Line from the movie: “Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!”
“The Tank in Attack”
It’s amazing how new all of this was back then. Patton came up through Calvary. He designed their new sabers at one point.
When the tank first emerged, it was slow and designed to help the Army hold ground once it was taken.
Rommel changed all of that. The Blitzkrieg was a revolution.
Patton added close air support to that model, allowing the aviators to decide when to attack in order to best time the order of battle.
The idea was to bomb clear an area of ingress and then roll through to the back. The tanks followed the bombing within seconds.
When Patton became frustrated about the timing issues initially, it was an O-2 aviator who lost his cool and explained to the General the facts of it - air speed, cross wind, visibility, etc.
It was Patton who decided to relinquish control of the moment of attack to the aviators almost on the spot.
For an egomaniac, it is a singular act of humility and practicality.
I think the 1970 movie on Patton was as close a portrait as were going to get. I think we are getting better in terms of innovation in warfare, not fighting the last war, etc. I’m not sure there will be as pure a genius general as Patton was ever again.
Unfortunately for Patton, he was not facing Rommel at that point. Nor did he in any subsequent engagements.
Rommel’s book was titled “Infantry Attacks.” It was about his actions on the Italian front during WWI.
Available online at: https://archive.org/stream/Attacks_Erwin_Rommel/Attacks_Erwin_Rommel_djvu.txt