جورج پاتون
جورج سميث پاتون (عاش 11 نوفمبر 1885 – 21 ديسمبر 1945) كان من ألمع الجنرالات الأمريكيين في الحرب العالمية الثانية، وكانت طريقته المثيرة، وتعليقاته الصريحة عن الشؤون العسكرية والسياسية وسلوكه المتهور قد أكسبته مدح الغربيين له ونقدهم معًا.
Born in 1885, Patton attended the Virginia Military Institute and the United States Military Academy at West Point. He studied fencing and designed the M1913 Cavalry Saber, more commonly known as the "Patton Saber". He competed in the modern pentathlon in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Patton entered combat during the Pancho Villa Expedition of 1916, the United States' first military action using motor vehicles. He fought in World War I as part of the new United States Tank Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces: he commanded the U.S. tank school in France, then led tanks into combat and was wounded near the end of the war. In the interwar period, Patton became a central figure in the development of the army's armored warfare doctrine, serving in numerous staff positions throughout the country. At the United States' entry into World War II, he commanded the 2nd Armored Division.
Patton led U.S. troops into the Mediterranean theater with an invasion of Casablanca during Operation Torch in 1942, and soon established himself as an effective commander by rapidly rehabilitating the demoralized II Corps. He commanded the U.S. Seventh Army during the Allied invasion of Sicily, where he was the first Allied commander to reach Messina. There he was embroiled in controversy after he slapped two shell-shocked soldiers, and was temporarily removed from battlefield command. He was assigned a key role in Operation Fortitude, the Allies' military deception campaign for Operation Overlord. At the start of the Western Allied invasion of France, Patton was given command of the Third Army, which conducted a highly successful rapid armored drive across France. Under his decisive leadership, the Third Army took the lead in relieving beleaguered American troops at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, after which his forces drove deep into Nazi Germany by the end of the war.
During the Allied occupation of Germany, Patton was named military governor of Bavaria, but was relieved for making aggressive statements towards the Soviet Union and trivializing denazification. He commanded the United States Fifteenth Army for slightly more than two months. Severely injured in an auto accident, he died in Germany twelve days later, on December 21, 1945.
Patton's colorful image, hard-driving personality, and success as a commander were at times overshadowed by his controversial public statements. His philosophy of leading from the front, and his ability to inspire troops with attention-getting, vulgarity-laden speeches, such as his famous address to the Third Army, was received favorably by his troops, but much less so by a sharply divided Allied high command. His sending the doomed Task Force Baum to liberate his son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel John K. Waters, from a prisoner-of-war camp further damaged his standing with his superiors. His emphasis on rapid and aggressive offensive action proved effective, and he was regarded highly by his opponents in the German High Command. An award-winning biographical film released in 1970, Patton, helped popularize his image.
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بداية حياته
وُلِد باتون في 11 نوفمبر عام 1885م في سان گابرييل، كاليفورنيا بالولايات المتحدة. وتخرج في الأكاديمية العسكرية عام 1909م. وكان رياضيًا متميزًا. وقد شارك في أول مسابقة الخماسي الحديث في الألعاب الاولمبية الصيفية 1912، كما تأهل للذهاب إلى الألعاب الاولمبية الصيفية 1916، إلا أنها ألغيت بسبب اندلاع الحرب العالمية الأولى. والتحق بسلاح الفرسان بعد تخرجه.
تجريدة پانشو ڤيلا
In 1915, Lieutenant Patton was assigned to border patrol duty with A Troop of the 8th Cavalry, based in Sierra Blanca.[1][2] During his time in the town, Patton took to wearing his M1911 Colt .45 in his belt rather than a holster. His firearm discharged accidentally one night in a saloon, so he swapped it for an ivory-handled Colt Single Action Army revolver, a weapon that would later become an icon of Patton's image.[3]
In March 1916, Mexican forces loyal to Pancho Villa crossed into New Mexico and raided the border town of Columbus. The violence in Columbus killed several Americans. In response, the U.S. launched the Pancho Villa Expedition into Mexico. Chagrined to discover that his unit would not participate, Patton appealed to expedition commander John J. Pershing, and was named his personal aide for the expedition. This meant that Patton would have some role in organizing the effort, and his eagerness and dedication to the task impressed Pershing.[4][5] Patton modeled much of his leadership style after Pershing, who favored strong, decisive actions and commanding from the front.[6][7] As an aide, Patton oversaw the logistics of Pershing's transportation and acted as his personal courier.[8]
In mid-April, Patton asked Pershing for the opportunity to command troops, and was assigned to Troop C of the 13th Cavalry to assist in the manhunt for Villa and his subordinates.[10] His initial combat experience came on May 14, 1916, in what would become the first motorized attack in the history of U.S. warfare. A force of ten soldiers and two civilian guides, under Patton's command, with the 6th Infantry in three Dodge touring cars surprised three of Villa's men during a foraging expedition, killing Julio Cárdenas and two of his guards.[5][11] It was not clear if Patton personally killed any of the men, but he was known to have wounded all three.[12] The incident garnered Patton both Pershing's good favor and widespread media attention as a "bandit killer".[5][13] Shortly after, he was promoted to first lieutenant while a part of the 10th Cavalry on May 23, 1916.[1] Patton remained in Mexico until the end of the year. President Woodrow Wilson forbade the expedition from conducting aggressive patrols deeper into Mexico, so it remained encamped in the Mexican border states for much of that time. In October Patton briefly retired to California after being burned by an exploding gas lamp.[14] He returned from the expedition permanently in February 1917.[15]
الحرب العالمية الأولى
وأصبح قائدًا للواء الدبابات في فرنسا.
