be afraid of dying in battle. In the context of his untimely demise barely a year and a half later, the words acquire a certain retrospective poignancy.

“In fact, what Patton desperately needs is one of his soldiers to do something audacious that will turn the tide in this desperate battle.” 

A company under Patton’s command is losing the battle for the German held fort of Driant, in France. This fort needs securing for Patton to capture the strategically important city of Metz. Fortunately, Private Robert Holmlund steps up, and manages to blast a way into the fort for the attackers.

“Hitler will never sue for peace, and this could lead to the complete destruction of Germany.”

Many of Hitler’s top generals believe by 1944 that the war is unwinnable. They also know that Hitler will never surrender. To spare further loss of German life, some of them attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944. They fail.

“Hitler is fighting a defensive campaign on all fronts. He cannot stage a major offensive operation.” 

At the start of the winter of 1944, the prevalent view among the Allied high command, including Eisenhower and Montgomery, is that the ease of their victories in France show that the Wehrmacht is on its knees. They are totally unprepared for the coming German offensive.

“With the roads too narrow to handle all the German vehicles, the biggest surprise attack of the war has become an enormous traffic jam.” 

“Operation Watch on the Rhine,” the German winter offensive in the west, starts well. They achieve total surprise, and many American units suffer heavy losses or retreat. However, the logistical difficulties that will plague the offensive are already apparent.

“[The] need for speed on the battlefield is vital. The Germans must destroy the Allied army before replacement troops arrive, giving the Americans a numerical advantage in soldiers and weapons.” 

Hitler and his generals realize that the Americans and British have greater numbers overall, which means that the Germans must strike fast and hard before reinforcements can be brought to key areas. This is an attempt to repeat the blitzkrieg tactics of 1940.

“[Hitler] has an irregular heartbeat, and has long had a problem with skin lesions on his legs, believed to have been caused by what is known as ‘neurosyphilis,’ a late phase version of the disease that brings on madness.”

In the winter of 1944, Hitler has been shaken by the attempt on his life in July. He also suffers from a myriad of other health issues. O’Reilly suggests that a form of syphilis may be damaging his brain.

“[Patton] is not immune to human suffering and the Battle of the Bulge is taking a hard toll on him.”

Despite his bravado, the plight of his men and the American soldiers trapped in Bastogne moves Patton, which is why he is desperate to liberate them. However, stiff German resistance means this is taking a lot longer than he had hoped.

“You have been much better informed about the situation than I was, because it was that awful weather which I cursed You so much which made it possible for the German army to commit suicide.” 

Patton prays to God after the successful relief of the American division at Bastogne. He thanks him for providing good weather that allowed the US Air Force to attack German positions. He also suggests that the previous days of bad weather, which grounded Allied planes, was a deliberate attempt by God to lure Hitler into a trap.

“Basically the Germans overran their supply lines. And without ammunition and gasoline, they were unable to wage an offensive campaign.” 

O’Reilly explains the fundamental reasons for the failure of “Operation Watch on the Rhine.” The Germans had too little fuel to power their tanks to reach their objectives. Indeed, many German tank crews had to abandon their vehicles and walk on foot because of this.

“Hitler has ordered that the murders be stopped and that all proof of his atrocities be destroyed.” 

The liberation of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland by the Red Army is imminent in January 1945. In response, Hitler orders the SS to blow up the evidence of the gas chambers used for the Holocaust. The Nazi regime wished this genocide to remain a secret to the rest of the world and to its own people.

“‘Judaism,’ Adolf Hitler tells the German people on the twelfth anniversary of the day he became chancellor, ‘began systematically to undermine our nation from within.”’

Hitler explains the rationale for his persecution of the Jews: the myth that Jews and Socialists had betrayed Germany in 1918, causing the country to lose World War I.

“We shall overcome this calamity, too, and this fight, too, will not be won by central Asia but by Europe; and at its head will be…our Greater German Reich, the German nation.” 

Hitler realizes that the battle of the Bulge has been lost, but still believes that Germany can win the war. He also thinks that Germany represents Europe in a racial struggle against the non-European east, which is represented by Soviet communism.

“Peace is going to be hell on me.” 

Patton writes this in a letter to his wife, Beatrice, in March 1945. With the end of the war in sight, Patton ponders what he will do with his life. He realizes that he may well be bored with peacetime occupations.

“[The] history of the world is but a biography of great men.” 

19th-century Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle proposed this theory of history—a theory Hitler subscribed to. Hitler has Goebbels’s read aloud Carlyle’s biography of 18th-century Prussian king Frederick the Great, clearly identifying both with Frederick and with Carlyle’s theory.

“Thus, the British Empire which has ruled the globe since the voyages of Captain James Cook in the 1770s, is no more.” 

In the Yalta Conference of February 1945, the United States and Soviet Union sidelined Britain. In a literal sense, the British empire would continue to exist for a few more decades. However, Potsdam formalized the fact that Britain’s global preeminence had ended.

“Churchill has been prime minister for five years. But unbeknownst to him he will be voted out of office in just three months- rejected by the nation he loves.”

Despite Churchill’s successful steering of Britain through WWII, after the victory over Nazi Germany, Churchill’s conservative party suffered a resounding defeat in the July general election. Despite Churchill’s popularity as a wartime leader, most of the British public wanted the type of social change, such as universal healthcare, that only the rival Labour party offered.

“No one said anything about the war. No one mentioned victory. No one mentioned death. This was a party given by ghosts.” 

In the last weeks of the war, Hitler and his entourage were in denial. Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, would often give parties in the nearby Reich Chancellery. These were surreal affairs where everyone pretended to ignore the obvious realities of death and destruction about to engulf them.

“Marshal Georgy K. Zhukov, the shaven-headed hero of Stalingrad and the Battle of Moscow […] will get the honor of hoisting the Soviet flag atop the German Reichstag.” 

Stalin decides that Zhukov’s army will lead the final assault on Berlin. The Battle of Berlin, started in April 1945, was a bloody affair, with thousands of losses on both sides. On May 2, Zhukov’s men raised the Soviet flag above the Reichstag, an iconic moment symbolizing the end of war in Europe.

“If he had the slightest idea of the revolution in world affairs which was in progress, his reactions would have been obvious.” 

At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, new US President Truman reveals to Stalin that America has developed a nuclear weapon. Churchill notes that Stalin is unaffected by this news. He assumes that it is because Stalin does not understand the significance of what Truman has told him. In fact, it is because Stalin already knows about America’s atomic bomb thanks to his spies.

“[Being] a member of the Nazi Party is no different from being a member of the Republican or Democratic Party.” 

Eager to rearm Nazi soldiers to fight the USSR, Patton, criticized the allied policy of denazification and compared Nazis to US party members in The New York Times. This shocking comparison prompted Eisenhower to relieve Patton of his command of the Third Army, effectively firing him.

“He longs to arm the Germans and lead them against the Russians.” 

O’Reilly hints at the real reason Patton opposed denazification. It was not rooted, as he claimed, in the need for ex-Nazis to help re-build Germany. Rather, he had the disturbing and outlandish idea that he could rearm ex-Nazi military units to wage war against the Soviets.

“It is the extreme disobedience of General George Patton, and of his very serious disregard of orders for the common cause.” 

O’Reilly imagines a conversation between “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the American spy network, and commando Douglas Bazata in early 1945, in which Donovan instructed Bazata to kill Patton for disobeying orders. In 1979, Bazata publicly claimed that this is what in fact happened, although there are several problems with his story.