Patton's Way
- ISBN-10
- 1612519784
- ISBN-13
- 9781612519784
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2017-05-15
- Publisher
- Naval Institute Press
- Author
- James K Morningstar
Description
Patton’s Way is a unique approach to the legend of General George S. Patton, Jr. and his development and application of a unique approach to modern warfare. Unlike Carlo D’Este’s Patton: Genius for War or Stanley Hirshson’s General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, Patton’s Way is not a biography. Instead, it argues that popular representations of Patton are built on misconceptions and incomplete understandings about his approach to warfare. Morningstar begins with the mystifying contradiction between the historiographical criticism of Patton’s methods and popular appreciation for his successes. He identifies several schools of thought offering explanations ranging from Patton’s bull headed leadership to his gambling cavalry style. Yet, the author notes, they all fail to fully comprehend the real Patton. It is the contention of this book that the secret to Patton’s success was a truly radical and purposely-crafted doctrine he developed over several decades of careful thought and practice. Morningstar identifies four core principals in Patton’s doctrine: targeting the enemy’s morale through shock; utilizing highly practiced combined arms mechanized columns; relying on mission tactics and flexible command and control; and employing multi-layered and synthesized intelligence systems to identify enemy capabilities and weak spots. These principals directly contradicted official U.S. Army doctrine in that they rejected the focus on tactical battle, the primacy of infantry, top-down command and control and detailed orders processes, and intelligence limited to supporting preconceived plans. Because Patton’s methods did not conform to doctrine, they were not well understood by his peers, resulting in misconceptions both then and now -- misconceptions that led higher command to truncate Patton’s operations in Tunisia, Sicily, and France. The author uses separate chapters to detail how Patton developed and applied each principal, before using the breakout from Normandy as a case study to illustrate Patton’s Way in application. The comparison of Patton’s success to the many instances of stagnation in the European Theater without Patton is startling but the author also recognizes other campaigns and how they related to Patton’s concepts. In the Chapter 6 the author illustrates the ‘death and resurrection’ of Patton’s ideas in the US Army. Following World War II both Patton’s teachings and adherents were systematically removed from the Army operations. Political constraints led to a resurgence of attrition based doctrine and heavy firepower tactics in Korea and Vietnam. Only at the Armor School at Fort Knox, Kentucky, did Patton’s ideas take root only to blossom in the form of AirLand Battle doctrine towards the end of the century after a long and interesting route. The author ends by briefly describing the status of Patton’ ideas in the Army today.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Patton's War: An American General’s Combat Leadership, Volume I: November 1942–July 1944
By Kevin M. Hymel... 300 Coon, Carelton S., 50–51 Dakar, Operation TORCH, 31 Darby, William O.: Butera, 167; Distinguished Service Cross, 163; Gela, 154, 157, 159; helmet, 95; promotion, refusal of, 163–64 Darlan, François, 49, 60 Davidson, Garrison H.
-
Patton's Air Force: Forging a Legendary Air-Ground Team
By David N. SpiresDrawing on exclusive access to official records, David N. Spires finds that this success was due to four key developments: the maturation of tactical aviation doctrine, effective organizational procedures, a technical revolution in ...
-
Patton: Genius for War, A
By Carlo D'EstePride's Crossing was an equally clannish New England town , populated by the descendants of whaling and seafaring families who were less than elated by the presence of the vulgar “ new money ” represented by Frederick Ayer and his ilk .
-
Everyday Sabbath: How to Lead Your Dance with Media and Technology in Mindful and Sacred Ways
By Robert H. Woods, Paul D. Patton... Individuals and Groups, ed. by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993), 303. 10. Quentin J. Schultze, Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age (Grand Rapids: Baker ...
-
George S. Patton
By Steven J. ZalogaGeorge S. Patton Jr. was the iconic American field commander of World War II, and widely regarded as the US Army's finest practitioner of mechanized warfare.
-
Patton's Spaceship
By John BarnesFirst in the series blending alternate history, time travel, and detective thriller, from a Nebula and Hugo Award nominee.
-
Patton's Third Army in World War II: An Illustrated History
By Michael Green, James D. BrownEisenhower also ordered Bradley to divert divisions from both Hodges's First Army and Patton's Third Army to reinforce Simpson's Ninth Army for its upcoming attack. ... National Archives -XXXXXXX XXX XXX -XXXX XX G XXX O Alsdorf E.
-
War as I Knew it
By George Smith PattonThe next morning , I arrived at Bradley's Headquarters in Luxembourg and found that he had , without notifying me , detached Combat Command “ B ” ( Brigadier General H. E. Dager ) of the 4th Armored Division from Arlon to a position ...
-
Patton's Payback: The Battle of El Guettar and General Patton's Rise to Glory
By Stephen L. MooreA stirring World War II combat story of how the legendary George Patton reinvigorated a defeated and demoralized army corps, and how his men claimed victory over Germany’s most-feared general, Erwin Rommel “Moore brings you to the ...
-
Patton's War: Book Three in The World in Flames Series
By Jack StrainPatton's War is the exciting third book in the "World in Flames" WW II alternative history series.