General Patton's Death - Accident or Murder?

[Music] it is no exaggeration to say that george s patton was one of a handful of generals from world war ii whose celebrity has endured for over 70 years he was probably the most famous american general of the war or certainly in the top three household names alongside general dwight d eisenhower and general douglas macarthur patton led armies to victory in north africa sicily and france germany and in the latter campaign breaking out to race east ending world war ii just inside [Music] czechoslovakia [Music] honored and fated by all the allied nations many don't know that his final few months were marked by depression anger and controversy his premature death in december 1945 at the age of only 60 has become the subject of intense speculation was it an accident or was he murdered by a shadowy conspiracy of allied leaders fed up with patton's anti-soviet rhetoric and embarrassing faux pas had george s patton become a liability instead of the asset he had once been during the fighting in northwest europe patton was a brilliant though difficult man who was not slow in stating his opinions about many subjects and whose behavior often led to problems with the allied authorities the first four hours we passed over a destroyed land utterly destroyed you who have not seen it do not know what hell looks like from the top that's what germany looks like that austria looks like that's what any place that the eighth air force and the third army worked on looks like [Applause] you must remember this that from breast to various towns and southern germany and austria whose names i can't pronounce but whose places i have removed the trail of the third army in the nineteenth tactical air command in the eighth air force is marked by more than 40 000 white crosses he first commanded u.s troops in action during world war ii during operation torch the allied landings in french north africa in november 1942 [Music] and then in the anglo-american invasion of sicily in july 1933 [Music] [Music] though his command style flamboyant dress and peppery language one in many fans among the divisions he commanded and in the allied press and public some of his decisions and orders brought him censure from higher command an early example was his illegal order to his army made in a public speech on the 27th of june 1943 just before the invasion of sicily that they should take no prisoners unsurprisingly some u.s soldiers cold-bloodedly executed 73 italian pows following the capture of biscari two soldiers were placed on trial for this war crime but patton's order made for an uncomfortable situation for the allies keen to brush the entire affair under the carpet to prevent the reputation of america's most famous general and the us army from being tarnished the investigation of patton was dropped by order of patent superior general omar bradley patton's behavior was often only one step from a serious scandal just a few weeks after the bhiskari murders patton physically slapped a u.s soldier across the face inside an evacuation hospital the man was suffering from combat fatigue something which patton did not tolerate that was on the 3rd of august 1943 the patton again lost his cool with a soldier suffering from combat fatigue a few days later at another evacuation hospital he was visiting when the private told patton the reason he was there patton lost his temper calling the soldier a coward and a disgrace you ought to be lined up against a wall and shot shouted patton there were further incidents most famously towards the end of the war when patton ordered a task force of tanks and infantry to go 50 miles behind german lines to liberate an officer's pow camp at hamelberg in germany task force baum which i made a video about some time ago link in the end screen was a complete fiasco 314 men 16 sherman tanks and many other vehicles set out and only 35 men and no tanks and vehicles returned all the rest being killed or captured in march 1945. it subsequently emerged that patton's son-in-law colonel john waters was a prisoner at the camp the press attention was most unwelcome to general eisenhower and the allied cause and it looked as though patton had used his power to send a half-thought-out rescue mission to rescue his daughter's husband heedless of the cost in american lives and equipment it was an abuse of power but so successful was patton's handling of his us third army in pushing through germany the episode was hushed up another problematic subject was patton's increasingly antagonistic attitude to america's ally the soviet union patton did not want to stop his army at the bavarian czech frontier and did allow some units to push into what would be soviet territory in april 1945. he famously said of russians quote i have no particular desire to understand them except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them unquote his fellow generals and allied leaders did not much like patton for a variety of reasons some thought him overrated as a general an accusation also levelled at another flamboyant world war ii leader british field marshal sir bernard montgomery interestingly montgomery got on very well with patton and admired him general eisenhower knew patton's value saying after his death quote it is no exaggeration to say that patton's name struck terror the hearts of the enemy unquote general bradley however disliked patton in every way possible and general sir alan brook the british chief of the imperial general staff