“I always found the story about Patton on the bridge in Sicily shooting the mules to be fascinating,”
My dad was in 7th Army on Sicily when Patton was in charge.
I don’t know if this is the same incident but he witnessed an old Sicilian farmer obstruct a bridge with a slow donkey cart. The stubborn fool wouldn’t get out of the way when an Army convoy came up fast behind him so the lead truck shoved him, his cart, and the donkey over the side. High bridge.
I suppose it could be the same...I always thought there was an armored column stopped on a bridge, and it was vulnerable to being strafed if any Luftwaffe aircraft appeared, and when the enraged Patton was driven to the point of the obstruction to see it was caused by two obstinate mules hooked to a cart that wouldn’t move, he pulled out one of his ivory handled pistols, shot the mules in the head, and directed his men to throw them over the side.
But I could clearly be remembering it wrong.