No doubt at all. That’s exactly what made him the genius he was on the battlefield. But like anyone else, he was fallible in other areas. Like the often quoted idea he had to re-arm the German army, and invade Russia. It’s astonishingly tone deaf. I’ve been a grunt, and I’ve been in the field when we heard over the radio that the cease-fire had been signed. It’s hard to imagine anything more demoralizing then a few weeks later, some general wants you to join up with your former enemies and go back into the war against a frightfully powerful army. When one thing for the bitterness grunts had for the SS, and for Nazis in general, it’s truly astonishing that he could’ve thought that was anywhere possible. The reason I believe he thought it was possible is because he was an aristocrat by nature. He could clink wine glasses with German generals, and they could come to agreements . It never entered his mind the regular soldiers had all the war they wanted and had no desire to go back up against the Soviet army. But his race across France was astonishing, like you said, mystics and geniuses. Tesla was a genius, but at the end of his life he was a madman sitting on a park bench reduced to feeding pigeons.
But they did (eventually) re-raise and rearm the German army in the 1950’s. And that with almost all the field grade and up with prior service in the Wehrmacht. Like most unconventional sorts Patton was just - premature.
Patton had a keenly analytical mind and knew exactly where it was all going to go with the Soviets. Not a lot of people liked that message in 1945, but prophets are rarely honored, ever. But he was absolutely correct.
The Soviets had 12 million soldiers in 1945. And they survived Stalingrad. No way we were going to fight the Soviets. The Western Allies were intimidated by the Soviets. Everyone thought Patton was crazy.
Sure how could Patton possibly have thought we could team up with Germany against Russia?!
Good thing we didn’t put Germany in NATO or use its scientists to build our rocket systems. /s