في عام 1917 ظل باتون مع بيرشنج معاونا له عند نشر القوات الأمريكية في فرنسا في أثناء الحرب العالمية الأولى. وهناك عين قائدا لاول وحدة مدرعات أمريكية كان هدفها هو كسر الجمود الذي كان على جبهات الحرب نتيجة لحرب الخنادق. ثم عهد إليه بالاشراف على مدرسة لتدريب العسكريين في نوفمبر 1917 في لانجريه. واصيب باتون في خلال الهجوم ميوز- آرجون بجروح طفيفة وحصل على صليب الخدمة المتميزة تقديرا لشجاعته وبسالته في القتال.
ما بين الحربين
عقب انتهاء الحرب عاد باتون إلى بلاده وهو لايزال قائدا لاول سلاح مدرعات أمريكي الذي عرف بلواء الدبابات 314. وظل في فترة ما بين الحربين مدافعا متحمسا لمستقبل سلاح المدرعات.غير ان انخفاض الانفاق في أمريكا فترة السلم ،و الكساد الكبير كان لهم أكبر الاثر في تقليل ميزانية الأبحاث في مجال الدبابات ،و كذلك إنتاج الدبابات.
الحرب العالمية الثانية
Following the German Army's invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II in Europe in September 1939, the U.S. military entered a period of mobilization, and Colonel Patton sought to build up the power of U.S. armored forces. During maneuvers the Third Army conducted in 1940, Patton served as an umpire, where he met Adna R. Chaffee Jr. and the two formulated recommendations to develop an armored force. Chaffee was named commander of this force,[16] and created the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions as well as the first combined arms doctrine. He named Patton commander of the 2nd Armored Brigade, part of the 2nd Armored Division. The division was one of few organized as a heavy formation with many tanks, and Patton was in charge of its training.[17] Patton was promoted to brigadier general on October 2, made acting division commander in November when Charles L. Scott assumed command of I Armored Corps, and on April 4, 1941, was promoted again to major general as Commanding General (CG) of the 2nd Armored Division.[16] As Chaffee stepped down from command of the I Armored Corps, Patton became the most prominent figure in U.S. armor doctrine. In December 1940, he staged a high-profile mass exercise in which 1,000 tanks and vehicles were driven from Columbus, Georgia, to Panama City, Florida, and back.[18] He repeated the exercise with his entire division of 1,300 vehicles the next month.[19] Patton earned a pilot's license and, during these maneuvers, observed the movements of his vehicles from the air to find ways to deploy them effectively in combat.[18] His exploits earned him a spot on the cover of Life magazine.[20]
General Patton led the division during the Tennessee Maneuvers in June 1941, and was lauded for his leadership, executing 48 hours' worth of planned objectives in only nine. During the September Louisiana Maneuvers, his division was part of the losing Red Army in Phase I, but in Phase II was assigned to the Blue Army. His division executed a 400-mile (640 km) end run around the Red Army and "captured" Shreveport, Louisiana. During the October–November Carolina Maneuvers, Patton's division captured Drum, the commander of the opposing army.[21] Drum was embarrassed and became the subject of mockery.[22] After soldiers from Isaac D. White's battalion detained Drum,[23] the exercise umpires ruled that the circumstances would not have transpired in combat, so he was allowed to return to his headquarters, enabling the exercise to continue and Drum to save face.[24] Despite the umpires' actions, the incident indicated to senior leaders that Drum might not be prepared to command large bodies of troops under the modern battlefield conditions the Army would face in World War II, so he was not considered for field command.[24][أ]
On January 15, 1942, a few weeks after the American entry into World War II, he succeeded Scott as commander of I Armored Corps, and the next month established the Desert Training Center[26] in the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County in California, to run training exercises. He commenced these exercises in late 1941 and continued them into the summer of 1942. Patton chose a 10,000-acre (40 km2) expanse of desert area about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Palm Springs.[27] From his first days as a commander, Patton strongly emphasized the need for armored forces to stay in constant contact with opposing forces. His instinctive preference for offensive movement was typified by an answer Patton gave to war correspondents in a 1944 press conference. In response to a question on whether the Third Army's rapid offensive across France should be slowed to reduce the number of U.S. casualties, Patton replied, "Whenever you slow anything down, you waste human lives."[28] It was around this time that a reporter, after hearing a speech where Patton said that it took "blood and brains" to win in combat, began calling him "blood and guts". The nickname would follow him for the rest of his life.[29] Soldiers under his command were known at times to have quipped, "our blood, his guts". Nonetheless, he was known to be admired widely by the men under his charge.[30]
حملة شمال أفريقيا
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قاد باتون في نوفمبر عام 1942 الحملة الغربية إلى سواحل مراكش في تحالف غزو شمالي إفريقيا، وفي مارس عام 1943م أصبح قائدًا للوحدة الثانية من الجيش الأمريكي وأحرز أول انتصار للولايات المتحدة في حرب القويطار. وقبل انتهاء معسكر تونس أصبح باتون قائدًا للجيش السابع لغزو صقلية في يوليو عام 1943م، واحتل جيشه مع الجيش الثامن البريطاني الجزيرة في 39 يومًا.
