Forward With Patton

Soldier, journalist, and Soviet spy Robert S. Allen (1900--1981) was a deeply controversial figure. After serving in France during World War I, he left the military, forged a successful career as a syndicated columnist, and even rose to become the Washington, DC, bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor. During this period, he developed a sideline as a paid informant for the KGB. Still, Allen returned to the army following America's entry into World War II and served as General George S. Patton's chief of situation and executive officer for operations. He was considered such an authority on Patton after the war that Twentieth Century-Fox asked him to develop a film script about the general. In Forward with Patton, John Nelson Rickard presents a complete, annotated edition of Colonel Allen's World War II diary for 1944-1945. The entries reflect Allen's private thoughts on his experiences, provide insight into the employment of the Third Army staff, and survey the strengths and weaknesses of individual staff members. They also provide an invaluable and rare perspective of Patton, with whom Allen worked closely while gathering intelligence, and whom he deeply admired. At times objective and at others intensely personal, Forward with Patton offers a distinctive eyewitness account of one of the US military's most important armies by one of its most colorful soldiers.

Patton Forward Observers is a story told by a unique collection of highly trained artillery observers who fought every step of the war with Patton's famed Third Army. We remember Patton today only through the service of men like these. This is a soldier's story. Derived from wartime letters and oral histories told by the veterans themselves, we see the classic American Army experience of World War II--the friendships, courage, terror, carnage, humor and ultimate victory that all part of the Patton legend--a legend build by soldiers.

A fascinating, intelligent, often humorous memoir of World War II by a remarkable soldier, a scout working behind enemy lines for Patton's famed Third Army on the move.

The personal and candid account of General Patton's celebrated, relentless crusade across western Europe during World War II First published in 1947, War as I Knew It is an absorbing narrative that draws from Patton's vivid memories of battle and his detailed diaries, covering the moment the Third Army exploded onto the Brittany Peninsula to the final Allied casualty report. The result is not only a grueling, human account of daily combat and heroic feats--including a riveting look at the Battle of the Bulge--but a valuable chronicle by one of the most brilliant military strategists in history. Patton's letters from earlier military campaigns in North Africa and Sicily, complemented by a powerful retrospective of his guiding philosophies, further reveal a man of uncompromising will and uncommon character, which made "Georgie" a household name in mid-century America.

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

After the end of World War II, General George Patton declared that artillery had won the war. Yet howitzers did not achieve victory on their own. Crucial to the success of these big guns were forward observers, artillerymen on the front lines who directed the artillery fire. Until now, the vital role of forward observers in ground combat has received little scholarly attention. In Bracketing the Enemy, John R. Walker remedies this oversight by offering the first full-length history of forward observer teams during World War II. As early as the U.S. Civil War, artillery fire could reach as far as two miles, but without an “FO” (forward observer) to report where the first shot had landed in relation to the target, and to direct subsequent fire by outlining or “bracketing” the targeted range, many of the advantages of longer-range fire were wasted. During World War II, FOs accompanied infantrymen on the front lines. Now, for the first time, gun crews could bring deadly accurate fire on enemy positions immediately as advancing riflemen encountered these enemy strongpoints. According to Walker, this transition from direct to indirect fire was one of the most important innovations to have occurred in ground combat in centuries. Using the 37th Division in the Pacific Theater and the 87th in Europe as case studies, Walker presents a vivid picture of the dangers involved in FO duty and shows how vitally important forward observers were to the success of ground operations in a variety of scenarios. FO personnel not only performed a vital support function as artillerymen but often transcended their combat role by fighting as infantrymen, sometimes even leading soldiers into battle. And yet, although forward observers lived, fought, and bled with the infantry, they were ineligible to wear the Combat Infantryman’s Badge awarded to the riflemen they supported. Forward observers are thus among the unsung heroes of World War II. Bracketing the Enemy signals a long-overdue recognition of their distinguished service.

Patton was champing at the bit to lead the D-Day invasion, but Eisenhower placed him in command of a decoy unit, the First U.S. Army Group. Nearly seven weeks after D-Day, Patton finally got his chance to take Third Army into battle. He began a ten-month rampage across France, driving through Germany and into Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and Austria. Along the way Third Army forces entered the Battle of the Bulge, breaking the siege of Bastogne. It was a turning point in the war, and afterward the Third Army pushed eastward again. Patton’s Third Army in World War II covers Patton’s command of Third Army with a focus on the armor. It was a new style of fighting, avoiding entrenched infantry warfare by continuously pushing forward, and it appealed to Patton’s hard-charging personality. Archival photos along with frequent quotes complete the portrait of Patton as well as his men as they fight their way across the Third Reich.