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1944 started off badly for General Patton.
He had been transferred and exchanged gun smoke, soot and fire for the flowery smell of English hotel beds. His morning read was no longer the position reports from his commanders at the front, but instead the London morning papers. What had happened?
The phenomenal success of Operation “Husky” had been bought with extremely high amounts of soldiers killed in action. Many soldiers thought that Patton was more interested in his personal fame than in carrying out his duty and he was no longer a popular general in late 1943.
When Patton paid a visit to an American military hospital and called a man a malingerer, who had suffered a nervous breakdown after coming under artillery fire and then proceeded to box his ears and throw him out of the hospital, the liberal east coast press got the scandal it had long been waiting for.
A large percentage of the American public deemed this incident to be extremely significant and demanded that Eisenhower penalize Patton.
General Eisenhower however had not lost faith in Patton. Under the existing circumstances he had, however, no other choice than to remove the “Hero of Palermo” from the public eye and Patton had to hand over the command of the 7th Army.
While Montgomery, Eisenhower and Bradley were planning the allied invasion in France under the code name “Overlord”, Patton was given trial command over a “ghost army” in Dover, East England. His task was to bluff German reconnaissance, while the real invasion force in South England and Cornwall was preparing for the planned invasion of Normandy. Tents, tank mock-ups and active radio communications gave the impression that the allied troops were planning to be deployed from East England to Pas de Calais - and no matter how dissatisfying this was for Patton, the bluff succeeded. Even weeks after the launch of the Invasion on June 6, 1944 the German generals still thought that the landing in Normandy was a diversion and were waiting for Patton’s “ghost army” to land in Pas de Calais.
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Huddling up together and freezing in their landing craft, the allied soldiers headed for the French coastline in the early hours of June 6, and Patton had no absolutely no idea that Eisenhower and Bradley had already agreed upon assigning Patton with command over a new army.
The day and the hour of the attack have arrived. You will experience D-Day on the side of the 1st Infantry Division with which you have already stormed the beach of Gela and the Etna Line near Troina. This division will land on Omaha Beach in the “Easy Red” section near Coleville-sur-Mer.
The allied bombardment has missed its targets in the landing section on Omaha Beach. The enemy’s positions remain unscathed. Heavy fighting and heavy losses await you.
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29 сен 2024
