'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must save him from himself'.
The OSS head General did not trust Patton
Posted on 12/20/2008 6:04:53 PM PST by bruinbirdman
The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with Russians that cost American lives.
'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must save him from himself'.
The OSS head General did not trust Patton
The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home.
But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox claims that OSS head General "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman called Douglas Bazata to silence Patton, who gloried in the nickname "Old Blood and Guts".
His book, "Target Patton", contains interviews with Mr Bazata, who died in 1999, and extracts from his diaries, detailing how he staged the car crash by getting a troop truck to plough into Patton's Cadillac and then shot the general with a low-velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers escaped without a scratch.
Mr Bazata also suggested that when Patton began to recover from his injuries, US officials turned a blind eye as agents of the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB, poisoned the general.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph that when he spoke to Mr Bazata: "He was struggling with himself, all these killings he had done. He confessed to me that he had caused the accident, that he was ordered to do so by Wild Bill Donovan.
"Donovan told him: 'We've got a terrible situation with
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
“I seem to recall that he corrected a journalist in the movie, Patton, saying that they were ivory handled.
Am I right about this?”
I think Patton said only a Pimp would have pearl handled revolvers. His were ivory.
Thanks. I remembered the movie, but not the title. I was going to look it up to post it, but you saved me the trouble.
Actually in 1944, before the Bulge and after D-Day both Patton and Montgomery saw an opportunity to make a quick drive right to Berlin. Both Generals saw it as something which would have to be taken advantage of immediately and it would not likely present itself again.
Of course the ones in charge would not allow either one to try it.
Both were sure they could end the war almost immediately.
ping
Not a chance Mac Arthur would not let GSP help out in the Jap offensive afraid GSP would dominate the headlines..
They were both prima donnnas would not have worked out..
I think Patton really did make the comment and his revolvers were in fact adorned with ivory grips.
He was wrong about who would carry pearl grips tho. I can’t recall his name but one of the great Texas Rangers carried pearl handled revolvers, or maybe it was .38 super autos with pearl grips. My memory is getting bad as I get older.
Both were wrong.
The Germans had in fact far greater reserves on the way than they anticipated. A “thin” offensive by an army-size force (6-10 divisions) sticking its neck out so to speak, would have been enormously risky.
I knew an elderly gentleman about 20 years ago who was friends with a man who had been an orderly in the hospital where Patton died. My friend told me that this orderly had always insisted that Patton did not die a natural death...that he had been murdered. That’s all he would tell me.
I’m a Pattonphile. He’s one of my heroes. I’ve read all biographies and other material on the man. The rumors of his being assassinated go back long before the movie “Brass Target” was made. Ollie North did a War Stories episode on this incident. Unfortunately, I missed it and it was never rerun.
Nam Vet
It was partially political. The allies had the supplies to support one army's drive. The British got the resources, resulting in Market Garden.
Patton was bogged down for most of the fall because of the supply issue, and since he couldn't drive forward, he got caught up in the sieges of Metz and Nancy.
except in this movie it was US Army thieves stealing NAZI gold (Kelly’s Heroes?) who set up the hit on Patton rather than Wild Bill Donavon.
To modify an old cliche:
The First Time as Tragedy, the Second as Farce, the Third as Bad Fiction and the Fourth as Leftist Anti-American Propaganda.
bump for later read
Thanks.
Interesting.
From the first moment I saw [in movies]/heard about his
‘accident’ . . .
I’ve always felt it was staged and that higher-ups wanted him dead.
Thanks for the info on the Texas Ranger.
Market-Garden was a case in point of the folly of such an attack. It got bogged down in German counterattacks along the supply route, and the entire force was too weak to prevent a German counterattack from cutting off and annihilating major units.
At the risk of being branded an inveterate, iconoclastic curmudgeon, isn’t history plenty big enough to allow murder to be a natural “death?”
You’re right, the novel/movie were more realistic as to the motives.
Another interesting tidbit. I used to know a lady whose husband was Patton’s driver. He was from Abbeville, Alabama and for several years never had an accident.
He was replaced as driver just before the accident. Probably just coincidence as the reason he was replaced was he got to go home as the war was over.
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