Under Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, Patton was assigned to help plan the Allied invasion of French North Africa as part of Operation Torch in the summer of 1942.[31][32] Patton commanded the Western Task Force, consisting of 33,000 men in 100 ships, in landings centered on Casablanca, Morocco. The landings, which took place on November 8, 1942, were opposed by Vichy French forces, but Patton's men quickly gained a beachhead and pushed through fierce resistance. Casablanca fell on November 11 and Patton negotiated an armistice with French General Charles Noguès.[33][34] The Sultan of Morocco was so impressed that he presented Patton with the Order of Ouissam Alaouite, with the citation "Les Lions dans leurs tanières tremblent en le voyant approcher" (The lions in their dens tremble at his approach).[35] Patton oversaw the conversion of Casablanca into a military port and hosted the Casablanca Conference in January 1943.[36]
On March 6, 1943, following the defeat of the U.S. II Corps by the German Afrika Korps, commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, at the Battle of Kasserine Pass, Patton replaced Major General Lloyd Fredendall as Commanding General of the II Corps and was promoted to lieutenant general. Soon thereafter, he had Major General Omar Bradley reassigned to his corps as its deputy commander.[37] With orders to take the battered and demoralized formation into action in 10 days' time, Patton immediately introduced sweeping changes, ordering all soldiers to wear clean, pressed and complete uniforms, establishing rigorous schedules, and requiring strict adherence to military protocol. He continuously moved throughout the command talking with men, seeking to shape them into effective soldiers. He pushed them hard, and sought to reward them well for their accomplishments.[38] His uncompromising leadership style is evidenced by his orders for an attack on a hill position near Gafsa, in which he ended by reportedly saying, "I expect to see such casualties among officers, particularly staff officers, as will convince me that a serious effort has been made to capture this objective."[39]
Patton's training was effective, and on March 17, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division took Gafsa, winning the Battle of El Guettar, and pushing a German and Italian armored force back twice. In the meantime, on April 5, he removed Major General Orlando Ward, commanding the 1st Armored Division, after its lackluster performance at Maknassy against numerically inferior German forces. Advancing on Gabès, Patton's corps pressured the Mareth Line.[38] During this time, he reported to British General Sir Harold Alexander, commander of the 18th Army Group, and came into conflict with Air Vice Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham about the lack of close air support being provided for his troops. When Coningham dispatched three officers to Patton's headquarters to persuade him that the British were providing ample air support, they came under German air attack mid-meeting, and part of the ceiling of Patton's office collapsed around them. Speaking later of the German pilots who had struck, Patton remarked, "if I could find the sons of bitches who flew those planes, I'd mail each of them a medal."[40] By the time his force reached Gabès, the Germans had abandoned it. He then relinquished command of II Corps to Bradley, and returned to the I Armored Corps in Casablanca to help plan Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. Fearing U.S. troops would be sidelined, he convinced British commanders to allow them to continue fighting through to the end of the Tunisia Campaign before leaving on this new assignment.[40][41]
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النصر في فرنسا
أصبح باتون قائدًا للجيش الثالث من الحملة الفرنسية، وعندما اخترقت الفرقة الأولى سان لو قامت قوات باتون بالتقدم بطريقة مذهلة، حتى أنهم سبقوا إمداداتهم فأرسلت لهم بالطائرات. وعبرت قواته فرنسا ووصلت إلى ميتز في الخريف وحاربت في معركة بُلج قرب باستون البلجيكية في ديسمبر عام 1944م. وبعد سقوط ألمانيا استمر الجيش الثالث في زحفه عبر الأجزاء الجنوبية الغربية من ألمانيا، ودخل تشيكوسلوفاكيا والنمسا. وعندما استسلم الألمان استولت قواته على جزء كبير من المنطقة التي سميت منطقة الاحتلال الأمريكي.
