Divided on D-Day

by Edward E. Gordon

  Early in 1941 Marshall appointed him the commandant of the US Army Infantry School at Fort Benning with a promotion to brigadier general. Bradley replaced Courtney H. Hodges, who became chief of infantry. They had been classmates at the Army War College. Later Hodges would become Bradley's deputy during the Normandy campaign, commanding the US First Army. Bradley admired Hodges as a modest gentleman, two personality traits they jointly shared.67

  After Pearl Harbor, Bradley trained the Eighty-Second Infantry Division and shaped up a slack Twenty-Eighth National Guard Division. In February 1942 Marshall sent him to Algiers to assist Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Operation TORCH, in beefing up the US divisions in North Africa. The Germans had just soundly defeated the American army at Kasserine Pass.

  Except for several social occasions, Bradley had not seen his former classmate since West Point. Eisenhower took him to the map showing the US retreat in Tunisia and told him, “I want suggestive corrections.”68 At the time both British and American sources were questioning Eisenhower's fitness to command TORCH.

  Bradley went on a fact-finding mission where he found that the commander of the II Corps divisions had lost the confidence of his men and morale was low. In early March Eisenhower appointed General George S. Patton to command II Corps, the American forces in Tunisia. Patton promptly asked Eisenhower to name Bradley as his deputy commander, a move Ike had told Bradley was coming. Patton already had been preparing for the future invasion of Sicily. If all went well once Bradley had commanded troops in the field, he would get the command of II Corps and Patton would go to Sicily.

  Bradley became a very active deputy commander. He played an important role on the battlefield and in logistics. Patton respected Bradley's judgment and used him as a sounding board for his decisions. After Patton left in mid-April, Bradley took over II Corps for the final battles in the Tunisian campaign.

  Bradley's skills as a tactician seem linked to his mathematical bent. He was a mathematician who enjoyed playing poker. Bradley developed a system to mentally determine the winning odds on each hand. He folded at less than 70 percent. He used the same strategy on the battlefield. Bradley bet heavily on a big battle he thought he could win, trusting that the math would prevail if he persevered.

  For the follow-up invasion of Sicily (Operation HUSKY), Bradley again commanded II Corps with distinction in Patton's Seventh Army. Professionally Bradley had stood by Patton during both these campaigns, even though on a personal level they were very different.

  Bradley has been characterized as quiet, somewhat dull, steady, industrious, careful, apparently unambitious, neither flamboyant, nor ostentatious, and never raising hackles. Perhaps Eisenhower best summed it up in the tribute he wrote in Bradley's West Point yearbook: “True merit is like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.”69

  After the Sicily operation ended, Patton sent Bradley a formal letter offering his “admiration for and appreciation of the magnificent loyalty and superior tactical ability you have evinced throughout the Campaign of Sicily.”70 It seems that loyalty may have motivated Bradley to attempt to cover up Patton's slapping of two hospitalized soldiers he thought were cowards. When he received a detailed medical report and complaint protesting this abuse, Bradley locked them in a safe and said nothing. The doctors involved then complained directly to Ike who reprimanded Patton. (More details in the next section.)

  But Bradley's loyalty had its limits. During the Sicily campaign Patton and Montgomery's great egos had clashed. This rivalry culminated in their so-called race to be the first to take Messina, the key seaport and jump-off point for the invasion of the Italian mainland. Patton narrowly beat the Brit. He then staged a parade to celebrate this victory. Bradley refused to participate and later said, “His…parade plans into Messina sickened me and soured me on Patton.”71

  What ruptured their relationship at that time was Patton's faulty judgment. Bradley's own conduct toward his subordinates and enlisted men was often more like a benign father. Dubbed a “soldier's soldier” by war correspondent Ernie Pyle, the “GI General” by others, Bradley was often turned off by Patton's flamboyant style, as were many others.72

  When it came time for Marshall and Eisenhower to appoint the American ground commander for the invasion of France, the final choice narrowed down to Patton or Bradley. Although Bradley was relatively junior by rank and time in service, both men favored Bradley. They saw that an army group commander required strategic farsightedness, diplomatic skill, and the ability to balance contending issues and people. Bradley was the far better choice.

