Li Thirty Thousand
Patton was a famous general in the U.S. Army during World War II, his highest rank was only a four-star general, but his popularity can be said to be the highest among all U.S. generals, even more than most five-star generals. Why is West Admiral Patton more famous than most five-star generals?
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Patton was a famous general in the U.S. Army during World War II, his highest rank was only four-star general, but his popularity can be said to be the highest among all U.S. generals, even more than most five-star generals. Why is West Admiral Patton more famous than most five-star generals?
That's the power of propaganda! Here we will not discuss Patton's achievements in North Africa and In Europe, because these things are actually irrelevant to today's topic, people who like it can understand it for themselves, and people who don't like it are impatient to listen to it for half a day. Regarding Patton's super fame, it is needless to say that in the United States, from our understanding of China, we can see the fundamental reason why his fame has greatly surpassed that of many five-star generals. Our country has professional military intelligence collection and analysis personnel, there are international war history and military history researchers, there are professionals who study international relations, these professionals of course dig deep into the big topic of World War II, and it is impossible to miss Patton, but among the general population, you can talk about Guderian, Zhukov, Montgomery, and by the way, there is a five-star general of the US Army who is definitely more famous than Patton - MacArthur.
But before the eighties, almost no one knew about Barton, or there was someone who knew about such a person, but wouldn't pay much attention to it. So how did General Patton's fame in China rise to prominence? I think most people learned of Patton in the early eighties, because of "Garland Under the Mountain", so that there was an American general like Patton. In the early eighties, the hit of the novel "Garland Under the Mountain" may be difficult to understand now, let me tell you a few statistics, the novel was originally published in the literary reissue "October", this bimonthly magazine at that time "Four Famous Dan" has the name of "Dao Ma Dan", published "Garland Under the Mountain", sold hundreds of thousands of copies, caused the initial sensation, and then a single edition of more than eleven million copies. Not to mention being adapted into a television movie, it was also adapted into a stage play by various dramas, and at its peak there were thirty-two troupes rehearsing this play at the same time, and then it was the radio station with the widest audience at that time, dozens of radio stations made this novel into a radio drama or a novel simulcast, and among this novel, there was an important plot, that is, in 1979, the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, the pre-war mobilization meeting, did not put the main theme movie for the majority of commanders and fighters, but put "General Patton"!
Since then, in bragging to people about World War II, how can you not blow Patton to meet people?! This is why Barton's popularity in China suddenly exploded. What about in the mainstream Western world? We all know that in the Western world, professionals are very high-end, but among the general population, for the knowledge of literature, history and geography, most of them are idiotic, the American generals in World War II, the most well-known among the people, originally is still the most good five-star general MacArthur, after all, people can still express some veterans' undead speeches, and almost went to run for the president of the United States. The influence is very large, the fame is very large, but later it was also filmed by the four-star Patton, the reason is the movie "General Patton", which was a war film from Hollywood in 1970, and it is also a top work in the American main theme film, and won seven awards at the Oscars, including best picture, best director, and best actor.
In 1970, when the anti-war was at its peak in the United States, the film had such a performance, and its impact could naturally be imagined. And Hollywood, whether you like it or not, its influence on the world is there, MacArthur belongs to high society on his own, personal shows, and has a good relationship with the press, which is useless, and this influence is not at the same level as Hollywood's influence, so the most famous five-star general in the United States has been photographed by Patton, and others certainly do not need to be compared. It is useless for military fans to be unconvinced, the world of military fans is not the same as the world of ordinary people, and the key to the popularity and influence of these famous generals is not the military fan group, but how widely the popularity in the general population.
China has ten marshals, and the United States has ten five-star generals. We are entangled in whether Su Yu should be appointed commander-in-chief, and we are also entangled in whether Patton should become a five-star general, but we do not have this view in the military and political circles in the United States. Bush Jr. posthumously promoted Spruance to five-star admiral in 2001, and no one proposed that Patton be promoted to five-star admiral, as shown by this.
