Was Patton's achievement an overstatement during Normandy break through?

Question:

Was Patton's achievement an overstatement during Normandy break through?

I mean consider the fact that Germany lacked air superiority, fuel and things weren't the same back in 1940 in terms of tank superiority and manpower strength.

Moreover America being on the other side of the continent, was left basically intact beside pearl harbour and had the luxury of time and space to increase military production.

Your thoughts?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Patton was an incredible man at an incredible moment of time. He actually believed that he was born for the greatness of that war. Much as one of the leaders of those who rebelled against the takeover of United Flight 93 also felt at that moment that he was where he needed to be.

It is true that America had a luxury of being separated from the world by 2 oceans. But it also meant that those waters prevented us from earlier involvement. We would have been involved sooner if we'd been touched by the evils taking over the world. That is why FDR managed to get the "Lend Lease" Act thru, which allowed the US to give England military supplies to use, without a direct declaration of war.

Many large organizations, whether military, scientific, medical, social, or business, often are encumbered by the enormity of their own existence. Many times the leaders of these organizations are often slow to act. Eisenhower had to deal with political setups, not just military. His job was to help hold the Allied alliance together and not fracture. British General Montgomery was given much of the early support for his army movement and supplies, because it was felt to give England some good results, since they'd been under direct attack for so long by the Germans.

But Patton wasn't one to get caught up in such "mamby-pamby" relations. His job as a general of an army was to go in and kill the enemy before the enemy killed him. It was his belief, it was his life's mission, as he thot so.
He didn't waste time with a lot of the bickering going on in the upper levels. His job was to win the war.

He had the talent, the experience, and the determination to DO the job, not talk about doing it.

He even wanted to continue after the war, right up into Moscow and get rid of the Soviets. Imagine if he'd been given the green light. He WOULD have succeeded, you know.

Patton, as general, asked his men to spill their blood for him. He pushed them far harder than any man in the armed forces would dare. But he also earned the "average Joe's" respect because he saw it and told it as it was.

The irony of D-Day preparations was that he was set up in England to command a fake army. A complete army was fictionalized with him commanding it. It was to throw the Germans off-track, because the Germans knew how strong a leader and how dangerous Patton truly was to them. And it worked. But it also demoralized Patton, to be temporarily "put to pasture", due to his intense desire to NEED to be involved in WW2.

But there were "complications" with Patton's brashness and directness. His higher-ups, his bosses, didn't like his frankness. The incident where he slapped a soldier hospitalized for shellshock was a keystone in that attitude.

It has been one of the 20th Century's unanswered coincidences that just a few months after WW2 is over, Patton died in a car crash. I"ve read the books about it, and do believe it is just a weird accident.

But fate seems to take those who's time is past.
Consider perhaps the greatest statesman and leader of the whole 20th Century......Winston Churchill. He saved the complete existence of England from destruction by his leadership, his determination, his strength, and yet, immediately after the war, he is dismissed from his duties, voted out by the general public. During wartime, he was invaluable. Once peace came, he suddenly wasn't important anymore to the peacetime efforts. It's incredible to think that the people could forget so easily what he did for them in their darkest hour.

Germany wasn't in any poor position at the time of D-Day. They still had good air support. They still have good supplies, men and material to use. It was the use of those men, materials, and supplies which doomed them.
Communication breakdowns at the outset of D-DAy prevented Panzer divisions from being released to fight the allied armies gaining their beachheads. American Air Superiority didn't happen until later in the war, when greater planes like the P-51 Mustang and Thunderbolt had the ability to travel all the way with the bombers deep into Germany.

Germany might have won the war if they'd have gotten behind the development of their jet aircraft, the Messerschmidt 262. It was designed in the 1930's!! But because of military hierarchy and their WW1 thinking, they didn't like it, or didn't recognize it's potential. Even Hitler wanted it used as a bomber, not the incredible fighter it truly was.

Germany also in the waning days of the war, with fewer resources and manpower, actually produced MORE of their planes and tanks than previously, and many of their factories had been moved UNDERGROUND due to the constant allied bombing.

Germany was a strong scrappy fighter. Even when reduced into the insides of their own country, they fought extra hard, because now they were defending their own homeland, even tho' they'd been the aggressors in the war, and by whole rights, should give up their homeland. Even when the whole empire was reduced to the rubble of Berlin, the remaining old men, women and children fought the oncoming armies of the allies. However, they knew enough that they didn't want to be captured by the Soviets!!

Germany has a long history of military conquest and life. America is a new nation in the world stage. It has been said that it takes a long time to wake up the US, but once it does, it then turns enmass to fight with all its might, as shown by the previous generations' nickname of the "Slumbering Giant".
But in today's world situation, being the only superpower, we have the luxury of having differing viewpoints and actions involving military conflicts. We don't have to get fully behind the wars anymore, because they're not threatening us as WW2 had. But the time will indeed come when the whole country's existence shall be endangered. Where will our Patton be then?