70 years ago, Gen. Patton was laid to rest at Third Army Cemetary.

the ringo kid · Dec 26, 2015

Like him or not? but you have to admit he was the consummate battlefield General. No other is like this unique general, and sadly, I highly doubt there will be another like him.

Anyway, 70 years ago, General George Smith Patton Jr. was laid to rest at Third Army cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg. His funeral procession included at least 100 vehicles including, tanks, half tracks etc and watched by tens of thousands of soldiers and greatful civilians.

Rest in Peace with your men sir. Also, we lost 19,000 of our guys during the Battle of the Bulge. Rest in Peace sirs.

lowriderfxr · Dec 26, 2015

I was just looking at pictures of his .357 today. Great American hero. Might not want him to run the counseling wing for PTSD soldiers but he was a great soldier and a national treasure.

DWalt · Dec 26, 2015

If you haven't read "Killing Patton," It's worth the read. But much better books about Patton have been written. I found a copy at the local Half-Price Book Store for $4.00. I wouldn't pay full price.

The book doesn't speculate on whether Patton's death was an assassination or not, but the circumstances were very strange to say the least. And there was no shortage of those who wanted him to be taken out.

M1A · Dec 26, 2015

The best book on Gen. Patton is by Carlo D'Este. "A Genius for WAR".

steveno · Dec 26, 2015

Patton's funeral procession

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLYVOaKdTvc[/ame]

Ducky2002 · Dec 26, 2015

You're right, Ringo. There will never be another one like Patton as long as our "civilian command" refuses to allow our troops to actually win. We must not hurt the other side's feelings or make them feel like we are dissing them.

DWalt · Dec 26, 2015

Ian V. Hogg wrote a good treatment in his 1982 book, "The Biography of General George S. Patton" Lots of pictures and lots of solid text. Also, Martin Blumenson's 1985 book "Patton: The Man Behind the Legend" is very good, but not as heavy on illustrations. Patton was among the greatest field commanders ever, but he was far from being a master strategist or politician.

steveno · Dec 26, 2015

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6BX5wnmxo8[/ame]

you will notice that Patton's grave is in the middle of all of the others. it was later moved because so many people were wanting to see his grave and damaging the other graves that they moved it off to the side.

max · Dec 26, 2015

My wife visited this cemetery 2 years ago and saw Patton's grave. One of the local volunteers asked her where she was from and when she answered Illinois, the volunteer took her to the grave of a soldier from Illinois and she was given a white rose to place on the grave. She was very impressed.

BLACKHAWKNJ · Dec 26, 2015

I visited there at Memorial Day, 1971. The difference between Patton and his contemporaries and the one we have today is that he was a professional. Today we have careerists.

NYlakesider · Dec 26, 2015

Over the last couple years I have read a couple books about Patton's death. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind he was taken out. Patton was a hero of mine and I have read a lot about him in the past.

He had a feces load of enemies both political and militarily (from a few different countries), anyone of them or a conglomerate of them had reason and the resources to do it.

Way lot of strange thing/events happened and some of them just cannot be explained. The only fact is under extremely strange circumstances he died.

steveno · Dec 26, 2015

the grave

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWFbBce-VCE[/ame]

Onomea · Dec 26, 2015

I had not heard or read about suspicions of assassination. I just looked it up and seems like a fairly straightforward car accident....

I knew a guy once who broke his neck diving into a swimming pool from poolside. Freak accident. So the fact that the others in the car were not injured does not seem overly suspicious to me.

What has the assasination theory got going for it?

steveno · Dec 26, 2015

if a staff car and a deuce and half get together in a crash. the truck will win. freak accidents happen

DWalt · Dec 26, 2015

Why Patton died was that he threw an embolism. Not unusual for someone immobilized in a hospital bed while he was paralyzed from the neck down. Further, he was not receiving what could be remotely called the most expert medical care at what was essentially a field hospital, nothing like Walter Reed or Bethesda could provide. There was not enough evidence to conclude Patton was assassinated, but also not enough evidence to establish without doubt that he wasn't. Some OSS officer long after the war claimed he had engineered Patton's accident allegedly under the direct orders of "Wild Bill" Donovan, the head of OSS, who was one of Patton's most bitter enemies. There was never much of an investigation done by the Army of the circumstances surrounding the "accident" and virtually all records that did exist completely vanished shortly thereafter.

One interesting fact was that Patton was on his way to do some hunting when the accident occurred. He apparently loved hunting in Germany.

Marshwheeling · Dec 26, 2015

"How do you start a flood?"

chud333 · Dec 26, 2015

Never be another like Patton.
The quintessential Battlefield Commander.
Let us not forget him and others of his time.
Great Post Ringo.

Chuck

Ed Fowler · Dec 26, 2015

He remains one of my most prominent heroes! I wish he could have written the book he was planning to write, I believe our history would be much different. The allies could not afford to let him live to print it.
RIP Sir, your legacy will live!

DWalt · Dec 26, 2015

I believe there was a lot of fear that Patton would run for political office after the war. And Patton and Truman were far from being the best of friends. He and Ike were not buddies either, as they held diametrically opposite positions about how postwar Europe should be structured.

Kernel Crittenden · Dec 26, 2015

What it looked like in the Summer of 1972. Digitized from dusty 35mm slides......

One of the marble panels. The cemetery is marked by the cross near the lower left hand corner. The photo is centered (sort of) on the city of Trier in Germany. Bitburg is shown a short distance to the north.

70 years ago, Gen. Patton was laid to rest at Third Army Cemetary.

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