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Documentary General George S Patton
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00:01In 1942, he stepped forth like some warrior of old to lead and inspire vast forces of men.
00:09At a pace never equaled, his third army swept across the continent of Europe.
00:14No American leader was more colorful and more successful.
00:23General George S. Patton, Jr., dedicated a glory and the victory that was won.
00:28The name, the symbol, the victories are history.
00:53The United States Army presents The Big Picture, an official report produced for the armed forces and the American people.
01:06Our guest narrator, Mr. Ronald Regan.
01:13It's not easy to believe that George S. Patton, Jr. was once just Georgie.
01:27From his earliest years, this lad believed he was going to be General George S. Patton, Jr.
01:33His imagination was stirred by stories of great heroes of the past, told by his father.
01:42His military career began at VMI.
01:46At West Point, he proved himself a model cadet, although, like Washington and Napoleon, he could not spell.
01:54Rarely from this time on would Georgie flash this attractive smile.
01:58He just didn't go with his very serious ideas of soldiering.
02:07He established the first football team for soldiers, to keep them from wasting their off hours in drinking and gambling.
02:18World War I.
02:20Convinced that this ponderous vehicle would someday come into its own, he studied it.
02:25Rode into battle on it.
02:27Became a hero alongside it.
02:30Our first tank commander, he would always be linked with the weapon that symbolized his driving, overwhelming personality.
02:42After the war, the tank school at Fort Meade.
02:45Two officers here shared a deep military interest.
02:49Ike Eisenhower and Georgie.
02:52The fierce expression, his get up at masquerades, reflected some deep instinct to play the role of warrior or fighter.
03:06His wife joined in, sensing that even in fun, these roles suited her soldier husband.
03:17A time came as it had before, when the clothing of battle was to be worn by millions of Americans.
03:29November 1942.
03:30In command of American forces for the invasion of North Africa.
03:34Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.
03:58One of the outstanding features of a brief campaign was Patton's bold leadership, and later, the favorable impression he created
04:05on French and Arabs alike.
04:18Long range plans could now be discussed.
04:21Plans which would cast America's toughest general in a leading role.
04:25Meanwhile, a battle was raging to the east in Tunisia.
04:41His tankers, whom he roused to a pitch of fighting spirit, entered the fray.
04:54Allied leaders such as General Alexander sensed Patton's remarkable military gifts.
04:59His judgment, his sure instinct for what the enemy would do.
05:08Hatton set a tank trap for Rommel.
05:22Rommel marched right into it.
05:24His 10th Panzer Division lost half its 60 tanks.
05:27retired, and never attempted a counterattack.
05:37His reputation grew.
05:39He looked forward eagerly to his next campaign.
05:41He'd been selected to command a new army, the 7th, slated for the conquest of Sicily.
06:25He's been elected to the monsters for parts of Sicily.
06:26An order of the day from Patton to his men.
06:30Remember that we as attackers have the initiative.
06:33We must retain this tremendous advantage by always attacking.
06:37Rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, without rest.
06:41Keep punching. God is with us.
06:43We shall win.
06:53Attack, attack, and when in doubt, attack again.
06:57Patton's major principle for fighting battles or a war.
07:18His chief mission, he believed, was to arouse the morale of his men.
07:21He urged them on, certain that speed and boldness could shorten the war.
07:37Like Monty, he believed in showmanship.
07:40But he was aware that if the act could not be carried off in fine style,
07:45the men would see through it.
07:46Both leaders used every means to inspire the troops of their vast command.
07:59Sicily proved to be a model campaign.
08:02Sound tactics and a fighting spirit won the island in 38 days.
08:24The supreme allied commander paid a visit.
08:28Passionately involved in the work at hand,
08:30Patton had acquired a reputation for being tempestuous, sometimes rash.
08:35There was a question as to his role in the invasion of Fortress Europe.
08:44Then, his whereabouts carefully concealed from the German high command,
08:48he appeared in Great Britain.
