Text 20946, 55 rader
Skriven 2006-01-04 16:07:00 av Paul Quinn (3:640/384)
  Kommentar till text 20889 av Dan Ceppa (1:138/666.0)
Ärende: Copyright
=================
Hi! Dan,

On Tue, 03 Jan 06, you wrote to me:

 DC>> Sounds like something I need to head to...
 PQ>> Yep.  Damned right.  Check out his bio's and poetry, too.  (Yes,
 PQ>> Georgie was a poet as well.)

 DC> As well as a clothing designer!

Need we mention: an Olympic competitor also?  :)

 PQ>> It was "Louisiana", actually.  :)  An original version of the
 PQ>> speech's transcript (as close as the website creator could get 
 PQ>> it) is there as well. 

 DC> Same general area.  I trust you know what group of soldiers he
 DC> said that to...

I haven't seen it specified.  But the wording seems to indicate a time when 3rd
Army was in the forming-up stages, well prior to embarkation.  In fact, in his
speech he mentions that he really isn't in England at that time and that each
of the audience was not to relate the fact that he was there to anyone else...
or words to that effect.  Recall that he was the subject of a cover plan so as
to disguise the real landing place(s) of the allied invasion, and as to who was
going to lead the real 'push'.

If I recall 3rd Army history properly, and I really must grab my copy of the
book back from a work mate before he pisses-off on a transfer, 3rd Army at the
time of the June 6 landings was in effect a 'paper' army; more probably formed
as a core cadre for fleshing out at a later stage (I think it was later in July
when they finally got to the continent[shrug]?).

So in such an event as that, he was more likely to be addressing the respective
adminstrative ataffs of the various headquarters' units: the 3rd Army HQ staff;
Corps' HQ staffs; Divisional HQ staffs and possibly the various headquarters'
defence companies (that's the British term... defence company; I don't know
what they're called under the U.S. system).  All of those, as available on the
day, would have totalled to 'quite a few' personnel.  No doubt there might have
been other minor units exercising in the vicinity who may have been roped in.

If you know something of military organisation, then you'll appreciate that
Patton cannot have addressed =all= of the army, since even a single infantry
division numbers about 30,000 personnel.  I'm guessing that Patton will have
wanted to make as best 'impression' on the troops in the most economical and
effective way, and that's by hitting the headquarters' staffs with a knockout
speech that would eventually be enforced/re-enforced/embellished over again, by
them, down to the troops that he could not directly impress on the day.  And,
it worked!  :)

Cheers,
Paul.

--- Radius 4.010/21.01.2005(Final)
 * Origin: Vuja De - The feeling you've never been here before... (3:640/384)