  On September 2, 1943, Eisenhower met with Bradley at General Alexander's headquarters outside Messina and told him he had been selected to lead an army in the invasion of France.”73

  GEORGE S. PATTON

  With sirens shrieking Patton's arrival, a procession of armored scout cars and half-tracks wheeled into the dingy square opposite the schoolhouse headquarters of II Corps…. In the lead car Patton stared liked a charioteer. He was scowling into the wind and his jaw strained against the web strap of a two-starred steel helmet.74

  Some officers called him “picturesque,” and others said, “Patton sure scares the shit out of me.”75 After the war when his enemy, German field marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, was asked to name the most impressive American commander, he declared, “Patton was your best.” Others have called him “America's Warrior” because he had a “genius for war.”76 The personification of flamboyance, Major General George S. Patton Jr. was acclaimed for his mad-dashing military exploits, but also censured for his unbelievable lapses in judgment. Yet his brilliance in pursuit made him irreplaceable as America's top offensive general of World War II.

  Background

  Born in San Gabriel in 1885, near Pasadena, California, on the 1,800-acre Wilson-Patton ranch, Patton had a privileged childhood in a family with a rich military tradition. He attended Virginia Military Academy before entering West Point. Patton graduated in 1909 and saw his first combat in the Pancho Villa Mexican Expedition in 1916 as a member of General John J. Pershing's staff. During World War I he was assigned to the new US Tank Corps.77

  In August 1918 Patton took command of the American First Tank Brigade. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive at Cambrai, France, together with British forces, he led his men to victory on September 26, during the world's first major tank battle. The general commanding the Tank Corps told Patton, “[Y]ou had a very great, far-reaching and disastrous effect on the enemy.”78 He was promoted to colonel and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

  After the war ended Patton was assigned to ten different staff postings in Washington, DC, Hawaii, and elsewhere. He attended the Command and General Staff College (1923–1924) and later the Army War College (1932).79

  During the interval between the wars, Patton had kept up with the latest thinking on armored warfare. Much of this came from abroad. From Germany came General Heinz Guderian's Achtung Panzer! and General Erwin Rommel's Infantry in War. Liddell Hart and J. F. C. Fuller were the British apostles of mobile warfare, and Colonel Charles de Gaulle wrote about the modernization of the French Army.

  Before and after the German conquest of Poland, Patton read and reread the German officers’ book translations and US Army G-2 intelligence analysis from reports by observers. This information confirmed many of the tactics that Patton earlier had considered possible for armored forces.80

  A major turning point in his army career occurred in December 1938 with his promotion to colonel commanding the Third Cavalry at Fort Meyer, Virginia. General Marshall had been appointed army chief of staff on September 1, 1939. His official residence was at Fort Meyer.

  Patton hosted Marshall at his personal quarters while Marshall's own lodging was being remodeled. He did not have to make much of an effort to convince Marshall about the future importance of armored warfare, or his role in it. Marshall already considered Colonel Patton as an outstanding combat leader, and he knew his eccentricities. He had earlier
written to another officer in the War Plans Division, “Patton is by far the best tank man in the Army. I know this from the First World War. I watched him closely when he commanded the first tanks we ever had. I realize that he is a difficult man but I know how to handle him.”81

  Patton created a larger-than-life persona. He projected masculinity and toughness with his scowling face. He had a deep well of energy and an unquenchable desire to win. Patton was unorthodox in both his military methods and beliefs—including reincarnation. Patton's unpredictable highs and lows, and displays of violent temper, were punctuated with trademark streams of profanity. He sported a custom-made uniform, ivory-handled pistols, and he affected other conspicuous displays of rank and power. Fellow officers were often uncomfortable with Patton's posturing and personality. He loved publicity, and was often his own worst enemy due to his propensity to act precipitously and to make ill-judged public statements.

