Frasi di George Patton
George Patton
Data di nascita: 11. Novembre 1885
Data di morte: 21. Dicembre 1945
Altri nomi: Georg S. Patton, Джордж Смит Паттон
George Smith Patton è stato un generale statunitense durante la seconda guerra mondiale, è stato un grande esperto nell'impiego dei mezzi corazzati. È considerato il responsabile del massacro di Biscari, tra il 10 e il 14 luglio 1943, durante la seconda guerra mondiale.
Dotato di una solida personalità, determinato e risoluto, a volte eccessivamente impulsivo ed eccentrico, dimostrò grande capacità di comando e notevole preparazione strategica durante la campagna di Sicilia e soprattutto sul fronte occidentale nel 1944-45, guidando con grande energia le sue truppe in una serie di brillanti vittorie fino al cuore della Germania. La sua risolutezza e la sua determinazione gli valsero il soprannome di "generale d'acciaio".
I russi lo chiamavano scherzosamente "generale dopo" perché assonante . All'apice della carriera amava girare con un revolver Colt SAA dall'impugnatura in avorio e una cintura da cowboy, senz'altro fuori ordinanza, ma assai funzionale alla costruzione mediatica del personaggio-guerriero che egli amava da sempre interpretare. Wikipedia
Frasi George Patton
citato in William Weir, 50 Military Leaders Who Changed the World, 2007, p. 173
„Che Iddio possa avere pietà dei miei nemici; ne avranno bisogno.“
da Patton Generale d'acciaio
„Se un uomo fa del suo meglio, cosa si può volere di più?“
citato in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
„A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.“
Letter (3 March 1944), later published in War As I Knew It (1947) Similar expressions were also used in his famous "Speech to the Third Army" in June 1944. The phrase is similar to one attributed to Erwin Rommel, "Sweat saves blood, blood saves lives, and brains saves both", and to an even older one by August Willich: "A drop of sweat on the drill ground will save many drops of blood on the battlefield" from The Army: Standing Army or National Army? (1866)
The War as I Knew it https://books.google.com/books?id=2A4BPpDQTfcC&pg=PA49 (1974), p.49.
Through A Glass, Darkly (1918)
Contesto: So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me. And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o'er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought. So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more.
„Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.“
Speech to the Third Army (1944)
Contesto: From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don't give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder we push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.
Speech to the Third Army (1944)
Contesto: Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight.
As quoted in Liberalism is a Mental Disorder : Savage Solutions (2005) by Michael Savage, Ch. 1 : More Patton, Less Patent Leather, p. 4
„Men are at war with each other because each man is at war with himself.“
This is almost always attributed to US Ambassador Francis Meehan http://www.nndb.com/people/060/000121694/, though without citations, and only very rarely to Patton.
Misattributed
