Patton's War: An American General's Combat Leadership Volume 3: January 1-December 21, 1945 (Volume 3) (American Military Experience)

ISBN: 0826223591

Author: Hymel, Kevin M.

Condition: New

The third and final volume of Kevin Hymels Pattons War trilogy finds Lieutenant General George S. Patton on January 1, 1945, as the master of the battlefield in World War II Europe. Throughout the war, Patton showed the same kind of aggressive leadership and battlefield smarts that made his name synonymous with victory. Pattons leadership was almost flawless as he led his men through enemy fire and one of the worst winters in European history.As with his previous volume, Hymel relies on Pattons original diaries (not the transcribed, embellished versions historians have relied on for many years) and personal letters to tell the generals story. Hymel also mined various archives to explain Pattons encounters with soldiers, government officials, civilians, and reporters to expand on his narrative.Throughout this three-volume work, Patton emerges not as a larger-than-life myth, but as a human being, one held back by the personal prejudices and antisemitism that ultimately proved to be his demise. Despite these personal failings, Patton was, above all, as Hymel reveals, a commander bent on winning, or, as the general himself might have put it, getting the enemy to dance to his tune.