Patton's Madness by Jim Sudmeier

Author:Jim Sudmeier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2019-10-03T16:00:00+00:00

The attacks worried Bradley, who appealed to Patton: “For God’s sake, George, lay off.”34 Why did Patton choose to attack the Metz forts? Prestige. “To assault a famous and legendarily impregnable fortified city was a challenge scarcely to be resisted by a soldier with Patton’s sense of his military destiny.”35 Yet he seemed strangely disengaged from the attacks on the forts by Walker’s XX Corps, whom he did not visit once during the ten-day span of September 6–16.36 Once again, it seems that Patton’s oversized ego, like that of the narcissist General Custer at Little Big Horn,37 destroyed his ability to make sound strategic decisions.38

From September 22 through October 13, Patton’s XIX TAC bombed the legendary Fort Driant with dozens of napalm, five-hundred and one-thousand-pound bombs, which did little damage.39 On October 13, Patton gave up the attack, his 5th Infantry having fought valiantly and suffered 64 men killed, 547 wounded, and 187 missing in the attempt on Fort Driant alone.40 Then he finally did the smart thing—he bypassed Metz. Fort Driant, Fort Jeanne d’Arc, and others would capitulate within a month or two, their defenders facing starvation. Patton’s oft-repeated contempt for any kind of defensive warfare41 probably contributed to his compulsion to conquer the massive fortifications. A narcissist always needs to be right.

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