planet x wrote:General Patton's Quotes
[...]
I'll say this ;the Third Army alone with very little help and with
damned few casulaties,could lick what is left of the Russians in six
weeks. You mark my words.Don't ever forget them.[...]
Mr. Show Off Patton, once again.
In his book "War as I knew it", if I well remember, stated that his 3rd. Army inflicted ca. 158,000 fatalities on the Germans throughout its time in combat.
If we consider, on the one hand, the overall casualties of the German and Allied armed forces in Northwest Europe between D-Day and VE-Day:
Since D-day in Normandy the Germans in the west alone had lost 263,000 dead, 49,000 permanently disabled, and 8,109,000 captured. Allied casualties were 186,900 dead, 545,700 wounded, and 109,600 missing (some later declared dead and others later repatriated as prisoners of war)
Source of quote:
Recovery of France, by Charles B. MacDonald, Chief World War II Branch, Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army,
http://gi.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_5.html
and, on the other hand, the casualties of the 3rd. Army during the same period:
US 3rd Army Under the leadership of General George S.Patton, it first became operational on August 1, 1944.
By October 15, it had suffered 5,438 killed and 27,111 wounded.
By V.E.Day (May 8,1945) 21,441 Third Army men had been killed and 99,224 wounded.
Non battle casualties amounted to 111,224. Another 16,200 went missing,
(POWs).
The grand total of casualties during the nine months of fighting was
248,427.
The losses in material included 308 light tanks, 949 medium tanks and 175
guns.
Source:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/facts.html
we come to the following calculation which, without even including the
Allied MIA's that turned out to have been killed and not taken prisoner,
illustrates the utter absurdity of Patton's estimate of enemy casualties:
Allied campaign in Northwest Europe, June 1944 to May 1945
(Ratio = German KIA for every 100 Allied KIA)
German KIA: 263.000; Allied KIA: 189.600; ratio: 139
By 3rd Army (according to Patton): 158.000; 3rd Army KIA: 21.441; ratio: 737
By other Allied units: 105.000; KIA other Allied units: 168.159; ratio: 62
This table shows that, if Patton's estimate were correct, his forces would
have inflicted 7 KIA on the enemy for every one of their own, while all
other Allied forces in the ETO suffered losses considerably higher than
those of the enemy.
This, in turn, would mean that, while Patton was the greatest military genius of all time and the 3rd. Army a force wholly made up of Rambo-like warriors, all other American, British and French commanders were comparatively incompetent and their troops (including such units as the
US "Big Red One" First Infantry and the British "Desert Rats", not to mention the airborne divisions) a congregation of green recruits.
That this cannot be true is all too obvious, so the equally obvious conclusion is that Patton exaggerated enemy casualties as few generals in history have done - maybe to avoid or counter criticism related to his own forces' quite high losses.
Patton was still the best Allied general. As they say down here, among the blind the one-eyed is a king.
