Dwight Eisenhower once said of General George Patton, "He was one of those men born to be a soldier... whose gallantry and dramatic personality inspired all he commanded to deed of great valour." In this account of Patton and his Third Army, Wallace places Patton within the context of the army's operation and day-to-day movements as it roared through France, Luxembourg, and Germany. Wallace, Patton's former assistant chief of staff, draws his facts from stenographic records of daily staff meetings, and provides insights and details unavailable to other historians.

Ol’ Blood and Guts’ head of liaison officers tells the story of the famous general as he saw him at the head of the Third Army during World War II. “THE powerful Third Army with its famous leader, General George S. Patton, Jr., which in ten months roared through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria, crushing at every turn the German war machine which in 1940-42 was considered the most powerful army in the world, have now passed into history. Before the memory of the great days of these campaigns as well as the close association with this famous American fighter grow dim, it might be interesting to jot down the story of the events as they unfolded and a few personal impressions of our leader. This therefore is the story of The Third Army and its great commander.”

Eugene G. Schulz was born on a farm in Clintonville, Wisconsin in 1923. He graduated from high school in May, 1941, and worked on his father's farm and at a truck manufacturing plant until he was drafted into the army in January 1943. Schulz received his basic training at Camp Young, California at the Desert Training Center, and later at Camp Campbell, Kentucky. He was assigned to the IV Armored Corps (later named the XX Corps) where he was a typist in the G-3 Section. His duties included the typing of battle orders developed by Colonel W. B. Griffith, the G-3 of XX Corps Headquarters. The XX Corps sailed to England in February 1944 on the Queen Mary with 16,000 soldiers on board, completing the voyage in five days. After final training in England, the XX Corps landed on Utah Beach in Normandy on D+46. His unit was attached to General Patton's Third Army and spearheaded the drive across France, through Germany and into Austria where they met the Russian Army on V-E Day. Schulz was awarded the Bronze Star medal when the war ended. He served in the Army of Occupation in Germany, then returned to the States and was discharged on December 1, 1945. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Madison taking advantage of the GI Bill of Rights, and earning Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Business Administration. Schulz met his wife, Eleanore, at the University and they were married in 1949. Schulz worked as an investment research officer at the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in Milwaukee for 36 years. The Schulz's have been retired since 1988 and continue to live in Milwaukee. They are world travelers. They have five sons, all married, and sixteen grandchildren.

Patton was champing at the bit to lead the D-Day invasion, but Eisenhower placed him in command of a decoy unit, the First U.S. Army Group. Nearly seven weeks after D-Day, Patton finally got his chance to take Third Army into battle. He began a ten-month rampage across France, driving through Germany and into Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and Austria. Along the way Third Army forces entered the Battle of the Bulge, breaking the siege of Bastogne. It was a turning point in the war, and afterward the Third Army pushed eastward again. Patton’s Third Army in World War II covers Patton’s command of Third Army with a focus on the armor. It was a new style of fighting, avoiding entrenched infantry warfare by continuously pushing forward, and it appealed to Patton’s hard-charging personality. Archival photos along with frequent quotes complete the portrait of Patton as well as his men as they fight their way across the Third Reich.

On 16 December 1944, the German Army launched an offensive in the Ardennes to split Allied forces and retake the ports of Antwerp and Liege. The German advance split the XII Army forces and left the 101st Airborne Division surrounded at Bastogne. To relieve the encircled units in the Ardennes and defeat the German offensive, Third Army conducted an impressive counterattack into the flank of the Germans. The flexibility to turn ninety degrees during the worst winter in thirty-eight years and relieve the encircled forces stands out as one of the greatest operational maneuvers in history. While this operation is unique, the actions of the commander and staff that planned and executed it deserve closer analysis to determine what enabled them to orchestrate this maneuver. It is especially remarkable, when taken in context, how rapidly the Army changed during the previous four years. The US Army anticipating eventual war in Europe began a transformation which included drastic changes in force structure and doctrine. The primary transformation in doctrine was the revision of Field Service Regulation 100-5. The 1941 edition of 100-5 superseded a tentative version published in 1939 which was the first major revision of warfighting doctrine since 1923. It was with this manual that the Army went to war. It was also the manual used to train and teach new and reserve officers who had little experience in the study and practice of war. How important and to what extent did Patton’s Third Army apply the doctrine in conducting the Battle of the Bulge? Particularly relevant to serving officers today is to analyze the operations of Third Army in terms of doctrine that existed in 1944 and today’s current doctrine. An examination of similarities and differences between the doctrines may allow development of possible conclusions on the ability of future forces to conduct decisive maneuver in compressed time and space.

The story of Gen. George S. Patton’s magnificent Third Army as it advanced across Nazi-occupied Europe and into Hitler’s redoubt. Includes photos. As America’s own answer to the Blitzkrieg, Third Army’s actions from the Normandy coast across France and Germany to Austria gave a new dimension to the term “fluid warfare.” They only needed one general order—to seek out the enemy, trap, and destroy them. This they did, relentlessly overcoming every obstacle thrown in their way. Third Army’s story is one of teamwork, of armor, infantry, and aircraft working together with a perfection that amazed even the Germans, who’d always considered themselves the masters of the mobile offensive. Though Third Army is often remembered for its tank spearheads, like the 4th Armored Division, these pages also give credit to the brave infantry divisions which butted their heads against fortresses such as Metz with ultimate success. It is also the story of a triumph of administration as thousands of trucks carried forward the vital supplies to keep the army on the move and fighting. When a German counteroffensive nearly burst through the US lines in the Ardennes, it was Patton’s Third Army that turned on its heel and immediately drove in the “Bulge,” ending Hitler’s last great hope for success in the west. Afterward nothing could stop it as it crossed the Rhine and overran the Reich. Much of Third Army’s greatness, driving force, and will to win, was owed to one man—Gen. George Smith Patton Jr.—and a significant part of this book is devoted to him alone. In these pages, a renowned military historian gives a vivid impression in words and pictures of what it was like to live and fight with Patton’s men. Full of eyewitness accounts, photographs, and maps, it relates the full story of how America’s most dynamic fighting formation led the Allied effort against the Nazis’ seemingly invincible European empire.

A day-by-day study of the progress of General George S. Patton's Third Army in Europe from August, 1944 to May, 1945.

By January 1945, Nazi Germany's defeat seemed inevitable yet much fighting remained. The shortest way home for American troops was towards Berlin. General George S. Patton's Third Army would carve its way into the German heartland, the Fourth Armored Division once again serving as his vanguard. This companion volume to the author's Patton's Vanguard: The United States Army Fourth Armored Division covers the final months of combat: the drive to Bitburg; the daring exploitation of the bridgeheads on the Moselle, Rhine and Main Rivers; Patton's ill-fated raid to rescue his son-in-law from a prisoner of war camp deep behind enemy lines; the first liberation of a concentration camp on the Western Front; the drive toward Chemnitz; the controversial push into Czechoslovakia; and the little-known encounter with General Andrey Vlasov's turncoat Russian Liberation Army.