08:50New troops heard him in an introductory speech and called him
08:53Old Blood and Guts.
08:55The old timers referred to him as
08:57The Old Man,
08:58who knew more about fighting than any man alive.
09:02He called a spade a spade.
09:04He told them to get mad and stay mad.
09:07They listened.
09:34On D-Day, behind Bradley's first army,
09:37another army assembled.
09:39Patton's third.
09:44With plenty of armor,
09:46this outfit was like its commander.
09:48Fast, hard-hitting,
09:50spirited,
09:51spectacular.
10:09From the Cherbourg peninsula began a rolling advance,
10:12an all-out smashing attack,
10:14the patent version of a German blitzkrieg.
10:37The Old Man had said,
10:39the harder we push,
10:41the more Nazis we'll kill.
10:42And the more Nazis we kill,
10:44the fewer of our men will be killed.
10:47Pushing means fewer casualties.
10:50The third took the old man at his word
10:52and found he was right.
11:12St. Melo,
11:14the beginning of a long list of towns,
11:16occupied by Germans one day,
11:18liberated the next.
11:40At the head of a vast crusading army,
11:43a man fulfilling a destiny
11:45he had dreamed of since early youth.
11:50The attacks now were in all directions at once,
11:54toward the south and north,
11:56and east toward Germany.
12:10The third advanced like a tidal wave,
12:13and the enemy's response was fear.
12:20He told his men,
12:21in the last two weeks,
12:23the third has advanced farther and faster
12:25than any other army in history.
12:27My intention is to move farther and faster still.
12:35Outrunning its maps,
12:36the third army crossed the Seine.
12:38In his words,
12:39he was touring France with an army.
12:54He was everywhere at once,
12:56covering the great distances within his command.
12:58His use of light aircraft exemplified his eagerness
13:01to adopt any new means of increasing efficiency.
13:09Throughout,
13:10the 19th tactical air command
13:12of the 8th Army Air Force
13:13gave incredibly close support.
13:29the astounding advances went on and on.
13:34Patton saw nothing in the way.
13:36He was ready to push on
13:38into the heart of Germany.
13:52Struggling to keep up with his fast-moving front
13:55was a miraculous supply effort
13:56known as the Red Ball Express.
13:59But now Patton's supply lines
14:01were strained to the utmost.
14:03Winter was approaching.
14:05Other Allied armies were feeling the pinch.
14:08The third was ordered to hold up,
14:10to take the defensive.
14:13Nothing but defeat itself
14:14could have made the general more depressed.
14:25This was a difficult time
14:27for an army built to roll.
14:36The tension for Patton was finally eased.
14:39He was assured by his old friend
14:40that the third would eventually receive
14:42adequate supplies
14:43to resume what they had begun.
14:50Patton urged his leaders
14:51to keep high the morale
14:52created during the offensive.
14:54He himself delivered the pep talks
14:56for which he was famous,
14:57giving credit,
14:59instilling pride,
15:00urging men to even greater deeds.
15:06Then,
15:07the green light.
15:24In 400 years,
15:26this fortress city
15:27had withstood every assault.
15:29That's not a good thing.
15:34He said to be very blunt.
15:39No.
15:44No!
15:46No.
15:49No.
15:58Metz was no cheap victory.
16:01But the fall of this highly regarded fortification bore out Patton's belief
16:05that no defense position had ever been successfully defended.
16:18With General Walker at the front, new plans now.
16:21A great drive toward the highly reputed Siegfried Line.
16:25But an instinct for what the enemy will do had alerted him to a new danger.
16:45Field Marshal Von Rundstedt struck with 20 divisions on a 40-mile front.
16:50The Battle of the Bulge.
16:57Patton was asked to speed what help he could.
17:00Could it be in three days, Ike asked?
17:03Patton's armored troops would make it in two,
17:06dashing 100 miles over icy roads to Bastogne.
17:27Then, at the heart of a major attack, Patton's concentrated armored power.
17:44Terrible weather prevented a much-needed air attack.
