In honor of the D-Day invasion, my favorite story of The Longest Day: How General George S. Patton Helped to Win the Invasion … Without Even Participating. Patton was a flamboyant and controversial figure, but there is no question that he was one of our greatest military commanders in the Second World War. By D-Day, however, he had been relieved of active command for an incident at a hospital in Sicily. Visiting the wounded soldiers, Patton came across a young soldier suffering from what was known then as “battle fatigue” or “shell-shock.” We know it today as PTSD, but at that time it was only beginning to be recognized as a serious battlefield injury, and many believed, including Patton, that it was a sign of cowardice and weakness. When Patton saw that the soldier didn’t have any physical wounds, the soldier’s presence in a hospital with physically wounded soldiers so angered Patton that he slapped the soldier and commanded that he return to combat. This incident made it into the press and so outraged the American public that Patton was relieved of active command. It was not only America who recognized Patton as one of our best battlefield commanders. The Nazi’s and Hitler himself so feared Patton, considering him the best allied general in the European theater, that Hitler was convinced that it would be Patton leading the invasion of Europe. He thought that the whole slapping story was American propaganda, believing that we would never sideline our best commander over such a “silly” little incident (if you displayed “battle fatigue” in the Nazi or Soviet armies, a slap would have been the least of your concerns). Realizing Hitler’s fear of Patton, the allies launched Operation Fortitude in January of 1944. This operation brought Patton to England where he was put in command of The First US Army Group (FUSAG), stationed in England across the channel’s narrowest point facing the port of Calais in occupied France. FUSAG consisted of hundreds of tanks, trucks, and other equipment lined up in the fields of England, all visible to German intelligence … and all completely fake. They were basically blow-up toys, and General George S. Patton was in command of a “ghost” army. The ruse worked so well that it may have saved the day at Normandy. Hitler had concentrated his forces around Calais, and so believed that Patton would lead the invasion there that even after the allies landed at Normandy, Hitler believed that it was a diversionary invasion, and kept the German 15th Army at Calais, and even diverted reinforcements on their way to Normandy to Calais. By the time Hitler conceded that Normandy was the real invasion and released the German reinforcements, the beaches had been taken, and the allies were moving into the heart of France. It is almost without question that had the German 15th army been released as soon as it was known that the invasion was at Normandy, we would be remembering quite a different outcome for that day. The 15th Army was strong enough that it very well could have stopped the allies at the beaches and the invasion would have gone down in history as the greatest military disaster of World War II. But, thanks to Patton and his reputation alone, we remember Normandy as the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 16:31:19 +0000
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