معركة الثغرة
مقالة مفصلة: معركة الثغرة (ح.ع.2)
In December 1944, the German army, under the command of German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, launched a last-ditch offensive across Belgium, Luxembourg, and northeastern France. On December 16, 1944, it massed 29 divisions totaling 250,000 men at a weak point in the Allied lines, and during the early stages of the ensuing Battle of the Bulge, made significant headway towards the Meuse River during a severe winter. Eisenhower called a meeting of all senior Allied commanders on the Western Front at a headquarters near Verdun on the morning of December 19 to plan strategy and a response to the German assault.[42]
At the time, Patton's Third Army was engaged in heavy fighting near Saarbrücken. Guessing the intent of the Allied command meeting, Patton ordered his staff to make three separate operational contingency orders to disengage elements of the Third Army from its present position and begin offensive operations toward several objectives in the area of the bulge occupied by German forces.[43] At the Supreme Command conference, Eisenhower led the meeting, which was attended by Patton, Bradley, General Jacob Devers, Major General Kenneth Strong, Deputy Supreme Commander Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder, and several staff officers.[44] When Eisenhower asked Patton how long it would take him to disengage six divisions of his Third Army and commence a counterattack north to relieve the U.S. 101st Airborne Division which had been trapped at Bastogne, Patton replied, "As soon as you're through with me."[45] Patton then clarified that he had already worked up an operational order for a counterattack by three full divisions on December 21, then only 48 hours away.[45] Eisenhower was incredulous: "Don't be fatuous, George. If you try to go that early you won't have all three divisions ready and you'll go piecemeal." Patton replied that his staff already had a contingency operations order ready to go. Still unconvinced, Eisenhower ordered Patton to attack the morning of December 22, using at least three divisions.[46]
Patton left the conference room, phoned his command, and uttered two words: "Play ball." This code phrase initiated a prearranged operational order with Patton's staff, mobilizing three divisions—the 4th Armored Division, the 80th Infantry Division, and the 26th Infantry Division—from the Third Army and moving them north toward Bastogne.[43] In all, Patton would reposition six full divisions, U.S. III Corps and U.S. XII Corps, from their positions on the Saar River front along a line stretching from Bastogne to Diekirch and to Echternach, the town in Luxembourg that had been at the southern end of the initial "Bulge" front line on December 16.[47] Within a few days, more than 133,000 Third Army vehicles were rerouted into an offensive that covered an average distance of over 11 miles (18 km) per vehicle, followed by support echelons carrying 62,000 tonnes (61,000 long tons; 68,000 short tons) of supplies.[48]
On December 21, Patton met with Bradley to review the impending advance, starting the meeting by remarking, "Brad, this time the Kraut's stuck his head in the meat grinder, and I've got hold of the handle."[43] Patton then argued that his Third Army should attack toward Koblenz, cutting off the bulge at the base and trap the entirety of the German armies involved in the offensive. After briefly considering this, Bradley vetoed it, since he was less concerned about killing large numbers of Germans than he was in arranging for the relief of Bastogne before it was overrun.[46] Desiring good weather for his advance, which would permit close ground support by U.S. Army Air Forces tactical aircraft, Patton ordered the Third Army chaplain, Colonel James Hugh O'Neill, to compose a suitable prayer. He responded with:
Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.[49]
When the weather cleared soon after, Patton awarded O'Neill a Bronze Star Medal on the spot.[49]
On December 26, 1944, the first spearhead units of the Third Army's 4th Armored Division reached Bastogne, opening a corridor for relief and resupply of the besieged forces. Patton's ability to disengage six divisions from front line combat during the middle of winter, then wheel north to relieve Bastogne was one of his most remarkable achievements during the war.[50] He later wrote that the relief of Bastogne was "the most brilliant operation we have thus far performed, and it is in my opinion the outstanding achievement of the war. This is my biggest battle."[48]
التقدم في ألمانيا
By February, the Germans were in full retreat. On February 23, 1945, the U.S. 94th Infantry Division crossed the Saar River and established a vital bridgehead at Serrig, through which Patton pushed units into the Saarland. Patton had insisted upon an immediate crossing of the Saar River against the advice of his officers. Historians such as Charles Whiting have criticized this strategy as unnecessarily aggressive.[51]
Once again, Patton found other commands given priority on gasoline and supplies.[52] To obtain these, Third Army ordnance units passed themselves off as First Army personnel and in one incident they secured thousands of gallons of gasoline from a First Army dump.[53] Between January 29 and March 22, the Third Army took Trier, Koblenz, Bingen, Worms, Mainz, Kaiserslautern, and Ludwigshafen, killing or wounding 99,000 and capturing 140,112 German soldiers, which represented virtually all of the remnants of the German First and Seventh Armies. An example of Patton's sarcastic wit was broadcast when he received orders to bypass Trier, as it had been decided that four divisions would be needed to capture it. When the message arrived, Trier had already fallen. Patton rather caustically replied: "Have taken Trier with two divisions. Do you want me to give it back?"[54]
The Third Army began crossing the Rhine River after constructing a pontoon bridge on March 22, two weeks after the First Army crossed it at Remagen, and Patton slipped a division across the river that evening.[55] Patton later boasted he had urinated into the river as he crossed.[56]
