A Foot Soldier for Patton

A Foot Soldier for Patton PDF Author: Michael C. Bilder
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
A brutally honest depiction of day-to-day combat in World War II, "A Foot Soldier for Patton" takes the reader from the beaches of Normandy, to the brutal battles on the Westwall in the Ardennes, and finally to the conquest of Germany itself.

A Foot Soldier for Patton

A Foot Soldier for Patton PDF Author: Michael C. Bilder
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
A brutally honest depiction of day-to-day combat in World War II, "A Foot Soldier for Patton" takes the reader from the beaches of Normandy, to the brutal battles on the Westwall in the Ardennes, and finally to the conquest of Germany itself.

A Foot Soldier for Patton

A Foot Soldier for Patton PDF Author: Michael C. Bilder
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1935149628
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
This candid memoir of a GI serving under Gen. Patton offers a rare glimpse into the realities of life and combat in Europe during WWII. Though Gen. Patton’s army is famous for dashing armored attacks, some of the most intensive fighting of World War II was done by Patton’s infantry—the foot sloggers who were deployed to reduce enemy strong points. This candid account of the US infantry in the European theater takes the reader from the beaches of Normandy to the conquest of Germany—all through the eyes of an infantryman who had the unique perspective of speaking the enemy’s language. A fluent German speaker, Michael Bilder was called upon for interrogations and other special duties. As a combat lifeguard, he also played a key role in successive river crossings. Here, Bilder relates his experiences of infantry life, from German snipers to intoxicated Frenchwomen, to the often morbid humor of combat. He also describes the Battle of Metz in all its horror, as well as the 5th Infantry’s drive into the Bulge, where they faced their first winter battle against enemy veterans of Russia.

Patton

Patton PDF Author: Carlo D'Este
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9780060927622
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1028

Get Book Here

Book Description
Patton: A Genius for War is a full-fledged portrait of an extraordinary American that reveals the complex and contradictory personality that lay behind the swashbuckling and brash facade. According to Publishers Weekly, the result is "a major biography of a major American military figure." "This massive work is biography at its very best. Literate and meaty, incisive and balanced, detailed without being pedantic. Mr. D'Este's Patton takes its rightful place as the definitive biography of this American warrior." --Calvin L. Christman, Dallas Morning News "D'Este tells this story well, and gives us a new understanding of this great and troubled man."-The Wall Street Journal "An instant classic." --Douglas Brinkley, director, Eisenhower Center

General Patton

General Patton PDF Author: Stanley Hirshson
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060009837
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 850

Get Book Here

Book Description
General George S. Patton Jr, an inspirational leader and outstanding tactician, has intrigued and confounded his biographers. Utilising untapped archival materials in both the USA and UK, government documents, family papers, and oral histories, Hirshson creates the most balanced portrait of Patton ever written. It reveals Patton as a complex soldier capable of brilliant military manoeuvres but also of inspiring his troops with fiery speeches that resulted in horrendous acts, such as the massacres of Italian civilians. It explains Patton's belief in a soldier's Valhalla, connects the family's wealth to one of America's bitterest labour strikes, and disputes the usual interpretation of Patton's relief from command of the Third Army. In investigating this complex man, Hirshson has uncovered surprising material about a series of civilian massacres in Sicily, about the two slapping incidents, about attempts to exploit Patton's diary after his death, and about Patton's relations with top Allied generals. Patton emerges as a soldier of great imagination and courage, and his military campaigns make for edge–of–the–seat reading. All the drama of Patton's life comes alive in this meticulously documented volume.

Patton's Vanguard

Patton's Vanguard PDF Author: Don M. Fox
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786455160
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 497

Get Book Here

Book Description
Stirring accounts of the almost legendary campaigns of the United States Fourth Armored Division, universally recognized as "Patton's Best," from its pre-World War II origins up through its famous relief of the 101st Airborne Division during the Battle of the Bulge are presented in this book. The break out of Normandy at Avranches, the isolation of the Brittany peninsula, the armored thrust across France, the tank battles at Arracourt that cemented the reputation of the Fourth Armored, the brutal struggle in Lorraine, and, ultimately, the legendary drive to Bastogne are among the topics. The accounts were assembled through the use of original unit combat diaries and after-action reports, memoirs of key historical figures and abundant supplementary documents and correspondences. But the essence of the book are the first-hand recollections from members of the division gathered by the author. With maps, drawings and photographs.

