. Many elements of the speech were recycled over and over. Pestilence and famine have not touched us. Enough War for a Lifetime. An Army is a team. This article is from the bookPatton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer2012by Michael Keane. Patton spent his years after the war going from base to base as a control officer for mechanized maneuvers as a brigadier general. Brave, undisciplinedmen have no chance against the discipline andvalor of other men. In 1941, on the day the menof the Second Armored Division completed their orientation at FortBenning, Patton appeared wearing a new uniform, which, characteristically,he had designed himself. His new commander in the Tank Corps, as of December 1917, would be Colonel Samuel D. Rockenbach, a VMI graduate with an aristocratic wife, a taskmasterly way with subordinates, and the massive responsibility of creating the Tank Corps from scratch, including acquiring tanks from the French and the British. I hope that too stops. . Each treated of a variety of subjects of corrective or training value to a chaplain working with troops in the field. The final stage of World War II in the European Theatre commenced with the Western Allied invasion of Germany. He used that experience to write a masterly summary of everything one needed to know about tanks. Two weeks later, General Patton took over command of II Corps from Fre-dendall and wrote this letter to the troops now under his command: All of us have been in battle. Soon only two men were standingPatton andAngelo. 1918 January 26 Patton was promoted to the temporary rank of major. September 26 Patton was seriously wounded during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France. He formulated his own views in articles, including his conclusion that Tanks are not motorized cavalry; they are tanks, a new auxiliary arm whose purpose is ever and always to facilitate the advance of the master arm, the Infantry, on the field of battle.Before the next great war he amended that view, recognizing that tanks could be an offensive force of their own. The crossguard and the shape of the blade were correct. . It is a much less formidable obstacle than I had gathered from the books. His path to the numerous monumental events that he experienced there began after he finished atWest Point. Visit our more popular pages if you would like to learn more about one of the most important generalsin U.S. military history. He was a sincere believer. All day the 9th of July 1943, there was a storm but it cleared at dark. I was shot in the behind in World War I! The 1970 film "Patton" starts out the way the real Gen. George S. Patton would have wanted it to: with one of the famed general's off-the-cuff, down-to-reality speeches to his men in the 3rd Army. . Then you must have well-trained troops to carry it out: thats working. There is still a tendency in each separate unit . . An armored division is the most powerful organizationever devised by the mind of men . The speech was not publicized contemporaneously because of war time restrictions on information and because it contained language that was considered coarse for the era. I do not want to be hitthere again. I know that Third Army will be in at the finish in the same decisive way that it has performed in all the preliminary battles. The Germans were fed information that when the bridgehead was establishedby six Allied assault divisions, a huge force of fifty divisionswould exploit the opening. Patton was number three. Pray for victory. Throughout his life he prayed daily and attended church almost every Sunday, even in wartime. There is something in every soldier that goes deeper than thinking or workingits his guts. It is something that he has built in there: it is a world of truth and power that is higher than himself. . We want this war over with. The General Patton I saw there was the Army Commander to whom the welfare of the men under him was a matter of personal responsibility. With that the general rose from his chair, indicating that the meeting was concluded, and ONeill returned to his office to prepare the training letter Patton had requested. . General Pattons communication was not limited to his speeches; he alsoprojected strength in his demeanor and in his dress. All the faces looked at Patton impersonally, as if waiting forhim to join them. He had not failed them; he had shown his courage and faced his fears. About a hundred and fifty doughboys followed him, but when theyarrived at the crest of the hill, the onslaught of gunfire forced themall to the ground, hugging it for protection. Why, by God, Iactually pity those poor sons of bitches were going upagainst. We must do something about those rains if we are to win the war.. Seventh Armyin theMediterraneanandEuropean theaters of World War II. . All real . I dont want to hear of any soldier under my commandbeing captured unless he has been hit. In February 1944, Overlord planners at Supreme Allied Headquarters had formulated a planOperation Fortitude Southto deceive the Nazi commanders intothinking that the Norman landings were merely a feint to draw German defenders away from a main Allied invasion at Pas de Calais. Advertisement. He died at the age of 60 and he died in a freak accident after the war had been won. Dont ever think that your job is unimportant. The only reason for calling Palestine a land of milk and honey is by comparison with the desert immediately surrounding it. . In this case all the capitals were omitted and subsequently illuminated by hand. She went to the dining room, leaving her husband with the attending nurse. You have made your Army a fighting force that is not excelled in effectiveness by any other of equal size in the world, and I am very proud of the fact that you, as one of the fighting commanders who has been with me from the beginning of the African campaign, have performed so brilliantly throughout. Patton 360 Rogue General. The present analysis examines the discourse used by General George Patton in a motivational speech from World War II, given to "the Third Army" on June 5th, 1944, before the Allied invasion. Both men were commanding tank units. His most importantpriority was training men for war. Prior to World War II, Patton was posted to Fort Myer in Virginia, near Washington, D.C. A regular churchgoer, he summoned thechaplain and bluntly told him that his sermons were too long. We were lucky in Africa, in Sicily, and in Italy. I know you will be worthy. You won them; I as your representative wear them. I should be both ungrateful and wanting in candor if I failed to acknowledge the debt we owe to our Chiefs of Staff, Generals Gaffey and Gay, and to the officers and men of the General and Special Staff Sections of Army Headquarters. Americans love to fight. ww2dbase Warning: Foul language used by Patton in the speech had not been removed from this transcript, thus this text might not be suitable for