doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Way OT -- General George S. Patton Jr.

Army Air Corps (USAAC) if you want to get it exactly right, Rabbit.

There's a bit of truth in that story. There was indeed (perhaps still is) an OSS "alumnae association", although there are darned few OSS vets left alive. I feel lucky enough to have been trained by a number of them when I was with CIA in the late 60's-early 70's. That group did hold annual meetings, but I cannot imagine anyone making such an announcement at the gathering, nor can I imagine that Donovan had Patton killed. Donovan himself was a war hero, one of the most decorated soldiers of WWI. Won the Medal of Honor as an officer with New York's "Fighting 69th". Donovan and the OSS did not hesitate to use dirty tricks, but the enemy was the target of those operations.

Between Bradley and Patton, the former was the shotgun man of the two. I've seen a Wilkes with Bradley's name on the stock, and documentation that he used it in England during WWII.

Well, I don't recall seeing anything about Donovan orchastrating a hit on Patton in the Donovan wing of the old museum at Langley during my career!!

However, my youngest Uncle was with the 3rd Army during the last year of the war, and he always subscribed to the idea that Patton was assasinated. He joined uo in 1940 and thru a number of factors didn't go to Europe until he was an E-6 in 1944.

I hadn't thought about this Patton business for years, but a friend of ours here in Kodiak stumbled on this link I posted on the internet and was quite upset about it. In addition to his ivory grip handguns Patton did have at least three Parkers, a DHE 20-gauge and a pair of CHE Skeet guns in 28-gauge and .410-bore.

I understand that Pattons son caused quite a stir when he drank beer out of a human skull while serving as an officer in Vietnam.

Jagermeister you got more than the name of the Air Corp wrong. The strategic bombing of Germany was less than effective. Post war studies determined their production actually increased during the strategic bombing. Forced a whole new round of thinking regarding our strategic air arm.

Patton was from a different era than the other senior officers of our forces. He was born in 1885 and was already old by military standards by 1941. He had fought in Mexico, trained and led our first tank brigade during WWI, fully comprehending the great advantage of maintaining the attack/exploitation with rapidly moving forces versus letting the enemy reset his defenses which would result in a new round of heavier losses for the attack. He proved it worked repeatedly and his units were the first across the Rhine into Germany. The only thing which slowed him was the inability of the logistical support system to provided for the rapid movement. His 90 degree turn of the entire Third Army, while in contact with the enemy, in the dead of winter to relieve Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge was absolutely unprecedented in military history.

Exactly right until '41 when it became the Army Air Force (USAAF). I thought we were talking about WWII, the "big one".

jack

There's another obvious problem with the "OSS killed Patton" story: chronology. By order of President Truman, the OSS was officially dissolved on 1 October 1945. Patton's accident did not take place until December. Donovan was furious with Truman for dissolving his beloved organization, which he had hoped would become a "central intelligence agency" after the war ended. (It did, but not until late 1947.) So it would have been highly unlikely for Donovan, as he was closing the books on the OSS, to order a hit on Patton on behalf of his political rivals, the Democrats. (Donovan was a long-time prominent Republican.) And Donovan and Patton were on the same side where the Soviets were concerned. There isn't a lot of evidence that Eisenhower had political ambitions at that time, assuming Patton might've stood in Ike's way. MacArthur was the one who had hopes of Republican support for a run at the White House--and MacArthur was the only theater commander who specifically excluded the OSS from his area, scarcely endearing himself to Donovan.

The "Patton was murdered" theory makes good urban legend, but until the pieces fit together better than they do in this case, I think I'll remain a skeptic.

Of course, all conspiracy theories are crapola. And there was certainly only one gunman and his magic bullet at Dallas. Uncle said so....couldn't resist !!
Rick

The one unassailable fact about the Kennedy assassination, Foxhound, is that if you come up with a new conspiracy theory, you can sell a lot of books. Would be interesting to do a headcount on just how many different plots there were to kill JFK, according to all those "nonfiction" books. Having worked at Conspiracy Ground Zero (at least according to all those that believe the CIA is behind everything, including global warming; the truth of course being that the CIA invented Al Gore), I'm pretty much a conspiracy skeptic. But I did believe it when the Rev Wright said that the government is responsible for Aids, not to mention the crack epidemic in the ghetto. His name should be Rev Wrong.

Jerry- You are right in your analysis of Gen. George Smith Patton Jr. was a true anachronism- a student of history, who overcame dyslexia (we didn't really know what that was in 1900-) and although graduated in the middle of his West Point Class, became one of Gen. "Black Jack" Pershing's favorite junior officers in the Mexico "campaign" to bag bandito Pancho Villa- Pershing lost his wife and children in a tragic house fire at Fort Bliss in 1912- he later "dated" Patton's younger sister-no marriage resulted, most likely didn't hurt Patton's Army career