  But Marshall was willing to overlook these personal limitations because he saw in Patton a potential military genius as a commander who could lead a relentless offensive. While at Fort Benning, Marshall had begun making a list of junior officers’ strengths and weaknesses. The legend arose that this evolved into Marshall's “little black book” as a way to evaluate future potential army leaders. Many of these men passed through Marshall's staff in Washington. They became “Marshall's men” whom he mentored and promoted to senior rank—Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton among many others were placed at the top of his list.82

  Marshall appreciated Patton's thorough mastery of the technology, tactics, and doctrine of armored warfare as it evolved before and during World War II. His strength was not just in theoretical matters. Patton led from the front often advancing on foot, even leaping from tank to tank. He openly defied superiors and braved mortar/machine-gun fire to provide the impetus for keeping his armored offensive moving forward. This was the military genius Marshall had bet on and hoped to channel and control for achieving battlefield victory.

  World War II Commands

  Almost immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Patton was given the command of I Armored Corps. In February 1942, he established the Desert Training Center on ten thousand acres of the Mojave Desert, fifty miles east of Palm Springs, California. During the course of the war over one million soldiers received armor and infantry training at Camp Young and the other training facilities scattered across the desert.83

  After Eisenhower's appointment to lead Operation TORCH, he summoned Patton to Washington (July 30) to command the Western Task Force that would invade Morocco. The initial landings of thirty-five thousand men took place on November 8, 1942. Casablanca fell three days later, and Patton negotiated an armistice with the Vichy French forces.84

  Then Patton finally got the fighting command he had been waiting for. On March 5, 1942, he took over a disorganized II Corps, with Bradley as his deputy. By April 15 after pushing the Germans back, Patton was able to hand over the Tunisian command campaign to Bradley while he moved on to overseeing the planning for Operation HUSKY, the invasion of Sicily.85

  Patton's Seventh Army invaded southern Sicily on July 10, while Montgomery's Eighth Army attacked in the west. British general Alexander was the overall ground commander. Initially Patton's assignment was to protect Montgomery's left flank. But after the British got bogged down in their advance on Messina, Patton got approval to take Palermo on Sicily's northern coast. He then raced to Messina to beat Montgomery by only a few hours on August 16.86

  The two military prima donnas—Patton and Montgomery—had first met in February during the Tunisian Campaign. Being two extremely ego-driven personalities, they developed an intense loathing of the other. After the campaign Montgomery heard that Patton was ridiculing his battlefield performance. Monty reportedly replied that he had three messages for Patton: “Get out of my way, train your men, and leave me your petrol.”87 If he heard it, Patton must have been doubly gleeful in beating Monty to Messina. Though rivals, they did share some common perspectives. Patton once complained to Montgomery about an order from Alexander's headquarters. “George,” an amazed Monty told him, “let me give you some advice. If you get an order from Army Group that you don't like, just ignore it. That's what I do.”88

  Patton's most serious professional setbacks did not occur on the battlefield, but in a hospital. The infamous slapping incidents of two soldiers suffering from “battle fatigue” in August 1943 came very close to ending his military career. Only Eisenhower's direct intervention with Marshall saved his friend from oblivion. Patton was ordered to personally apologize to both men, to the doctors, and to the Seventh Army. Patton thought both men were cowards and even had threatened to shoot them. Afterward he told a friend that if he had to do it over again, he would not have changed a single thing!89

  Patton's conduct in Sicily undermined his chances for the American ground command of OVERLORD. An exasperated Eisenhower wrote, “Georgie is one of the best generals I have, but he's just like a time bomb. You can never be sure when he's going to go off. All you can be sure of is that it will probably be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”90 Patton did not command another army in combat for the next twelve months.

  After Sicily Marshall wanted Eisenhower's recommendations to plan and head the invasion of France. At the beginning of the Sicily operation, Patton had been his clear choice. Ike thought that “Patton's methods were deplorable but his result was excellent.”91 He saw in Patton an “enfant terrible” who needed to be kept on a tight leash. Once Patton was ruled out, Ike turned to Mark Clark and Omar Bradley. Clark had experience at planning amphibious operations, and was the US ground commander in Italy. Clark might have been a clearer choice over Bradley, but he too had a reputation for being difficult and having a large, overriding ego.

