"Are you speaking of the "pathetic" Soviet army which destroyed the finest army in the world "
Boy, are you sure you support the ideals of Free Republic?
Here is a reference that supports the widespread fact that Patton was most feared by the Germans - not some Russian.
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A month after the Overlord invasion the stalemate at the beaches was virtually unbroken. Then Bradley launched “Operation Cobra,” a tamed version of one of Patton’s plans. This created a hole in the Germans' encrusted fortifications and allowed the Third Army, which had just become operational, to break out through it.
Third Army came into the scene suddenly and spectacularly as it broke out of Normandy and raced across France. In Brittany, Patton’s VIII corps drove all opposition before them. They swiftly captured the important ports of St. Brieuc, Quimper, Morlaix, and Nantes.
The Germans didn’t know who was in command of the Third Army, but they did know that in seven days the Third Army had stolen 10,000 square miles from their “victorious Reich;” a faster advance than any army in history. They must have suspected that it was Patton, because the Germans always held Patton in higher respect than the Americans. After all, the Third Army’s stunning advance was far faster than the German blitzkrieg.
The Germans now tried to stop the allies’ advance. Against his generals’ advice, Hitler ordered 11 of his best divisions to attack the allies. Patton then went in one huge sweep behind all of the German armies, encircling them between two cities, known as Falaise and Argentan. Patton’s Third Army was at Falaise, and Montgomery’s 21st Army Group was north of Argentan.
In one of the most stupid decisions of the war, Patton was ordered to halt at Falaise and wait for Montgomery to close the gap between the two cities. It took Montgomery 2 weeks to close the gap, during which most of the German divisions escaped. Had Patton been allowed to close the gap, the war would have ended in August 1944. There would have never been an “East Germany” and a Communist dominated Eastern Europe. Thousands of Jewish lives would also have been saved
Yeah, the Germans feared Patton some much they had 3.9 million troops with their backs to him fighting Zukov.
You dispute the contention that the German army was the best in the world?