On March 26, 1945, Patton sent Task Force Baum, consisting of 314 men, 16 tanks, and assorted other vehicles, 50 miles (80 km) behind German lines to liberate the prisoner of war camp OFLAG XIII-B, near Hammelburg. Patton knew that one of the inmates was his son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel John K. Waters. The raid was a failure, and only 35 men made it back; the rest were either killed or captured, and all 57 vehicles were lost. Patton reported this attempt to liberate Oflag XIII-B as the only mistake he made during World War II.[57] When Eisenhower learned of the secret mission, he was furious.[58] Patton later said he felt the correct decision would have been to send a Combat Command, which is a force about three times larger.[57]
By April, resistance against the Third Army was tapering off, and the forces' main efforts turned to managing some 400,000 German prisoners of war.[58] On April 14, 1945, Patton was promoted to general, a promotion long advocated by Stimson in recognition of Patton's battle accomplishments during 1944.[59] Later that month, Patton, Bradley, and Eisenhower toured the Merkers salt mine as well as the Ohrdruf concentration camp, and seeing the conditions of the camp firsthand caused Patton great disgust. Third Army was ordered toward Bavaria and Czechoslovakia, anticipating a last stand by Nazi German forces there. He was reportedly appalled to learn that the Red Army would take Berlin, feeling that the Soviet Union was a threat to the U.S. Army's advance to Pilsen, but was stopped by Eisenhower from reaching Prague, Czechoslovakia, before V-E Day on May 8 and the end of the war in Europe.[60]
In its advance from the Rhine to the Elbe, Patton's Third Army, which numbered between 250,000 and 300,000 men at any given time, captured 32,763 square miles (84,860 km2) of German territory. Its losses were 2,102 killed, 7,954 wounded, and 1,591 missing. German losses in the fighting against the Third Army totaled 20,100 killed, 47,700 wounded, and 653,140 captured.[61]
Between becoming operational in Normandy on August 1, 1944, and the end of hostilities on May 9, 1945, the Third Army was in continuous combat for 281 days. In that time, it crossed 24 major rivers and captured 81,500 square miles (211,000 km2) of territory, including more than 12,000 cities and towns. The Third Army claimed to have killed, wounded, or captured 1,811,388 German soldiers, six times its strength in personnel.[61] Fuller's review of Third Army records differs only in the number of enemies killed and wounded, stating that between August 1, 1944, and May 9, 1945, 47,500 of the enemy were killed, 115,700 wounded, and 1,280,688 captured, for a total of 1,443,888.[62]
بعد الحرب
نتيجة لصراحته وتصريحه بان على الولايات المتحدة محاربة الشيوعين آنذاك على أن تحاربهم فيما بعد بالإضافة إلى معاملته اللينة للنازيين السابقين الذين وقعوا في قبضته الذي كان يعتقد أنه سوف يحتاج إليهم في إعادة بناء ألمانيا بعد الحرب. كلفه ذلك منصبه القيادي في الجيش وعين في منصب غير ذو أهمية نسبية وهو الحكم العسكري لمقاطعة بافاريا وبعد انتهاء الحرب اصيب في حادث سيارة في ديسمبر 1945 ودفن في المقابر الامركية في لوكسمبورج إلى جوار الجنود الذين سقطو في أثناء القتال في أوروبا.
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بعد الحرب
Patton asked for a command in the Pacific Theater of Operations, begging Marshall to bring him to that war in any way possible. Marshall said he would be able to do so only if the Chinese secured a major port for his entry, an unlikely scenario.[60] In mid-May, Patton flew to Paris, then London for rest. On June 7, he arrived in Bedford, Massachusetts, for extended leave with his family, and was greeted by thousands of spectators. Patton then drove to Hatch Memorial Shell and spoke to some 20,000, including a crowd of 400 wounded Third Army veterans. In this speech he aroused some controversy among the Gold Star Mothers when he stated that a man who dies in battle is "frequently a fool",[63] adding that the wounded are heroes. Patton spent time in Boston before visiting and speaking in Denver and visiting Los Angeles, where he spoke to a crowd of 100,000 at the Memorial Coliseum. On June 14, 1945, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson decided that Patton would not be sent to the Pacific but would return to Europe in an occupation army assignment.[64] Patton made a final stop in Washington, D.C., before returning to Europe in July to serve in the occupation forces.[65]
Patton was appointed as military governor of Bavaria, where he led the Third Army in denazification efforts.[65] Patton was particularly upset when learning of the end of the war against Japan, writing in his diary, "Yet another war has come to an end, and with it my usefulness to the world."[65] Unhappy with his position and depressed by his belief that he would never fight in another war, Patton's behavior and statements became increasingly erratic. Various explanations beyond his disappointments have been proposed for Patton's behavior at this point. Carlo D'Este wrote that "it seems virtually inevitable ... that Patton experienced some type of brain damage from too many head injuries" from a lifetime of numerous auto- and horse-related accidents, especially one suffered while playing polo in 1936.[49]
Patton's niece Jean Gordon spent some time together with him in London in 1944, and in Bavaria in 1945. Patton repeatedly boasted of his sexual success with Gordon, and his wife and family plainly believed that the two were lovers. Some of his biographers are skeptical. Hirshson said that the relationship was casual.[66] Showalter believes that Patton, under severe physical and psychological stress, made up claims of sexual conquest to prove his virility.[67] D'Este agrees that Patton's "behavior suggests that in both 1936 [in Hawaii] and 1944–45, the presence of the young and attractive Jean was a means of assuaging the anxieties of a middle-aged man troubled over his virility and a fear of aging."[68] Whether or not Gordon was sexually involved with Patton, she also loved a young married captain, who returned to his wife in September 1945, leaving Gordon despondent.[69]
جدل اجتثاث النازية ومعاداة السامية
