Shortly before his death Brigadier General Hugh ("Iron Pants") Johnson made a prophecy about his friend Major General George Smith ("Old Blood and Guts") Patton Jr.: "Critics say he is reckless and impetuous. That's what was said at West Point. He says he is going to command an army. My bet is on Georgie Patton." Georgie Patton became a lieutenant general a fortnight ago. Last week he took command of the central sector in Tunisia, where U.S. troops got an ignominious licking a month ago. Patton celebrated his appointment by advancing.
Bag Holder. Patton replaced scrappy, 59-year-old Major General Lloyd R. Fredendall, an infantryman and tactician who may have been the unluckiest general in the North African campaign. FredendalE had to hold the whole central Tunisian front with an inadequate army of poorly equipped French and unseasoned U.S. troops. He said at the time, "I am holding the bag," and he was.
Fredendall hung on to the southern end of his front largely through the bluff put up by a handful of U.S. paratroops and. French infantry. The Allies concentrated most of their strength north around Pichon in the Ousseltia Valley region, where they expected the Nazis to attack. Allied reconnaissance never spotted the Axis power gathering to the south near Faïd Pass. Three hours before Rommel's tanks rumbled out of Faïd Pass, General Dwight Eisenhower himself was calmly making a tour of the front only a few miles away. Fredendall was unable to switch his forces in time. The Nazis rolled through.
Rommel's punishing lunge and successful withdrawal through Kasserine Gap is now history. A footnote to that history was a frank report from Allied headquarters last week, citing the failure of U.S. troops to cover their retreat with land mines. When Rommel withdrew he probably saved himself by his skillful use of mines. The U.S. command made other mistakes, not the least of which was splitting their armored units into small groups with which the experienced Germans dealt quickly and savagely.
The Lions Tremble. Fredendall's successor is a tank man. George Patton's favorite motto (expurgated) is "Grab 'em by the nose and kick 'em in the tail." In 1916 he was a dashing, cocky young cavalryman and aide to "Black Jack" Pershing; in Mexico. When he went to France in World War I he organized the first U.S. tank brigade, returned to study that new wrinkle in modern warfare, and to help develop it when the U.S. Army at last got around to it in a serious way.
Some of George Patton's antics caused stiff eyebrows to twitch at headquarters. His profanity became legendary. With his flair for the spectacular, he designed, had tailored and posed in a special tank uniform : green with white buttons and black stripes. His own helmet was golden with two silver stars. (The Army declined to accept it as regulation.) With his flair for vivid phraseology, he wrote some war poetry (unpublished). With a tidy, inherited fortune he indulged his love for horses, polo, sailing boats and games.