3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
When Gen. Patton Teared Up
Peter Tonguette's commendable essay on 'Patton,' the classic 1970 war film by Franklin J. Schaffner, was most appropriate for Memorial Day weekend ('An Epic of Potent Patriotism,' Masterpiece, May 24). The essay reminded me of another anecdote that the movie failed to capture—namely, when Gen. Patton apologized to troops in Sicily for slapping a soldier suffering from PTSD.
As described in Carlo D'Este's authoritative biography, 'Patton: A Genius for War,' when the general, who had 'a rather high, squeaky voice,' tried to apologize to one regiment, the soldiers wouldn't let him. 'He never got past the first word, which was 'Men!' And at that point the whole regiment erupted. It sounded like a football game—a touchdown had been scored because the helmets (steel pots) started flying through the air, coming down all over.' The men cheered 'Georgie, Georgie,' and ignored efforts to restore order, as one witness recounted, leaving Patton in tears. When he departed, 'everybody stood at attention and saluted . . . and General Patton stood up in his command car and saluted, crying.'
