Patton the Commander

In imagination, technique, and achievement, General George S. Patton Jr. outshone all of his allied contemporaries. In the words of Hans Spiedel, Rommel’s Chief of Staff, he was ‘the only Allied General who dared exceed the safety limits in the endeavor to win a decision.’

Major-General H. Essame, who served as a Brigade Commander throughout the North-West Europe campaign and later became a renowned military historian, provides vivid insight into the life of Patton, from his promising early years as a young aide-de-camp in World War One, through to his eventual rise to become an equal of Manstein and Rommel.

Essame demonstrates how Patton overcame his enemies by working ‘in the light of the cavalry tradition—quick decision, speed in execution, calculated audacity; better a good plan violently executed now than a perfect plan next week.’ On no less than four occasions, Essame argues, he could have shortened the course of the war if Eisenhower had taken advantage of his genius — his unique ability to seize opportunities and exploit them to the fullest.

Patton the Commander looks beyond the flamboyant façade that Patton presented to the press and the world, giving a forthright and perceptive biography that deserves to be read by all interested in the greatest allied general of World War Two.