George Smith Patton Jr. (1885–1945) was a prominent American military general. Patton was admitted to West Point at the age of 19. Because Ofton's foreign language and math scores were poor, he once repeated grades for a year. After graduating from West Point, he joined the Army Staff at the age of 26. Patton fought in World War I as Pershing's aide-de-camp, and subsequently fought as a brigade commander at the Battle of Saint-Mière and the Maas-Argona Campaign, but with mediocre results. In 1939, the outbreak of World War II, the 54-year-old Patton was promoted to brigadier general and finally became a general. Subsequently, he was ordered to form the first armored brigade of the US Army. The following year, the U.S. General Staff was reorganized, and at Marshall's suggestion, Patton was promoted to major general.
After Pearl Harbor, Patton was promoted to commander of the 1st Panzer Army. He participated in the command of the North African landing campaign and was promoted to commander of the U.S. 7th Army. He had a remarkable record in World War II, and was promoted to four-star general in 1944 at the age of 59. After the end of the war against Germany, Patton became the military administrator of Bavaria, but in December 1945, while out hunting, he was seriously injured in a car accident, and died in Germany a few days later, the exact cause of death is still a mystery.
Some say Patton lived for war and died because of it. As a good soldier, or a high-ranking general with outstanding military achievements, he should first be a qualified politician, and then others, General Patton can be called a great general, but he is not a fully qualified soldier, he does not understand politics, he publicizes his anti-Soviet rhetoric in public, and even says that he can unite with Germany to fight the Soviet Union, which is obviously extremely wrong. This doomed him to victory in the battlefield, and he could only retire after the war.
The reason why Patton did not promote the five-star general was related to his position at that time, Patton's highest position was only the commander of the group army, not the commander of the theater, and did not enter the core decision-making level of the US military. The promotion of the U.S. military to five-star generals must have a hard indicator, that is, they must have served as commanders at the allied theater level. Patton apparently didn't meet that threshold.
When the U.S. military was promoted to the first four five-star generals of the Army and five-star admirals of the Navy in 1944, Patton's rank was only three-star lieutenant general. And the four five-star generals of the Army are Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower and Arnold, have you noticed that of these four, Marshall is the chief of staff of the army, the U.S. army does not have the commander-in-chief of the army, and the chief of staff of the army is the highest military position in the army. Arnold was the commander of the Army Aviation Corps, equivalent to the commander of the Air Force. MacArthur was in the Pacific Theater, and Eisenhower was the only one in Europe.
Patton was only promoted to four-star general in April 1945. At that time, the US army had 12 army groups and 3 army groups in the European battlefield, and the commanders of these army groups were not only Patton, the commanders of these army groups and the commanders of the army groups were not awarded five-star generals, and later only the commander of the 12th Army Group, Bradley, became a five-star general. At that time, Bradley, like Patton, was only a three-star lieutenant general, and he was promoted to four-star general later than Patton. But Bradley was promoted to five-star general in 1950. All we can say is that If Patton doesn't die, he may be promoted to five-star general, but not absolutely.
But based on Patton's position, character, personality, style, and relationship with his colleagues, it was basically impossible to promote the five-star general. It's no surprise that Patton didn't promote to five-star general. Patton's reputation in the United States is not too good, and his fame has a lot to do with the later movie. It's a bit like Guderian in the German army, who is more famous than many German field marshals, but ultimately the rank is only general.
Patton's seniority was still very old, and when Patton became the commander of the first U.S. Armored Division major general in 1941, Bradley and Eisenhower were only lieutenant colonels. Bradley was his deputy commander when Patton was appointed commander of the 10th Army in the North African Campaign, and when Patton was commander of Army Group attacking Sicily, Bradley was the commander of his 2nd Army and his old subordinate.
By the time of the 1944 Normandy Landings, Eisenhower had become commander-in-chief of the Allied European Expeditionary Force, Bradley had been promoted to commander of the U.S. 1st Army, commanding the landings, and Patton, though also commander of army group, was hidden in the snow as a reserve. Note that Bradley and Eisenhower were classmates at West Point, and they were both six times lower than Patton!
To put it simply, the reason why Patton's two West Point brothers were promoted quickly and came to the top was that Eisenhower relied on Marshall's appreciation and weight, while Bradley relied on Eisenhower's promotion, and the nepotism of the US military was also very strong. But in terms of military affiliation, Patton remains one of the oldest in Europe, which is the first reason for his fame. Of course, in the army, it is not necessary to be senior and high-ranking, and as for the reputation that covers Bradley and others, it is really few American generals in Europe who can fight.
