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I think I was over in Manu'a, where I didn't have my large stash of vids, so I ended up watching tv for the first time in weeks, and I happened to catch this episode.

I don't recall him saying Omar Bradly was the CO of Third Army, he just said that Patton's influence, overall, was not that great, in the role that 3rd Army played in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Larry King then mentioned Omar Bradly, who was discussed as a likeable General.

I'm not sure that he wasn't too far from the mark, what with the combined combat arms of all concerned. Granted, the Battle of the Bulge would not have ended so nicely without Patton's armor nearby.

BUT IN THE OVERALL PICTURE, the Soviets had more to do with eliminating the German Army (thus allowing the liberation of France). The fact that Andy Rooney didn't mention this is why Andy is an aging commentator, not a distinguished historian.

Pookie & ME

Thanks Pookie...you are right. In Stalingrad itself..Operation Uranus...over 300,000 German soldiers were killed or captured, followed up by another 100,000 in the Operation little and big Saturn...the extension of Uranus to capture/destroy all of the Nazi southern forces.

The drive to Moscow cost the Germans several hundred thousand troops. The defeat at Kursk, the destruction of Army Group Center in the spring of '44. The destruction of the new 6th Army in Romania...all of these added up to 6 million dead German soldiers. This not to mention the Serb/Greek contribution of 750,000 KIA/WIA Werhmacht casualties in 4 years of occupation. The Poles did their part too.

Over all, at the beachs of D-Day, 1 in 3 German soldiers were not even Axis...the Germans scoured their prisoner of war camps and pulled all those who were not Russians. They put them in the trenchs and told them that if they didn't fire, they'd be killed. An interesting account comes up of 3 koreans captured by US forces. These intrepid adventurers were in the Korean army when the Japanese annexed Korea. They surrendered to the Japanese. When in the 30's Japan was fighting with the Soviets, they were forced into the Japanese army...where they surrendered to the Soviets...who forced them to fight in Barbarosa...where they...you guessed it...surrendered to the Germans....to find themselves in US hands and be returned to Korea in time for the Korean War....got to love that.

What you say is true, and Patton himself would grudgingly agree.........but what Roonie also fails to point out is the "fear factor". The Germans feared Patton, and it's like a defensive coordinator dealing with the league's leading running back. You suck up a lot of additional resources double- or triple-teaming the guy to keep him from scoring.

In turn, that fear freed up a lot of American and other Allied resources to move faster eastward. Even with all of the amazing accomplishments by Patton's 3rd, I personally think this was his/their greatest accomplishment.

I don't know how you guage importance, if any of the pieces the allies were putting in place to defeat Germany had failed, we would have lost the war or had it pro-longed needless ly. It was as important for Patton do be where he was as it was for the USSR to do what it was doing. Both forces were important.