Patton (Great Generals)
By Alan Axelrod
You can view this book's Amazon detail page here.
While certainly not an epic biography – the writing is only OK – Patton is such an incredible figure, the story is totally enjoyable. This book is more about the man than his actions. Obviously, these can’t be totally abstracted, but the book focuses more on what he thought than on what he did.
If you’ve seen the movie, this could have been the screenplay. The movie didn’t touch upon Patton’s insecurities or dyslexia. Nor did it touch about the fact that he was a racist and bigot, but it did cover most of what he accomplished during WWII and how he became who he was.
From a management point of view, one has to question if Patton was always used in the best possible way. Eisenhower certainly had his hands full with Patton’s antics, but the book makes it clear that not only was he likely the best tactician available to the allies, his meer presence on the filed of battle scared the Germans. Of course, this book is only one line of thought, but it seems like that could have been used for greater benefit during the war.
What I enjoyed most about the book was learning what a student of warfare that Patton was. He studied warfare itself, always quickly learned about new weapons and systems to utilize as soon as possible and personally scouted each engagement to conduct an optimal line of attack. He was aggressive and always believed that the longer his troops were in battle, the more of them that would die. Therefore, they should always attack early and often in an attempt to end battles quickly. Quite different from the view of Field Marshall Montgomery, who he hated.
Some interesting quotes from the book:
- “[Between D-Day and the end of the war in Europe], Patton’s men liberated or gained 81,522 square miles in France, 1,010 in Luxembourg, 156 in Belgium, 29,940 in Germany, 3,485 in Czechoslovakia, and 2,103 in Austria. The Third Army liberated or captured some 12,000 cities, towns, and villages, 27 of which contained more than 50,000 people. It captured 1,280,688 prisoners of war between August 1, 1944, and May 13, 1945. It killed 47,500 enemy soldiers and wounded 115,700 more. During this same period, Third Army logistics troops brought in by rail, truck, and air 1,234,529 tons of supplies, including 533,825 tons of ammunition. Its engineers built 2,498 bridges-about 8.5 miles-and repaired or reconstructed 2,240 miles of road and 2,092 miles of railroad. Its Signal Corps troops laid 3,747 miles of open wire and 36,338 miles of underground cable. Its telephone operators handled an average of 13,986 calls daily. Its ambulances evacuated 269,187 patients. Its officers and men administered civil affairs in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, and Luxembourg, as well as providing military governments for parts of Germany and Austria, ultimately regulating the lives and welfare of some 30 million men, women, and children.”
- “We admire Patton the captain, we relish Patton the legend, but we are, at the very least, uneasy with Patton the man.”
- “[Patton always had] some variation on attack, advance, and attack again.”
- “Patton hammered away at the theme of aggressive mobility. The entire division was to keep moving with a “desperate determination to go forward,” always attacking, but never pausing to attack, and always striking against weakness while blowing past strength. The tanks were not to stop. When one objective was attained, Patton admonished, “do not say `I have done enough,’ keep on, see what else you can do to raise the devil with the enemy.”
- “War is not about perfection, which is timeless, it is about opportunity, which is chained to time. The best, Patton frequently said, is the enemy of the good. It is always better to execute a good plan violently and immediately than it is to sacrifice fleeting opportunity by waiting for perfection.”
- “Patton’s firmest conviction that war was about opportunity, not perfection.”
- Started reading:
- 2nd June 2010
- Finished reading:
- 17th August 2010