 | أيها السادة، لقد توصلت هذا الصباح إلى الاستنتاج الذي لا يمكن التسامح معه وهو أننا قاتلنا في الجانب الخطأ. هذه الحرب بأكملها كان يجب أن نخوضها في صف الفاشيين ضد الشيوعيين، وليس العكس. وأخشى أنه ربما خلال خمسين عاما ستدفع أمريكا ثمناً باهظاً وتصبح أرض الفساد والأخلاق المنحطة. |  |
—جورج پاتون (21 يوليو 1945 | ||
Patton attracted controversy as military governor when it was noted that several former Nazi Party members continued to hold political posts in the region.[65] Privately, Patton expressed a soldier's respect for the Germans as adversaries and a resistance to removing Nazi Party members from power. "I had never heard," he wrote to his wife Bea, "that we fought to de-Nazify Germany—live and learn. What we are doing is to utterly destroy the only semi-modern state in Europe so that Russia can swallow the whole.... Actually the Germans are the only decent people in Europe."[70] Patton was an outspoken defender of the Nazi Party and was deeply against the Nuremberg trials and anything meant to hold any Nazi accountable for their crimes, saying, "I am frankly opposed to this war criminal stuff."[71] Rather than policing the captured Nazis that had run the concentration camps, he gave them guns and assigned them to making sure the Jewish victims didn't leave.[71] He believed future wars were imminent and the Nazis should not be tried as criminals or considered an enemy, but rather felt the US should embrace the Nazis as allies, saying, "The obvious thing for the cavalryman to do is to accept the fighting machine as a partner, and prepare to meet more fully the demands of future warfare."[71]
Patton, in his new role, oversaw the displaced persons camps in Bavaria, which contained a majority of Jews who had survived Germany's concentration camps in the Holocaust. He refused to have Jewish chaplains at his headquarters.[72] Patton decided to keep the Jews detained, according to his diary, because he thought releasing them could lead to violence and re-arrests.[73] He also resisted Eisenhower's orders to evict Germans from their homes in order to house Jews.[74] He ordered Jews to share living quarters with former Nazis. Those who believed that displaced persons were human beings were wrong, Patton said: "Evidently the virus started by Morgenthau and Baruch of a Semitic revenge against all Germans is still working. … Harrison and his ilk believe that the Displaced Person is a human being, which he is not, and this applies particularly to the Jews, who are lower than animals."[71] Patton often compared Jews to animals and insects, often calling the Jewish people "locusts."[71] He did not see the Jewish people as people, referring to the Jewish people as "a subhuman species without any of the cultural or social refinements of our times."[71] After Patton accompanied Eisenhower to a Yom Kippur service in one of the camps, he referred to the Jews at the service as a "stinking mass of humanity," and complaining about their hygiene, said: "This happened to be the feast of Yom Kippur, so they were all collected in a large, wooden building, which they called a synagogue. It behooved General Eisenhower to make a speech to them. We entered the synagogue, which was packed with the greatest stinking bunch of humanity I have ever seen. When we got about halfway up, the head rabbi, who was dressed in a fur hat similar to that worn by Henry VIII of England and in a surplice heavily embroidered and very filthy, came down and met the General…. The smell was so terrible that I almost fainted and actually about three hours later lost my lunch as the result of remembering it…. Of course, I have seen them since the beginning and marveled that beings alleged to be made in the form of God can look the way they do or act the way they act."[75] Patton also claimed that "There is a very Semitic influence in the press." "The noise against me is only the means by which the Jews and the Communists are attempting and with good success the further dismemberment of Germany." Biographer Martin Blumenson, who was Third Army Historian and also edited Patton's papers, sums up this period tersely: "Clearly, he had become delusional."[76]
إعفاؤه من القيادة
When he faced questions from the press about his reluctance to denazify post-war Germany, Patton noted that most of the people with experience in infrastructure management had been compelled to join the party in the war. He compared Nazis to Democrats and Republicans, bringing negative press stateside and angering Eisenhower.[77] When Eisenhower ordered him to hold a press conference correcting his statements, Patton instead repeated them.[78]
On September 28, 1945, after a heated exchange with Eisenhower over the denazification controversy, Patton was relieved of his military governorship. He was relieved of command of the Third Army on October 7, and in a somber change of command ceremony, Patton concluded his farewell remarks, "All good things must come to an end. The best thing that has ever happened to me thus far is the honor and privilege of having commanded the Third Army."[77] According to Anthony Cave Brown in Bodyguard of Lies, "Patton was relieved of command of the 3rd Army by Eisenhower just after the end of the war for stating publicly that America had been fighting the wrong enemy—Germany instead of Russia."[79]
Patton's final assignment was to command the U.S. 15th Army, based in Bad Nauheim. The 15th Army at this point consisted only of a small headquarters staff working to compile a history of the war in Europe. Patton had accepted the post because of his love of history, but quickly lost interest. He began traveling, visiting Paris, Rennes, Chartres, Brussels, Metz, Reims, Luxembourg, and Verdun. Then he went to Stockholm, where he reunited with other athletes from the 1912 Olympics.[77] Patton decided that he would leave his post at the 15th Army and not return to Europe once he left on December 10 for Christmas leave. He intended to discuss with his wife whether he would continue in a stateside post or retire from the Army.[80]
Following Eisenhower's return to the United States to become the Chief of Staff of the US Army, Patton was appointed interim commander of US Army Europe on November 11, 1945. He served in the position until relieved by General Joseph T. McNarney on November 26.
