Patton and the Slap Heard ‘Round the World
On August 3 he learned that General Eisenhower was to award him the Distinguished Service Cross for his "extraordinary heroism" at Gela on July 11. It should have been welcome news, but in a letter to...
View ArticleMarshall, Eisenhower, Operation Torch, and Unified Command
For Eisenhower, the invasion was his first venture in commanding troops in combat. For Franklin D. Roosevelt, the objective of the landings in North Africa had been as much political as military,...
View ArticlePatton: The Warrior, the Myth, and the Legacy
On the day the war had ended in Europe, Patton had remarked to an aide: “The best end for an old campaigner is a bullet at the last minute of the last battle.” Injured in a fender bender dreary months...
View ArticleApril 2, 1917: President Wilson Requests Declaration of War
Wilson had without question resolutely avoided major preparations for war. Some recent historians believe that, even as he delivered his thirty-two-minute war message to Congress beginning at 8:40 P.M....
View ArticleWashington, the Battle of Necessity, and the Start of the French and Indian War
Few battles, no matter how great or small, have been of more consequence than that at Great Meadows. George Washington learned lessons of waging war on a shoestring, which would serve him well in the...
View ArticleOmar Bradley and Operation Cobra
By the third week in July, Bradley was cudgeling his brains in an effort to work out a new plan for the breakthrough the invaders so desperately needed. Bradley had been working on Operation Cobra, a...
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