Lieutenant General George S. Patton slapped two U.S. Army soldiers under his command during the Sicily Campaign of World War II. Patton’s hard-driving personality and lack of belief in the medical condition of combat stress reaction led to the slapping incidents. The slapping incidents were seen by Eisenhower, Marshall, and other leaders to be examples of Patton’s brashness and impulsiveness.
About George S. Patton slapping incidents in brief
Lieutenant General George S. Patton slapped two U.S. Army soldiers under his command during the Sicily Campaign of World War II. Patton’s hard-driving personality and lack of belief in the medical condition of combat stress reaction led to the slapping incidents. The slapping incidents were seen by Eisenhower, Marshall, and other leaders to be examples of Patton’s brashness and impulsiveness. General Dwight D. Eisenhower used Patton as a decoy in Operation Fortitude, sending faulty intelligence to German agents that Patton was leading the Invasion of Europe. The Allied invasion of Sicily began on 10 July 1943, with Patton leading 90,000 men of the Seventh United States Army in a landing near Gela, Scoglitti, and Licata to support Bernard Montgomery’s British 8th Army landings to the north. The U. S. Army was initially classifying all psychological casualties as “exhaustion” which many still called shell shock. The symptoms of what constituted combat fatigue were broader than what had constituted shell shock in World War I. By the end of the campaign, nearly 50 percent of the troops were restored to combat duty and the system became better organized and organized. Some time before the incident, Patton spoke with Major R. R. Huebner, the newly appointed commander of the 1st Infantry Division in which both men served, about what would become known as the “slapping incident’” Patton had already developed a reputation in the Army as an effective, successful, and hard- driving commander, punishing subordinates for the slightest infractions but also rewarding them when they performed well.
He became known for his flashy dress, highly polished helmet and boots, and no-nonsense demeanor. The incident was initially suppressed in the news until journalist Drew Pearson publicized them in the United States. While the reactions of the U. s. Congress and the general public were divided between support and disdain for Patton’s actions, Eisenhower and Army Chief of Staff George Marshall opted not to fire him as a commander. Patton eventually returned to combat command in the European Theater in mid-1944, but not until after the Second World War in Europe in 1945. He died of a heart attack in August 1945, at the age of 67. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and three children. He is survived by his son, George Patton, Jr., and his daughter, Mary Patton, and his son-in-law, Robert Patton, who served in the Air Force during the Korean War and later in the Vietnam War. Patton is buried in a plot of land near the town of Shreveport, Louisiana, near where he was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge in 1968. He also leaves behind a wife and two daughters. He will be buried in Mount Vernon, California, where he served as a general in the First Air Force until his retirement in 1973. The last time he saw his son was in the fall of 1973.
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