by Martin Blumenson (Editor), George S. Patton (Author)
Drawn from Patton’s own diaries, letters, speeches, and orders, The Patton Papers: 1940–1945 follows one of World War II’s most gifted field commanders at the height of his powers—from North Africa and Sicily to Third Army’s drive across France and into Germany. Blumenson, given unmatched access to the family papers, lets Patton speak in real time: the speeches that steeled his men, the private sense of destiny, and the restless intelligence that treated command as both craft and calling. After victory the same unfiltered voice turns inward and eastward. He begins to question whether the Allies had wrecked the right enemy, recoils from occupation policies he thought were breaking Germany as a nation, and writes with startling bluntness about the camps and the masses of displaced people he now had to govern—admiring German order one day, using hard, unsparing language about some of the survivors the next. What the book finally offers is not a polished hero but the raw record of a brilliant soldier whose loyalties, fears, and judgments were still changing when the war was supposed to be over.
Back Jacket
This volume focuses on George Patton, the man as a general.
Author Biography
Martin Blumenson is the author of a dozen books on military subjects.
Number of Pages: 944
Dimensions: 2.3 x 8.5 x 5.6 IN
Illustrated: Yes
Publication Date: August 22, 1996