الحادثة والوفاة
Patton's chief of staff, Major General Hobart Gay, invited him on a December 9, 1945, pheasant hunting trip near Speyer to lift his spirits. Observing derelict cars along the side of the road, Patton said, "How awful war is. Think of the waste." Moments later the 1938 Cadillac limousine they were riding in collided with an American army truck at low speed.[80][81][82]
Gay and others were only slightly injured, but Patton hit his head on the glass partition that separated the front and back seat.[82] He began bleeding from a gash to the head and complained that he was paralyzed and having trouble breathing. Taken to a hospital in Heidelberg, Patton was discovered to have a compression fracture and dislocation of the cervical third and fourth vertebrae, resulting in a broken neck and cervical spinal cord injury that rendered him paralyzed from the neck down.[81]
Patton spent most of the next 12 days in spinal traction to decrease the pressure on his spine. All non-medical visitors except Patton's wife Beatrice, who had flown from the U.S., were forbidden. Patton, who had been told he had no chance to ever again ride a horse or resume normal life, at one point commented, "This is a hell of a way to die." He died in his sleep of pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure at about 6:00 pm on December 21, 1945, at the age of 60.[83]
On December 24, Patton was buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial in the Hamm district of Luxembourg City, alongside some wartime casualties of the Third Army, in accordance with his request to "be buried with [his] men." While he was initially buried in the middle of a plot like every other service member, the large number of visitors to his grave damaged the cemetery grounds, and his remains were moved to their current location at the front of the grave plots.[84]
فكره العسكري
كانت تكتيكاته تعتمد على خفة الحركة وعامل الصدمة لسلاح مدرعاته فكانت دباباته تشن الهجوم بأقصى سرعة ممكنه وذلك لمنع الامان من تشكيل خطوط دفاعية جديدة وغالبا ما كانت قواته تتقدم أسرع مما هو متاح لخطوط المداد وكان يطلب الإمداد من الوحدات الأخرى أو يسرق المؤن والذخيرة منهم وكان يتجاهل اوامر قادته في بعض الأحيان فيشن الهجمات دون الافادة من قوات الاحتياطي الكبيرة ويسخر كل طاقاته للقتال.وكان قد استخدم الأسلوب الألماني في الحرب الخاطفة ضدهم بنجاح [85].
شخصيته
كان باتون رجلا استعراضيا فقد كان يظهر في زيه الكامل الموشي بالأوسمة والوشحة ويضع مسدسو ذو القبضة العاجية عيار 45 في حزامه وكان ذلك سببا في افتتان العامة به والهم رجالة روح القتال في بسالة.و كان أول من أطلق عليه (old blood and guts) أي القوي والجسور العجوز. كان باتون قائدا ميدانيا أفضل منه مفكرا عسكريا ولكنه كان أكثر شهرة من بعض القادة الذين وضعو فلسفة حرب المدرعات و جعلته التعليقات السياسية التي كان يطلقها ما بين الحين والآخر حول القضايا السياسية البعيدة عن اختصاصه جعلته رائح اعلاميا مما جعل كثير من القادة الأمريكيون يحاولن محاكاته
الهامش
- ^ أ ب Axelrod 2006, p. 36.
- ^ D'Este 1995, pp. 158–159.
- ^ Zaloga 2010, p. 9.
- ^ D'Este 1995, pp. 162–163.
- ^ أ ب ت Zaloga 2010, p. 10.
- ^ D'Este 1995, p. 165.
- ^ Brighton 2009, p. 31.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Jowett & de Quesada 2006, p. 25.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, p. 40.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, pp. 41–42.
- ^ D'Este 1995, pp. 172–175.
- ^ Brighton 2009, p. 32.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, p. 43.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, p. 46.
- ^ أ ب Axelrod 2006, pp. 75–76.
- ^ Brighton 2009, pp. 82–83.
- ^ أ ب Axelrod 2006, pp. 77–79.
- ^ Brighton 2009, p. 85.
- ^ Brighton 2009, p. 106.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, pp. 80–82.
- ^ Keane, Michael (2012). Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer. Washington, DC: Regnery History. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-59698-326-7.
- ^ Morton, Matthew Darlington (2009). Men on Iron Ponies: The Death and Rebirth of the Modern U.S. Cavalry. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-8758-0397-5 – via Google Books.
- ^ أ ب Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer.