call patton quote a dashing courageous wild and unbalanced leader good for operations requiring thrust and push but at a loss in any operation requiring skill and judgment president harry s truman did not rate patton in comparison with the glowing praise heaped upon him by his predecessor president roosevelt truman compared patton to two other egotists general macarthur in the pacific and to general george armstrong custer who died at the little bighorn in 1876 we could go on with all this all day suffice it to say that patton had plenty of admirers and detractors in the allied camp but enough of the latter to wish him harm is hard to say what is certain is that forces managed to keep patton out of the pacific war as soon as germany was defeated in early may 1945 patton demanded a transfer to the pacific and an army to lead it seems odd that so famous and capable of general aspartan was denied such a high profile role in the last fighting in world war ii patton waiting to hear whether he would get such a command flew home to bedford massachusetts via paris and london arriving on the 7th of june 1945. he spent time with his family and gave a speech before an audience of 000 at hatch memorial shell an outdoor concert venue in boston he again exhibited a gross lack of judgment saying that a man who dies in battle is quote frequently a fool unquote which considering the number of bereaved mothers and wives in his audience was an appalling thing to say patton then gave more speeches before huge audiences in denver los angeles and washington dc in the meantime secretary of war henry l stimson had decided that patton would not be sent to the pacific theatre instead he was ordered to return to germany as military governor of bavaria bored and restless the appointment was ill-chosen patton viewed the denalcification process that the germans were being subjected to as not very important he remained concerned with the soviet menace to europe as the early stages of the cold war began to unfold in occupied germany in his opinion forcibly expressed to u.s secretary of war robert patterson the u.s army in germany had to be kept at full strength and he bitterly regretted having had to hand back territory his third army had liberated in europe to the soviets quote we have had a victory over the germans and disarmed them but we have failed in the liberation of europe we have lost the war unquote patton's attitude to the defeated germans was another source of embarrassment to eisenhower and truman he famously stated that quote ss means no more in germany than being a democrat in america unquote this private remark was published creating another storm in the press that did his reputation absolutely no good and required sorting out patton was also very vocal in his resistance to u.s treasury secretary henry morgenthau jr's plan for post-war germany believing that the americans would be seen as too harsh if it were fully enacted it wasn't helped that patton had made many remarks that bordered on anti-semitism aggravating certain sections of the u.s press against him writing of the destruction of berlin which he visited in late july 1945 patton said quote berlin gave me the blues we have destroyed what could have been a good race and we are about to replace them with mongolian savages and all europe will be communist unquote patton became more and more obsessed with the soviet threat and angry that america was in his view unnecessarily punishing the germans instead of protecting europe from the soviets small wonder that some people might have preferred it if so famous a leader as patton was silenced elements of the press in america as i have said had become rather anti-patton and eisenhower relieved him of his position as military governor of bavaria and gave him command of a paper army the 15th in germany patton took the job happily relieved to be out of the de-nazification business but his continued vocal criticisms of u.s policy in germany and of course the enunciation of the soviets continued patton four-star general the most famous american of the war was a massive liability to the u.s occupation of germany and the government back in washington dc it has subsequently emerged that the americans and the soviets tapped patton's phone so concerned were they by his behavior and pronouncements concerned enough to kill him perhaps on the 9th of december 1945 patton was invited by his chief of staff major general gay on a pheasant hunting trip near the town of mannheim in germany the party consisted of two vehicles patton's 1938 cadillac 75 staff car driven by private first class horace woodring a 19 year old combat veteran with patton was general gay and traveling ahead of the cadillac was a jeep driven by sergeant joseph skruce carrying the guns for the hunt food and a hunting dog on the way patton ordered a stop at the roman ruins at zalberg then resumed the journey sitting in the front passenger seat to warm his feet next to the heater as it was cold and snowy outside at a military police checkpoint the cadillac stopped so that the frozen hunting dog could be transferred to patton's car and patton resumed his usual right hand back seat with gay sitting to his left with the jeep leading the cadillac followed the n38 road to the northern outskirts of mannheim at a railway level crossing the jeep passed over but the cadillac was held up by a passing train after the train had passed woodring pulled away noticing two u.s army trucks pulled onto the side of the road half a