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He (Patton) rammed a submachine gun into the belly of a soldier collapsed from exhaustion on a North African beach, waking him suddenly to his explanation.
I know you’re tired. We’re all tired. That makes no difference. The next beach you land on will be defended by Germans. I don’t want one of them coming up behind you and hitting you over the head with a sockful of shit.
That “sockful of shit” brought reality home more certainly than any other weapon he could have mentioned.
From ‘The American Tradition‘ by John Greenway
From the always interesting Military Motivators.
Cross posted to Space For Commerce.
Huh. And that action today would result in a congressional investigation followed by the “retirement” of the General who’d leave to “spend more time with his family”. The soldier would become a cast-off hero to the left-o-sphere long enough to milk the incident for publicity’s sake, then he’d go on to write a book that would sell 10′s of copies and end up in the bargain bin at Barnes and Noble. He might even make enough on the advance to buy a cup of coffee at B&N too.
Sigh…. If you pay attention to the MSM long enough you’d believe that we’ve become a nation of whiner’s and wimps……
Indeed – Patton got in trouble in Sicily in 1943 for smacking a soldier in hospital.
Bad for Patton, food for the Allies – the Germans were certain we’d use Patton where the focus of effort was going to be. They spent 10 months moving him around, confusing the snot out of the Germans.
I didn’t know this – just read it in wikipedia as it happens
In a story recounted by Professor Richard Holmes, just three days before D-Day, during a reception in the London Ritz Hotel, Patton shouted across a crowded reception in the direction of Eisenhower “I’ll see you in Calais!”, much to the consternation of all those around him. The ploy appears to have worked as reports of overnight troop movements North from Normandy were detected by Bletchley Park code decrypts.
You gotta feel sorry for the German intel weenie who could not believe we’d not use Patton at the main focus of effort.
Later, in September of ’44, the OB West was slow to believe Market Garden was happening. He’d been expecting 3rd Army to renew the attack and could not believe Montgomery was capable of directing a daring use of airborne troops.