Photo of Allied paratroopers during World War II
Dear George:
At 07:00 this morning the BBC announced…the landing of Allied paratroopers….
This group of unconquerable heroes, whom I command, are not yet in, but we will be soon….
I have no immediate idea of being killed, but one can never tell and none of us can live forever. So if I should go don’t worry, but set yourself to do better than I have….
World War I German Trench Fighting Painting by Felix Schwormstädt 1870 – 1938.
To be a successful soldier you must know history. Read it objectively—dates and even minute details of tactics are useless. What you must know is how man reacts. Weapons change, but man, who uses them, changes not at all. To win battles you do not beat weapons—you beat the soul of enemy man….
British infantry advances through the dust and smoke of battle in 1942.
You must read biography and autobiography. If you will do that you will find that war is simple. Decide what will hurt the enemy most within the limits of your capabilities and then do it. TAKE CALCULATED RISKS. That is quite different from being rash. My personal belief is that if you have a 50% chance you should take it, because the superior fighting qualities of American soldiers led by me will surely give you the extra 1% necessary….
You cannot make war safely, but no dead general has ever been criticized, so you have that way out always. I am sure that if every leader who goes into battle will promise himself that he will come out either a conqueror or a corpse, he is sure to win… Defeat is due not to losses but to the destruction of the souls of the leaders. The “live to fight another day” doctrine.
A German sniper captured with his comrade by soldiers of Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army in Germany, March 26, 1945. The sniper in the foreground was wounded in an exchange of rifle fire.
Soldiers, in fact all men, are natural hero worshippers; officers with a flare for command realize this and emphasize in their conduct, dress, and deportment the qualities they seek to produce in their men…..
Alden Hatch, George Patton: General in Spurs (New York: Julian Messner, Inc., 1950), pp. 128-130.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 227
