Patton hated the Russians as did the Germans. I don’t believe
Stalin would have gained such an upper hand had Rommel succeeded in his surrender attempt. He was loved by the German people and could have been the natural leader of Germany.
Allowing the Russians to take Berlin was a monstrous mistake. There were too many Communists and left wingers in our bureaucracy even then. Roosevelt himself had been a great admirer of “Uncle Joe.” Thank God he dumped his former vice president in favor of Truman because the Commie stink was getting to well known even for Roosevelt.
My friend was in the Third Army. He fought across Europe with Patton.
Patch was a great general. One of my favorites, yet Patton was, is, and always will be my pick.
Both the borders and German acceptance of the occupation would have improved. Patton insisted on using the Germans for the jobs the Germans knew how to do. He was criticized instead of applauded. Rommel would have concurred.
Thanks for the update on McAuliffe. “Nuts” is one of my favorite comments. I visited Bastogne last summer and also Patton’s grave in Luxembourg. One can still see the foxholes in the forest and the remains of defensive perimeters our men dug. Time has not erased all wounds to the earth.....just as the craters at Point du Hoc are still evident.
The two men who could have shortened the war and healed the wounds were both eliminated. And so history marches on.
The decision on postwar borders had been set at the Tehran Conference in December 1943 between Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill. The blame for the Russian occupation of eastern and central Europe lies there. I don’t see how postwar survival of Rommel and Patton, while desirable, could have changed much.
When Germany surrendered we were still at war with Japan and had no idea that the atomic bombs would work. If defeating Japan was going to involve more years of fighting and a million casualties we wanted the USSR to bear some of the burden. If we had violated the Tehran agreement Russia would have reneged on helping us defeat Japan and might have used the opportunity to take even more territory in Europe.