Patton's War, Volume 2
An American General's Combat Leadership: August–December 1944
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of Missouri Press
Published:17th May '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This second of three volumes of Patton’s Warpicks up where the first one left off, examining General George S. Patton’s leadership of the U.S. Third Army. The book follows Patton’s contributions to both the Normandy and Brittainy campaigns; the closing of the Falaise Pocket in Normandy, and racing to the port cities in Brittainy. With the Pocket closed, Patton led his army to Nancy and Metz along the Moselle River, where he quickly captured the former and laid siege to the latter, forcing its surrender after three months of heavy combat. Now Patton planned for a war-winning campaign, interrupted by Hitler’s last, desperate attempt to win the war, the Battle of the Bulge. After some delays, Patton turned two of his corps north and attacked the southern flank of the Bulge, rescuing the besieged town of Bastogne.
As he did in the preceding volume, in Volume 2 Hymel relies not only on Patton’s diaries and letters, but countless veteran interviews, as well as veteran surveys and veteran memoirs to offer the most complete picture to date of Patton in World War II. Volume 2 also provides a unique insight missed by previous Patton authors. Instead of using Patton’s transcribed diaries, which were heavily embellished, Hymel consults Patton’s original, hand-written diaries to get the true story of how Patton felt and what he thought about people and events. Among the history-changing revelations gleaned from the original diaries is that Patton never predicted the Battle of the Bulge (his wife added his prediction of it in November 1944) and even tried to avoid being sucked into the last major campaign of the war.
The book also reveals General George C. Marshall’s influence on the European Theater of Operations; Operation Tink, the bombing campaign intended to break Patton out of the Saar region and help him reach the Rhine River, which had to be shelved due to the Bulge; and a thorough retelling of the Verdun meeting between Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, and Devers, as they planned how to fight the Battle of the Bulge.
Lastly, the book shows Patton at the height of his generalship, successfully leading his army into combat without the same types of mistakes and caustic...
The volume of work on Patton is so extensive that one might presume it a difficult task to add something meaningful to all that has been done to date. Yet Kevin Hymel has managed to do just that." —Don M. Fox, official historian for the U.S. Army, author of Final Battles of Patton's Vanguard
"Kevin Hymel's scholarship has done much to further illuminate the life and career of General George Patton, in the process helping increase and refine our understanding of one of America's greatest combat leaders. This book is no exception, and breaks important new ground even while discussing some of the most famous events in Patton's career. It also excels as a description of a senior leader and army headquarters at war. Hymel's conclusions will spur further research and interpretation. This volume is essential to understanding Patton and his army in World War II." —Christopher L. Kolakowski, Director, former Director, General George Patton Museum of Leadership and author of Nations in the Balance: The India-Burma Campaigns, December 1943–August 1944
"Kevin Hymel proves once again that he is the best Patton historian in the business. Rightfully focusing on the all-important ground combat and eschewing postwar mythology, Patton’s War is everything military history should be: objective, authoritative, and compelling—a damn fine page-turner." —Paul Woodadge, WW2TV host, author, and Normandy Battlefield guide
"A revelatory biography, and one that not only enhances the reputation of its extraordinary subject, but sees him further develop as a combat commander in one of the most challenging and demanding theaters of the war. Not only has Hymel been the first to effectively analyze Patton’s original hand-written diaries, but he also has produced an authoritative, compelling, and incredibly entertaining account of how Patton became a master of the battlefield." —James Holland, author of Brothers in Arms:One Legendary Tank Regiment’s Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day
"Kevin Hymel has mined every possible source, including Patton’s original diary, to capture as much of this enigmatic personality as possible. As a military historian, he adeptly meshes Patton the person with Patton the military commander of Third Army as it races across Europe from Normandy to the German border. Well-researched and written, with a wealth of superb photographs and maps, Hymel’s biography will remain the standard for decades. Moreover, it is a required reference for any future scholarship on the U.S. Army’s 1944 campaign in France." —Stephen A. Bourque, Professor Emeritus, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, author of Beyond the Beach: The Allied War Against France
"In the second volume of his trilogy Patton’s War, acclaimed historian Kevin M. Hymel dives deep, charting the legendary general over the course of five action-packed months, from the tail end of the Normandy Campaign through the bloody Battle of the Bulge. Along the way, Hymel combines groundbreaking scholarship with a storytelling verve, revealing that even after eight decades there is much to learn about one of America’s most famous commanders." —James M. Scott, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Black Snow and Rampage.
ISBN: 9780826222787
Dimensions: 228mm x 151mm x 41mm
Weight: 816g
490 pages