everyone. This pommel was in the shape of a blunt acorn. We must be eager to kill, to inflict on the enemythe hated enemy wounds, death and destruction. We believed . He personally led a troop of tanks into Germany lines near the town of Cheppy. Back home, he wrote an article that led to the 1913 redesign of the U.S. Cavalry saber. It is now 0230 and raining hard. He wrote to his wife Beatrice on July 10, 1944, Sunday Iwent to a field mass. There is still a tendency in each separate unit . Patton lost his rank of colonel and reverted to captain. I do not want to be hitthere again. Prayer does not have to take place in church, but can be offered any-where. The 664th Engineer Topographical Company worked around the clock to reproduce 250,000 cards bearing the prayer for fair weather and General Pattons Christmas greeting. As he searched through his prayer books, ONeill could find no formal prayers pertaining to weather, so he composed an original prayer which he typed on a three-by-five-inch card: 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. Napoleons defeat confirmed Emperor Nicholas Is dictum that Russia has two generals in which she can confide: Generals January and February. General James Rusling, "Interview with President William McKinley," The Christian Advocate 22 January 1903, 17. All men are afraid in battle. Better known for his profanity than for his prayers, George Patton was actually a devout and religious man. The Allied war effort was virtually shut down for five days. He was a communicant of the Episcopal Church, but he studied the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita. George C. Scott, portraying Patton, standing in front of an immensely huge American flag, delivers his version of Patton's "Speech to the Third Army" on June 5th, 1944, the eve of the Allied invasion . . I want to talk to you about this business of prayer. Patton rubbed his face in his hands, sat silently for a moment, then rose up and walked to the high window of the office where he stood with his back to ONeill, watching the falling rain. The general considered himself a descendant of the warriors, part of the same lineage of warriors who gladly risked their lives for a noble cause. Even in the heat of combat he could take time out to direct new methods to prevent trench feet, to see to it that dry socks went forward daily with the rations to troops on the line, to kneel in the mud administering morphine and caring for a wounded soldier until the ambulance came. . During the interwar period, Patton remained a central figure in the development ofarmored warfaredoctrine in the U.S. Army. This individual heroic stuff is pure horseshit. But we are not stopping at the Siegfried Line. Playing with a pencil, he began to speak again. It gives you a thrill and my eyes filled with tears . . Every man has a job to do and he must do it. The shortest way home isthrough Berlin and Tokyo. I do not want to be hit there again. Perhaps most famous for his commanding of the 7th Army during World War II, Old "Blood and Guts" often gave rousing speeches to motivate, inspire, and educate his soldiers. August 10 Patton visited the 93rd Evacuation Hospital in Sicily, Italy, and berated Private Paul Bennett for cowardice. As he came closer to the German lines, Patton was hit. He stood up, grabbed his walking stick, and turned to the soldiersbehind him. The most interesting thing I saw is the library of the Knights of Malta. We reached Cairo just at dark, having completed in one day the trip which took the Children of Israel forty years to accomplish. General George S. Patton is one of the most famous American generals in history. Please use this data for any reference citations. It would do no harm to reimpress this training on chaplains. Famed World War Two general George S. Patton commanded theU.S. Americans love to fight, traditionally. He wrote to General Leonard Wood asking for his advice and assistance. Book by Ladislas Farago, 1963. But as a devout Christianwhatever the profanity in his speeches suggested otherwisehe couldnt help but be moved by walking in the footsteps ofJesus. Patton was told that the attack could take place any time after November 5, and that aerial bombardment would be available before-hand. All men and women of the six corps and thirty-nine divisions that have at different times been members of this Army have done their duty. And when we get to Berlin,I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging sonof a bitch Hitler, just like Id shoot a snake! Patton joined the Second Armored Division at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1940. July 15 Patton formed a provisional corps in western Sicily, Italy. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes. Privately, he noted to his father, There will be hundred[s] of Majors of Infantry but only one of Light T[anks]. He had his progress mapped out: 1st. The following day General Patton arrived at the pontoon bridge his engineers had constructed over the Rhine. to bea one-handed puncher. Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Click here to see more articles in this category. . HistoryOnTheNet 2000-2019. The termination of fighting in Europe does not remove the oppor-tunities for other outstanding and equally difficult achievements in the days which are to come. are also the modern representatives of the demigods and heroes of antiquity?. He had now achieved his destiny, joining the legions of ancestorsbefore him. is plain. The real hero is the man whofights even though he is scared . That ONeill sure did some potent praying. . During the course of this war I have received promotions and decorations far above and beyond my individual merit. His voice was actually ratherhigh, certainly not the gravelly bass of George C. Scott in the Hollywoodmovie Patton. As the chaplain noted, however, strictly speaking it was the Third Army commanders letter, not ONeills. I was shotin the behind in World War I! . France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia bear witness to your exploits. A break in the weather on June 6 allowed the amphibious assault on Normandy to proceed. . It never occurred to me until this flight that, at the time the Jews crossed, it was unnecessary for them to ford anything, because there is a stretch of desert from Bitter Lake to the Mediterranean which had no water on it. Shoot them in the guts. Patton of the harsh, compelling voice, the lurid vocabulary, the grim and indomitable spirit that . The soldier who cracks up does not need sympathy or comfort as much as he needs strength. . In this eviscerated post-war army, trying to build support for the tank proved an impossible task. Eklund, he demanded, do you know Chaplain So-and-so?. Were not just going to shoot the sons of bitches, weregoing to rip out their living goddamned guts and usethem to grease the treads of our tanks.

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