- ^ Hanson, Victor Davis (February 11, 2020). "George S. Patton: American Ajax". YouTube. Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College. 15:35. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
1940 in war games in Louisiana, he captured the senior general Hugh Drum. You may have seen The Dirty Dozen, that old movie about how they played dirty. That was based on Patton's war maneuvers, about how he went on a 400-mile goose chase, they thought, and ended up capturing the red general. He was on the blue team.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, p. 83.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Blumenson 1974, p. 542.
- ^ Lovelace 2014, p. 110.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, p. 2.
- ^ Brighton 2009, pp. 117–119.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, pp. 88–90.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, pp. 91–93.
- ^ Brighton 2009, pp. 165–166.
- ^ Edey 1968, p. 60.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, pp. 94.
- ^ Blumenson 1985, p. 182.
- ^ أ ب Axelrod 2006, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Hunt 1990, p. 169.
- ^ أ ب Axelrod 2006, pp. 98–99.
- ^ Brighton 2009, p. 188.
- ^ D'Este 1995, pp. 675–678.
- ^ أ ب ت McNeese 2003, p. 77.
- ^ Blumenson 1974, p. 599.
- ^ أ ب McNeese 2003, p. 75.
- ^ أ ب Axelrod 2006, pp. 148–149.
- ^ McNeese 2003, p. 78.
- ^ أ ب McNeese 2003, p. 79.
- ^ أ ب ت D'Este 1995, pp. 535–536.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, pp. 152–153.
- ^ Le Tissier 2007, pp. 147–155.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, p. 156.
- ^ Rickard 2004, p. 85.
- ^ Regan 1992, p. 53.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, p. 157.
- ^ Brighton 2009, p. 322.
- ^ أ ب Farago 1964, p. 790.
- ^ أ ب Axelrod 2006, pp. 158–159.
- ^ Blumenson 1974, p. 655.
- ^ أ ب Axelrod 2006, pp. 160–162.
- ^ أ ب Wallace 1946, pp. 194–195.
- ^ Fuller 2004, p. 254.
- ^ Blumenson 1974, p. 721.
- ^ Associated Press, "Patton Fails To Get Task in Orient", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Friday June 15, 1945, Volume 51, page 2.
- ^ أ ب ت ث Axelrod 2006, pp. 163–164.
- ^ Hirshson 2003, p. 535.
- ^ Showalter 2006, pp. 412–13.
- ^ D'Este 1995, p. 743.
- ^ D'Este 1995, p. 744.
- ^ Martin Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind The Legend, 1885-1945, 1985, William Morrison, New York, p. 281
- ^ أ ب ت ث ج ح Singer, Saul Jay (2017-12-20). "Gen. Patton's Appalling Anti-Semitism" (in الإنجليزية الأمريكية). Retrieved 2023-10-23.
- ^ Dinnerstein, Leonard (1995-11-02). Antisemitism in America (in الإنجليزية). Oxford University Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-19-531354-3.
- ^ Cohen, Richard (September 29, 2014). "What Bill O'Reilly ignored about George Patton". The Washington Post.
- ^ Hayes, Peter; Roth, John K. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies (in الإنجليزية). Oxford University Press. p. 515. ISBN 978-0-19-165078-9.
- ^ Lichtblau, Eric (2015-02-07). "Surviving the Nazis, Only to Be Jailed by America (Published 2015)". The New York Times (in الإنجليزية الأمريكية). ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
- ^ Blumenthal, Patton, pp. 281-287
- ^ أ ب ت Axelrod 2006, pp. 165–166.
- ^ Brighton 2009, p. 16.
- ^ Brown, Anthony Cave (1975). Bodyguard of Lies (in الإنجليزية). Vol. 2. Harper and Row. p. 898.
- ^ أ ب Axelrod 2006, p. 167.
- ^ أ ب Farago 1964, pp. 826–827.
- ^ أ ب "H. L. Woodring Dies at 77; Was Driver in Patton Crash". The New York Times. 9 November 2003. Archived from the original on March 26, 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
- ^ Axelrod 2006, pp. 168–169.
- ^ Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial, American Battle Monuments Commission, http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials, retrieved on January 6, 2013
- ^ التاريخ المصور للحروب الحديثة
المصادر
| جوائز وانجازات | ||
|---|---|---|
| سبقه Sir Thomas Beecham |
Cover of Time Magazine 12 April 1943 |
تبعه Manuel Ávila Camacho |
| سبقه Walter F. George |
Cover of Time Magazine 26 July 1943 |
تبعه Ingrid Bergman |
| سبقه Matthew Ridgway |
Cover of Time Magazine 9 April 1945 |
تبعه Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. |
| مناصب عسكرية | ||
| سبقه Courtney Hodges |
Commanding General of the Third United States Army 1944–1945 |
تبعه Lucian K. Truscott |
| سبقه First |
Commanding General of the Seventh United States Army July 10, 1943 – January 1, 1944 |
تبعه Mark Wayne Clark |
خطأ استشهاد: وسوم <ref> موجودة لمجموعة اسمها "lower-alpha"، ولكن لم يتم العثور على وسم <references group="lower-alpha"/>