78 years ago: general Patton's fateful car accident
«This is a terrible way for a soldier to die,» complained Patton. 77 years ago, the four-star general had a car accident, only to die from the repercussions two weeks later. After surviving a number of battles unharmed, he died of the injuries sustained in a trivial car accident.
Patton had wanted to retire in 1946. He had been relieved from his glorious Third Army duties because of disagreements with his superiors. He had been given a post in Bad Nauheim, where he was supposed to collect source material for the history of World War II, which he considered to be degrading. He hereupon decided to quit the Army.
PHEASANT HUNTING NEAR MANNHEIM
A day before his departure to England, where he was to continue to the USA by warship, he wanted to take part in a pheasant hunt near Mannheim. It was in the middle of winter, and the region was covered in snow. On the way there, right before noon, his olive-colored 1938 Cadillac collided with a 2.5-ton GMC Army truck. The truck had turned into the left lane (where Patton had been driving his Cadillac) without warning.
SEVERELY HEMORRHAGING HEAD WOUNDS
Patton, Major General Hobart Gay, Colonel of the Third Army, Patton’s driver Woodring and his white bull terrier Willie had been in the car. Patton, who had been sitting in the right, rear seat, was thrown forward into the window sash of the rolled-down window that separated the front of the car from the back. Patton suffered severely hemorrhaging injuries to the head. He also suffered a cervical vertebrae fracture with paraplegia.
In the military hospital in Heidelberg, the four-star general was treated in the ICU. The doctors fought 12 days for Patton’s life. To no avail. He died on December 21, 1945 at 17.55, after a pulmonary embolism had been diagnosed that very same day.
It had been Patton’s wish to be buried next to the fallen soldiers of his Third Army. On December 24, 1945 he was laid to reast at the American Soldiers’ Cemetery in Hamm. He lies amongst thousands of soldiers who died in the Battle of the Ardennes.
