[ABoselli]

I finally found something about this alleged court martial coverup - man, you had to dig for this one. It's a review of a very unflattering biography of Patton.

Hirshson’s most damning indictment of Patton is the author’s interpretation of the effect of Patton’s bellicose speeches on his troops in Sicily. Patton’s exhortation to kill as many enemies as possible, says Hirshson, produced a debilitating effect on his Seventh Army and invited five atrocities, including a massacre of 40 prisoners at Biscari airfield and the murder of Italian civilians at a Canicatti soap factory. Patton acknowledged that a massacre occurred and directed Bradley to tell the officer involved to certify that the dead men were snipers.

To Patton, such incidents were regrettable, but in war atrocities take place and "they are dead, so nothing can be done about it." Though the officer who ordered the killings cited Patton’s order to send as many of the enemy to the infernal regions as possible as a defense in his subsequent court-martial, Hirshson’s evidence that the atrocities were directly attributable to Patton’s warlike addresses is dubious. One can not help but be reminded of Adm. William F. (Bull) Halsey’s order to his commanders to kill as many of the enemy as possible in the Pacific theater.

So the guys defense was "well, he said to kill everybody, so I did" and this implicates Patton. Umm, OK.

From that same review -

Was Patton a great general then? Despite Hirshson’s reservations, the answer is decidedly affirmative. Patton’s record speaks for itself. In Sicily, the American Army came of age under Patton’s forceful leadership and ruthless driving power. In Europe, Patton’s army advanced faster and farther and inflicted a greater number of casualties than any of Bradley’s four armies in 12th Army Group. In slightly more than a year of actual combat, Patton had indeed "earned his pay" in commanding troops in North Africa, Sicily and Europe. Small wonder that it was Patton whom the German commanders feared more than any other Allied commander.

Except, of course, the big, bad, rugby inventing Maori. In the words of German commanders -

Groß! Seine jene singenden Rugbyhalteseile wieder. Ich swear mich werde sich schießen, wenn ich zu ihrem dummen mehr kreischen hören muß.

[Edited by ABoselli on Jun 9th, 2003 at 12:57 PM]