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40 Insights into the Lives of Famous War Veterans

Khalid Elhassan July 13, 2019 26 min

36. George Patton had a scandal worse than slapping soldiers

General George S. Patton’s best known controversy occurred during the Sicilian Campaign, when he accused a PTSD-suffering soldier in a hospital of cowardice, slapped him around, and threatened to shoot him. Then did it again a few days later in another hospital. When the scandal broke, it nearly got Patton cashiered. However, had a worse, but lesser known scandal, in which he got dozens of GIs killed for personal reasons. It happened in late March, 1945, when Patton ordered Task Force Baum, comprised of 314 men, 16 tanks, and dozens of other vehicles, to penetrate 50 miles behind German lines and liberate a POW camp, which housed Patton’s son in law.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.