In August 1944, after the main force of the American army penetrated into France, it was expanded into the 12th Army Group with 400,000 troops, and Bradley became the commander-in-chief of the army group, under the command of Hodges's 1st Army and Patton's 3rd Army, and Patton became a subordinate of Bradley. From Bradley to Hodges, and even Simpson, the commander of the army group who later added, were Patton's apprentices, and many times the press was also upset about Patton, because Bradley did not have obvious mistakes and did not perform very well.
As the founder of the U.S. Armored Forces, Patton has performed well in the North African and Sicily battlefields, deeply rooted in the essence of armored combat, becoming the most capable mechanized corps commander of the U.S. Army, and has been promoted to three-star lieutenant general in the North African battlefield. Especially in the Battle of Sicily, patton, commander of the 7th Army, rushed to invade the capital Palermo before the British army, and the limelight obviously overshadowed the commander of the British 8th Army, Montgomery, who was already a star general in the United States and was very popular.
After the Normandy landing, although the Allied ground forces gained a foothold on the landing beach, Rommel commanded the German army, including 7 armored divisions, to resist and counterattack desperately, in fact, the Allies could not complete the deep breakthrough for more than a month, and the battle situation was in a stalemate.
At this time, Patton was sitting on a cold bench opposite Calais to watch the hilarity, serving as the commander-in-chief of the "1st Army Group" used to deceive the German intelligence agencies. It was part of the Allied strategic deception plan Operation Fortitude, and in order to draw the attention of Lundstedt and Rommel to Calais, the Allies formed a group of armies across the strait with only command and radio communication personnel as shadow troops to cover the Normandy landings. The commander of this shadow force was the famous Patton.
Unfortunately, the front-line generals did not have long faces, and Eisenhower had to order Patton to lead the newly formed 3rd Army into battle on August 1, and complete the breakthrough from the flanks of the German line, thus changing the situation on the battlefield in one fell swoop. Objectively speaking, with absolute air superiority and sufficient logistical supply capabilities, the US army did not fight well, and the Ardennes Campaign was even more defeated by the German army, and it was Patton who finally broke the siege of Bastogne's 101st Airborne Division. Therefore, it can be said that Patton was the only bright spot among the AMERICAN generals at that time, and also the most able representative figure in the US press, and it is naturally not surprising that his reputation is outside.
Unfortunately, Patton has a stubborn personality and a "big mouth" that dares to say anything, and has been punished many times by Marshall and Eisenhower, and the most serious incident of "beating and wounding soldiers" almost ended his military career. So this is also the third reason for Patton's fame, love to cause trouble and talk blindly, usually such a gossip general is more likely to arouse the public's curiosity, sincerely so-called "good things do not go out, bad things spread thousands of miles." For example, in public, he commented on the post-war political situation, and the meeting of the Allied and Soviet forces.
In a sense, Patton's anti-Soviet sentiment is also the reason why the Americans deliberately packaged him, which is the third reason, because it is in line with the political position and global interests of the United States after the war. A glance at the time of the promotion of the three main characters in the book to four-star general shows how "great in life and death" Patton was: Eisenhower was promoted to lieutenant general and four-star general in 1942, and five-star general in December 1944; Bradley was promoted to four-star general in March 1945 and five-star general in 1950.
Barton, on the other hand, was a month behind his former subordinate, Bradley, and was not promoted to four-star general until April 1945, just over a month before the end of the European war, when he died in a car accident in December of that year. In fact, even if Patton did not die prematurely, it would be impossible to get five general stars in the future, he was just a good warrior, but he was a warrior who did not understand politics, it was difficult to become a military and political officer such as the chief of staff of the army or the chairman of the Joint Staff, and it was basically impossible to be promoted to a five-star general in peacetime.
This, coupled with Patton's behavior, caused a lot of headaches for Marshall and Eisenhower. Although he knew that he was a good general, he was by no means a qualified soldier. For a commander-in-chief, ability is one thing, and it is also very important to treat people in the world. Patton is clearly a man with a lack of emotional intelligence.