Battle EUCOM

The story of Gen. George S. Patton's magnificent Third Army as it advanced across Nazi-occupied Europe and into Hitler's redoubt. Includes photos.   As America's own answer to the Blitzkrieg, Third Army's actions from the Normandy coast across France and Germany to Austria gave a new dimension to the term "fluid warfare." They only needed one general order--to seek out the enemy, trap, and destroy them. This they did, relentlessly overcoming every obstacle thrown in their way.   Third Army's story is one of teamwork, of armor, infantry, and aircraft working together with a perfection that amazed even the Germans, who'd always considered themselves the masters of the mobile offensive. Though Third Army is often remembered for its tank spearheads, like the 4th Armored Division, these pages also give credit to the brave infantry divisions which butted their heads against fortresses such as Metz with ultimate success. It is also the story of a triumph of administration as thousands of trucks carried forward the vital supplies to keep the army on the move and fighting.   When a German counteroffensive nearly burst through the US lines in the Ardennes, it was Patton's Third Army that turned on its heel and immediately drove in the "Bulge," ending Hitler's last great hope for success in the west. Afterward nothing could stop it as it crossed the Rhine and overran the Reich. Much of Third Army's greatness, driving force, and will to win, was owed to one man--Gen. George Smith Patton Jr.--and a significant part of this book is devoted to him alone.   In these pages, a renowned military historian gives a vivid impression in words and pictures of what it was like to live and fight with Patton's men. Full of eyewitness accounts, photographs, and maps, it relates the full story of how America's most dynamic fighting formation led the Allied effort against the Nazis' seemingly invincible European empire.

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.