Patton's Panthers

Patton's Panthers PDF Author: Charles W. Sasser
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439103909
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 543

Get Book Here

Book Description
On the battlefields of World War II, the men of the African American 761st Tank Battalion under General Patton broke through enemy lines with the same courage with which they broke down the racist limitations set upon them by others—proving themselves as tough, reliable, and determined to fight as any tank unit in combat. Beginning in November 1944, the 761st Tank Battalion engaged the enemy for 183 straight days, spearheading many of General Patton's offensives at the Battle of the Bulge and in six European countries. No other unit fought for so long and so hard without respite. The 761st defeated more than 6,000 enemy soldiers, captured thirty towns, liberated Jews from concentration camps—and made history as the first African American armored unit to enter the war. This is the true story of the Black Panthers, who proudly lived up to their motto (Come Out Fighting) and paved the way for African Americans in the U.S. military—while battling against the skepticism and racism of the very people they fought for.

Patton and His Pistols

Patton and His Pistols PDF Author: Perry Parke
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 0811767388
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Get Book Here

Book Description
Intrigued by hints of “the bigger man” behind the war personality of Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., the Curator of History of the West Point Museum and a former “Army wife” studied and compared innumerable legends and stories about him. The resulting profile is the unvarnished Patton, as the public saw him and as his friends and soldiers knew him. Based solidly on contemporary sources, many of them never before tapped by historians, Patton’s exploited in Mexico, in France in 1918, and during World War II, are strung together by kernels of truth often more startling than the fiction which has surrounded them. One of America’s most famous and controversial generals is depicted through his attitude toward his famous hand guns and uniforms, and the manner in which he reacted to war and to peace. Four pistols are featured in the book, because four pistols were featured in his ife. Sixteen pages of pertinent illustrations, many published for the first time…including the only known photograph of Patton carrying two pistols…accompany the documented narrative. The pistol expert will find detailed appendixes on General Patton’s favorite weapons and their accouterments. Patton and His Pistols is a book for everyone interested in Patton the leader and Patton the man.

Sheer Misery

Sheer Misery PDF Author: Mary Louise
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022675328X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 211

Get Book Here

Book Description
Marching across occupied France in 1944, American GI Leroy Stewart had neither death nor glory on his mind: he was worried about his underwear, which was engaged in a relentless crawl of its own. Similar complaints of physical discomfort pervade infantrymen’s memories of the European theater, whether the soldiers were British, American, German, or French. Wet, freezing misery with no end in sight—this was life for millions of enlisted men during World War II. Sheer Misery trains a humane and unsparing eye on the corporeal experiences of the soldiers who fought in Belgium, France, and Italy during the last two years of the war. In the horrendously unhygienic and often lethal conditions of the front line, their bodies broke down, stubbornly declaring their needs for warmth, rest, and good nutrition. Feet became too swollen to march, fingers too frozen to pull triggers; stomachs cramped, and diarrhea stained underwear and pants. Turning away from the accounts of high-level military strategy that dominate many WWII chronicles, acclaimed historian Mary Louise Roberts instead relies on diaries and letters to bring to life visceral sense memories like the moans of the “screaming meemies,” the acrid smell of cordite, and the shockingly mundane sight of rotting corpses. As Roberts writes, “For soldiers who fought, the war was above all about their bodies.”

Patton's First Victory

Patton's First Victory PDF Author: Leo Barron
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0811766071
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book Here

Book Description
American troops invaded North Africa in November 1942, but did not face serious resistance until the following February, when they finally tangled with Rommel’s Afrika Korps—and the Germans gave the inexperienced Americans a nasty drubbing at Kasserine Pass. After this disaster, Gen. George Patton took command and reinvigorated U.S. troops with tough training and new tactics. In late March, at El Guettar in Tunisia, Patton’s men defeated the Germans. It was a morale-boosting victory—the first American success versus the Germans and the first of Patton’s storied World War II career—and proved to the enemy, the British, and the Americans themselves that the U.S. Army could fight and win.

Patton's Air Force

Patton's Air Force PDF Author: David N. Spires
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1935623508
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 569

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the time the Third Army became operational on August 1, 1944, until the guns fell silent on May 8, 1945, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's troops covered more ground and took more enemy prisoners than any other Allied army in northwest Europe. Brig. Gen. Otto P. Weyland's XIX Tactical Air Command (TAC) provided air support every step of the way. Their combined success is something of an anomaly; air-ground relationships are notoriously confrontational and plagued with inter-service competition. How did Patton and Weyland work together to achieve such astounding success? Drawing on exclusive access to official records, David N. Spires finds that this success was due to four key developments: the maturation of tactical aviation doctrine, effective organizational procedures, a technical revolution in equipment, and, above all, the presence of pragmatic men of goodwill who made the system work. He focuses on the highly effective personal relationship between Patton and Weyland -- men who respected, trusted, and fully relied on each other and their respective subordinates. This collaboration extended all the way down the chain of command: Patton's ground troops and Weyland's airmen trained together in England, and so by the time they entered combat, they operated together as a single unit. Contrary to conventional wisdom, air-ground relationships in the field can be cooperative rather than confrontational. Today's air and ground officers can continue to benefit from the amazing success of the Third Army and the XIX TAC.