mile ahead one started moving towards the cadillac the truck was a two and a half ton six by six gmc and as it was about to pass the cadillac it suddenly veered left directly into the car's path woodring having no time to take evasive action the cadillac collided with the truck at 20 miles per hour patton was thrown forward into a railing behind the driver's seat injuring his head and neck bleeding profusely from a laceration that extended from the bridge of his nose to the top of his scalp patton collapsed into gay's lap unable to move wood ring flagged down the first vehicle that he saw it turned out to be an army ambulance the medic sergeant leroy ogden managed to stop the bleeding and then patton was driven to the 130th station hospital at heidelberg arriving one hour after the crash military police arrived at the scene to investigate the crash the truck's driver technical sergeant fifth class robert thompson was acting rather strangely he seemed unconcerned by the accident grinning constantly and woodring felt that thompson and two unnamed companions may have been under the influence of alcohol certainly thompson was 50 miles from where he was supposed to be and on some kind of unauthorized joyride at the time of the accident two officers of the 8th 18th military police company interviewed all those involved no charges were filed against anyone the accident considered a routine fender bender in the hospital patton was found to be paralyzed from the neck down his vertebrae severely dislocated specialists were flown in as well as his wife from america however about a week after the accident patterns started to improve some respiratory muscle movement coming back and preparations were made to fly him to the u.s for more treatment but on the 20th of december 1945 patton suddenly deteriorated again and the next day he died of pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure on the 24th of december 1945 as per his wishes he was buried among the third armies fallen at the u.s cemetery at ham in luxembourg [Music] so what about the conspiracy to kill patton well in actual fact nothing whatsoever was said about a conspiracy for 30 years following patton's death such a notion only surfaced in 1974 with the publication of a novel called the algonquin project by british writer frederick nolan the book was a fictional repeat fictional story loosely set against the real death of patton dealing with a murder plot to kill a famous general it became a rather bad film called brass target in 1978. and from these two fictions grew the conspiracy theory of patton's assassination in 1979 a cash strap former world war ii oss operative named douglas bazata came out of the woodwork with a fabricated story believed by many that he had been asked by oss director major general william donovan to kill patton in december 1945 to shut him up as he had become an embarrassment to the u.s authorities on the surface basata who'd earned a hat full of high decorations for his world war ii daring do looked impressive but any cursory comparison of the events of patton's last day as recorded by general gay patton's driver woodring and numerous other witnesses is at variance with bersata's rather ridiculous story basically bazata claimed to have jammed the window beside patton open four inches when the general was touring the roman ruins shortly before his accident so that he could shoot him later just before the crash using a special rock firing gun made by a country he couldn't remember that would looked like patton had suffered a non-gunshot wound to the head caused by the crash which was also of course staged when patton survived the shooting and the crash he was finished off in hospital with poison that emulated natural death the press lapped up bersata's fictional story merging it with the novel and film that stated the rumors of an assassination plot what also fueled the mystery was the fact that no autopsy was performed on patton so no poison could be discovered well of course as it was considered a routine accident and not a murder case no autopsy was necessary also records pertaining to patton's accident would be revealed to be missing from the national archives these points found their way into patton's biographer ladislas ferrago's 1981 book the last days of patton since then three more books have been published elaborating on the alleged plot to murder patton as well as introducing a new theory that he was murdered by the soviet nkvd forerunner to the kgb however no concrete evidence that disagrees with the original witness statements has been produced but the notion that patton was assassinated has nonetheless entered the american national consciousness fueled of course by the internet in the final analysis it seems likely the george s patton died because of a chain of unfortunate circumstances rather than some complex conspiracy he was just unlucky when great people die in such ordinary ways people often reach for the fantastic because they can't accept the mundane the conspiracy to kill patton is merely a fictional book and movie plot that has taken on a life of its own until some real evidence of foul play is presented patton's death must remain what it was an accident thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,207,933

Rating: 4.882134 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton, George S. Patton, Eisenhower, President Truman

Id: dWL0Nz4g5yk

Length: 20min 56sec (1256 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 11 2021