A detailed analysis of one of the few WWII campaigns led by General
George S. Patton that could be called a failure. Rickard, a Ph.D.
candidate in military history at the University of New Brunswick,
looks at the period from September through December, 1944, when
Patton, fresh from his successes in Normandy, attempted to race
through the French province of Lorraine and cross the Rhine river
into the German homeland. Contested by various forces throughout
history in endless wars, Lorraine was held in 1942 by the Nazis;
Patton was delayed in getting there by inclement weather,
stronger-than-anticipated German resistance, and a countryside not
well suited to the large, offensive tank campaigns Patton favored.
Rickard's writing is ponderous and academic, but he makes many
relevant points. Revered for his bold and decisive strategic
armored troop maneuvers, in which he swiftly swept through large
amounts of enemy territory with a flair for capturing headlines and
enemy troops, Patton in this case didn't adapt his usually
successful style to a new situation. The author faults the general
for failing to learn how to wage war on a static battlefield where
the enemy was firmly entrenched, and for failing to fully see that
his forces' engagement in Lorraine was in part intended as a
diversionary tactic while the Allies captured the German industrial
heartland of the Ruhr. The campaign ended when Patton pulled out of
Lorraine to come to the aid of the beleaguered American army at
Bastogne in the famed Battle of the Bulge; the general died a year
later after a car crash in occupied Germany. A strictly academic
study of Patron's generalship in one significant battle. (Kirkus
Reviews)
For General George S. Patton, Jr., the battle for Lorraine
during the fall and winter of 1944 was a frustrating and grueling
experience of static warfare. Plagued by supply shortages, critical
interference from superiors, flooded rivers, fortified cities, and
the highly-determined German army, Patton had little opportunity to
wage a fast armored campaign. Rickard examines Patton's generalship
during these bitter battles and suggests that Patton was unable to
adapt to the new realities of the campaign, thereby failing to wage
the most effective warfare possible.
By the beginning of the Ardennes offensive, Patton had crippled
his worthy opponent, but had suffered the highest casualties of any
campaign that he conducted during the war. Until now, his better
known exploits in Sicily and Normandy have overshadowed this
campaign. Relying on a broad range of sources, this treatment of
Patton's operational performance in Lorraine goes beyond the
official history. It describes Patton's philosophy of war and
explains why it essentially failed in Lorraine. Supplemented by
full orders of battle, casualty and equipment losses, and excellent
maps, "Patton at Bay" is a penetrating study of America's best
fighting general.
General
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