Here's another account of PAtton's tactical prowess.
Lots of talk here on how great the Germans or Russians were but Patton appears to hold the record.
Lt. General George S. Patton Jr., has never been properly recognized for his contribution to military strategy, although he executed the fastest advance ever in history, far faster than Guderian’s famous blitzkrieg into Poland.
In this article I will show some incredible examples of Patton’s victories, as well as examine why and how Patton’s strategy works. To do this, let’s look at an example of Patton’s military strategy in action:
It was March, 1945, and Patton’s XX Corps’ was rapidly advancing towards the Rhine, threatening General Balck’s entire forces. General Balck, commander of German Army Group G, needed to delay Patton’s crossing of the Rhine. So he formed a defensive line consisting of 10 divisions in the Hunsruck Mountains to protect his north flank. But Patton now used his most effective method against a solidly-held German area. He split his army’s advance in two. In addition to the XX Corps’ advance in the north which Balck was worried about, he also ordered the 4th Armored to cross the Moselle in the south and dash through the enemy’s rear. The XII Corps’ Infantry followed closely behind the armored division, wiping up any resistance. The XII Corps in the south, far in the enemy’s rear, circled around and linked up in the north with the XX Corps, which had plunged through the West Wall and was rapidly advancing towards the Rhine. Because Patton had split the Third Army in two and encircled the Hunsruck Mountains, the Americans captured ten entire German divisions there. This was Patton’s masterpiece; it shows the true genius of his strategy.
Continuing his campaign in the Palatinate, Patton’s 4th Armored cut off the Germans’ bridges across the Rhine. Mainz and Mannheim quickly fell to the onslaught of Patton’s slashing armor. Patton’s armored divisions were attacking the German Army Group on three sides. Trapped in France, surrounded and cut off from their Rhine bridgeheads, the Germans began surrendering in the tens of thousands.
The Third Army’s campaign in the Palatinate was rolling onwards, more brilliant by the hour. “We are the eighth wonder of the world,” Patton wrote to his wife, “…I hope things keep smooth. It seems to be too good to be true.” On March 21st 1945, the Palatinate Campaign officially came to an end with Third Army having annihilated every German contingent in the Moselle triangle. “I really believe this operation is one of the outstanding operations in the history of war,” Patton wrote in his diary. German Major General Schimpf of the 3rd Paratroop Division would call Patton’s campaign in the Palatinate “phenomenal.”
Patton’s strategy, to encircle and cut-off the enemy, rather than annihilating him in a direct assault, was the key to his success. He used his armored divisions and the air force for these behind-the-lines encirclements because they were fast enough to surprise the enemy. He then had the infantry follow behind the armored divisions, wiping up. Patton’s strategy was perfect blitzkrieg. Unfortunately, some military historians claim that Patton was merely “chasing a retreating enemy” and that his army fell apart under real resistance, or that he was capturing and defeating inferior, under-supplied German troops.
There are several problems with these arguments. The purpose of Patton’s strategy, and the purpose of blitzkrieg, is to avoid direct frontal attacks and to bypass resistance. The idea is to cut the enemy off from his supplies and force him to surrender. This strategy saves thousands of lives, but it requires the armies to move very quickly, giving rise to the accusation that they are “chasing” the enemy. The other accusation, that the Germans were under-supplied and not as well equipped as the Americans, is silly. The first blitzkrieg, executed by Guderian in Poland, consisted of German tanks and planes against Polish cavalry. The inequality of these forces in no way diminished Guderian’s victory.
There were occasions where the Third Army actually had far less supplies than the Germans, yet still managed to win the battle. One of these occurred at dawn on September 8th, 1944. Because the Third Army was now on the defense, an SS Panzer Brigade attacked them. The SS brigade at first had a minor success. They fired at General McLain’s headquarters, broke in and captured classified files, then withdrew to join the main force. This would have been the first German victory of the campaign; but then Third Army asserted itself, counterattacked, and almost completely annihilated the German contingent. The Germans lost 30 tanks, 60 half-tracks, and 900 men.
Patton was just as brilliant at defense as he was during the attack and pursuit. When Eisenhower ordered the Third Army onto the defense in September, 1944, Patton told his two corps commanders that they were to make “limited attacks” so that the Germans would not know that the Third had been ordered onto the defense. He prohibited the stringing of barbed wire and would not allow his men to mine the army’s frontier. This would only be a temporary halt, and he did not want them to do anything which would make future advances difficult. So here is how Patton defended the Third Army’s border: he ordered his men to make small outposts which could be easily assisted by the Third’s powerful tanks in case of a German attack. Artillery was placed wherever German tanks were likely to strike. Then Patton alerted the men in Weyland’s air force to be ready at a moment’s notice to fly in and strafe enemy soldiers. If the Germans attacked, commanders were to call in the tanks and infantry at once. This is the essence of blitzkrieg: constant mobility at a moment’s notice; and contrary to the revisionist theory, here Patton was exercising it under defense.
One of Patton’s most ingenious and little known plans was for his Rhine crossing. Several months before he crossed the Rhine, while he was still planning in England, he selected a spot along the Rhine River where he would cross with his Army. He chose this area “because the terrain on my side dominated that on the other side, as the former was far enough away from the Frankfurt hills to prevent direct fire on the bridges, and because, above everything else, there was a barge harbor there from which we could launch the boats unseen.” Less than ten men died in Patton’s military crossing of the Rhine! That is unprecedented in the history of war. That Patton could plan this from simply looking at a terrain map in London is incredible, and shows Patton’s genius not just in swift exploitation, but also in planning.
Patton’s crossing of the Rhine was typical of his operations; the 5th Infantry Division had simply ferried across the Rhine in rafts and small engineer assault boats early in the morning. The operation was launched with nothing special in the way of supplies or equipment. He was very proud of this and had his messenger tell Bradley that, “Without benefit of aerial bombing, ground smoke, artillery preparation, and airborne assistance, the Third Army at 2200 hours, Thursday evening, March 22, crossed the Rhine River.” The man who had the aerial bombing, ground smoke, artillery, airborne divisions, Field Marshal Montgomery, had been beaten across the Rhine by the genius of Lt. Gen. Patton’s strategy.
“We did not wait,” Patton wrote, “and caught most of the 15th Panzer division in bed.” Patton’s strategy had triumphed again. Patton’s strategy was constant advance: he needed to be unrelenting if he was to surprise the enemy. The Germans respected Patton’s strategy and admired its genius, calling him our “most modern” commander. Rommel wrote that, “We had to wait until the Patton Army in France to see the most astonishing achievements in mobile warfare.” Von Rundstedt simply called Patton our “best.”
The Americans, however, have been unwilling to give Patton credit for his remarkable achievements. I think it’s time we reevaluate what makes a great strategy. If we value winning a war quickly with a minimum of casualties, we should look to the commander who captured ten Germans to one American; we should look to the inventor of American blitzkrieg, General Patton.