17:48A religious man Patton frequently prayed.
17:52This time, a prayer went out on thousands of printed cards for all his men to join him.
17:58Almighty and merciful Father, grant us fair weather for battle.
18:30Now, the enemy was on the defensive.
18:32The enemy was on the defensive.
18:32In Patton's book, they were destined to fail.
18:48The third broke the back of the German offensive and began preparations for their own.
18:53Patton.
18:54Always the old man pushed them harder than anyone had pushed them before.
18:58Always the results were more than they might have expected.
19:02For a commander who was so obviously a winner, they would do the impossible.
19:15Patton believed in decorations, in recognizing and exalting the heroic qualities of his men.
19:21And they sensed his sincerity when he used words like duty, patriotism, and loyalty.
19:27To him, these words had real meaning.
19:38The Siegfried Line.
19:50In Patton's words, this monument to the stupidity of man cracked easily.
20:03The famous third was now on the loose again.
20:06On a spring rampage that would bring the war to a close before summer.
20:17Again, Patton's army was going beyond expectations.
20:29The enemy believed Patton would pause at the ride.
20:32He went right across.
20:41Now, along a wide front, his divisions fought toward the final goal.
21:00Always he took time out to give credit where it really belonged.
21:04To the men.
21:05To Private Harold A. Garman.
21:07The Medal of Honor.
21:15Exalting sacrifice, Patton never dwelt long on the horrors of war.
21:19But as his third army overran concentration camps in Germany, he saw horror of a new kind.
21:46Victories piled up as the third turned southwest to link up with Soviet forces in the Danube Valley.
22:10It was over.
22:12For a moment, Patton relaxed his carefully maintained role of colorful leader to be himself.
22:28On his return, Americans showed their gratitude.
22:30In General Pershing's words, it didn't hurt America to have a general so bold that he was dangerous.
22:46Los Angeles went all out in its reception.
22:49With him was General Doolittle, whose eighth Air Force in Europe did so much to assure final victory.
22:56Although no unit, no individual won the war, we're fortunate in having won here tonight with us who had a
23:07large part in winning the war.
23:10I'm pleased and proud to have been privileged to fight by the side of General George Patton.
23:25Your Honor, the Mayor, General Doolittle, soldiers, ladies and gentlemen, coming over here, there was a very great lesson.
23:41In the first four hours, we passed over a destroyed land. Utterly destroyed.
23:53You who have not seen it do not know what hell looks like from the top.
23:59That's what Germany looks like. That's what Austria looks like.
24:04That's what any place that the 8th Air Force and the 3rd Army worked on looks like.
24:16You must remember this. That from Brest to various towns in southern Germany and Austria, whose names I can't pronounce,
24:33but whose places I have removed.
24:42The trail of the 3rd Army and the 19th Tactical Air Command and the 8th Air Force is marked by
24:53more than 40,000 white crosses.
24:5740,000 dead Americans.
25:01Few realized how deeply he felt about his men.
25:13In Germany, with no more battles to win, Patton watched Americans compete on the playing field.
25:18Again, he saw the fighting spirit, the will to win, a quality he loved and admired, and which epitomized himself.
25:27Struggle was the test of a man. War, the supreme struggle, provided the highest test.
25:46He had expected his own death to be spectacular.
25:50In this one prediction, he was more mistaken than in the planning of any battle.
26:04He died of injuries received in an automobile accident four months after the end of the war.
26:21He died of injuries received in a lose.
26:23In the history of death.
26:29The first time he dies, the two sides were their lives lived.
26:32The last two days, the last two days were called a plan to win in a caring field.
26:33The last three days, the last three days of the battle, the last four days.
26:37The last two days had been built by a man.
26:45The place of burial among the men of the Third Army who had fallen in the Battle of the Bulge.
26:53His personality lives on in his statue at West Point.
26:57He lived for action and glory and reached the heights in serving his country.
27:16THE END
27:39THE END
27:40THE END
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