  Bradley's performance in Sicily had been excellent. He now had corps command experience in two major campaigns and showed a superior ability in tactics and logistical operations. In the final analysis Bradley's personality was his greatest asset. Marshall and Eisenhower thought his adeptness at handling people and diplomatic ability was more important for this command than aggressiveness and bravado.

  However, Ike came to realize that he still needed Patton's tactical genius and drive on the command team to lead the Normandy bridgehead breakout and the charge across France to victory. Eisenhower wanted Bradley as army group commander and Bradley to work with Patton. They would make an unbeatable team. With Patton as the spark plug and Bradley as the regulator, he could get more out of Patton than anybody else.

  But Bradley objected to this proposal. He told Eisenhower that Patton would be uncomfortable as his subordinate, a reverse of their roles in two prior campaigns. Privately Bradley also thought Patton was too emotional and impulsive and found his staff work often inadequate.92 Even so Bradley did consider Patton a highly effective commander. His unorthodox methods did work—at least for Patton.

  When Eisenhower offered Patton command of the Third Army as part of Bradley's US Army Group, Patton swallowed his pride and accepted. He was disappointed and hurt. However, the opportunity to participate in this crucial campaign provided him with the chance for fame that he so persistently sought. The reversal of authority would be difficult for both of them, but they would make it work.93

  BERTRAM RAMSAY

  Of all the major Allied commanders of OVERLORD Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay is among the least well-known. Perhaps one of the reasons why he has attracted so little controversy or criticism, in contrast to the other talented but often abrasive brotherhood of D-Day commanders, is that he was killed in January 1945 when his plane crashed after takeoff near Paris, en route to meet Montgomery in Brussels.

  As Allan Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, which holds his papers, noted, “Sadly, because of Admiral Ramsay's untimely death, his undoubtable contributions to the Second World War has been somewhat overshadowed by those who lived and were able to write their memories and receive their honors.�
��94

  Considering all the factors that contributed to the successful Normandy amphibious invasion, the critical one was command and control. Without superb orchestration, this massive, complex invasion would have failed. Ramsay prepared a logistical plan in the most staggering detail. His amphibious invasion plan provided every ship captain and every divisional commander with his own briefing book. Nothing was left out. The man who retrieved a defeated army from Dunkirk masterminded a triumphant Allied return to Europe on D-Day.95

  Background

  Ramsay was born in 1883 at Hampton Court near London, where his father, then major William Alexander Ramsay, was posted in command of the Fourth Hussars. He was the third son of a Scots family with a long tradition of military service who later was appointed commander of this regiment with the rank of brigadier general. As military pay was hardly munificent, William encouraged his son to take the Admiralty entry examination, which paid the sum of one hundred pounds (the equivalent of ten thousand pounds in today's currency) to the family of a cadet who sat for and passed this test. Fifteen-year-old Bertram Ramsay passed with flying colors.

  During World War I he served aboard the HMS Dreadnought in the Dover Patrol and the Grand Fleet. By 1917 he was in command of the destroyer HMS Broke. He took part in the Second Ostend Raid in 1918.

  Following the war, he served as a staff officer for every senior commander. Ramsay had specialized in signals that sharpened his capacity for lateral thinking. He was a flag lieutenant to the admirals commanding both the Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets. Ramsay accompanied Lord Sir John Jellicoe, admiral of the fleet, as his flag commander during an around-the-world cruise. From 1927 to 1929 Ramsay was on the staff of the Royal Naval War College. In 1929 he served as chief of staff to the commander in chief of the China Squadron, and in 1931 he was appointed to the staff of the Imperial Defence College. His opposite numbers in the army and air force were Alan Brooke, Arthur Tedder, and Trafford Leigh-Mallory, all of whom were to become his fellow OVERLORD commanders.