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The Last Days of Patton
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319 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1980
9 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Ladislas Farago
45 books23 followersLadislas Farago was a military historian and journalist who published a number of best-selling books on history and espionage, especially concerning the World War II era.
He was the author of Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, the biography of General George Patton that formed the basis for the film "Patton" and wrote The Broken Seal, one of the books that formed the basis for the movie ''Tora! Tora! Tora!''.
One of his more controversial books was Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich .
He was the author of Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, the biography of General George Patton that formed the basis for the film "Patton" and wrote The Broken Seal, one of the books that formed the basis for the movie ''Tora! Tora! Tora!''.
One of his more controversial books was Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich .
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 1, 2022
This is an excellent book. The author did a masterful job of capturing the essence of Patton and his many strengths and his few failings. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand Patton, WWII, and its aftermath in Europe.
April 16, 2012
The Final Days
This was a disturbingly compelling read. I have studied WWII in depth and have read several books on the man, but this one is completely different. We know about the slapping instances and how they almost dethroned America's greatest ground general. We also know from studying history that most great generals are a bit on the egotistical side with ambitions of grandeur whether they be on the battlefield or after a glorious career in the military moving into the political life. George definitely fits into the first category but hardly the second. Life in the political arena suited him not at all. He was born to fight and wage war.
Of all of the fine generals produced during WWII, George Patton had to be the worst selection as a governor in post war Germany. Why? Because it required him to be political savoy of which he wasn't. Why did Eisenhower, Marshall, and Truman agree to this terrible travesty? That is the question. Mr Farago attempts to address this pressing issue through countless interviews and documents. He also touches on the apparent conspiracy of Patton's fatal car accident which would claim his life weeks after the collision from a pulmonary embolism.
Would it not have been better to assign the duties to another General: Gerow, Truscott, Bradley, Clark or "Beattle" Smith? Why Patton? Was it an attempt to force him to retire so the army wouldn't have to deal with him and some how claim ignorance or was it the final chapter between him and Ike? Was it an assignment of punishment with the chance of redemption or a deliberate set-up for him to fail and allow the army the ammunition to shelve the great ground tactician?
Those are the questions that will never be completely answered and swirl around Patton long after we are all gone.
Note: The only draw back was the Introduction and Prologue. Mr. Farago died two weeks before the book was going to the publisher. It was finished by his son who attempted to provide justice to his father's lifetime work. I'm sorry, but fell short of dad when it came to a good clean writing style.
If you are looking for a book that asks more questions then provides answers, this is a most for all battle field and arm chair historians.
This was a disturbingly compelling read. I have studied WWII in depth and have read several books on the man, but this one is completely different. We know about the slapping instances and how they almost dethroned America's greatest ground general. We also know from studying history that most great generals are a bit on the egotistical side with ambitions of grandeur whether they be on the battlefield or after a glorious career in the military moving into the political life. George definitely fits into the first category but hardly the second. Life in the political arena suited him not at all. He was born to fight and wage war.
Of all of the fine generals produced during WWII, George Patton had to be the worst selection as a governor in post war Germany. Why? Because it required him to be political savoy of which he wasn't. Why did Eisenhower, Marshall, and Truman agree to this terrible travesty? That is the question. Mr Farago attempts to address this pressing issue through countless interviews and documents. He also touches on the apparent conspiracy of Patton's fatal car accident which would claim his life weeks after the collision from a pulmonary embolism.
Would it not have been better to assign the duties to another General: Gerow, Truscott, Bradley, Clark or "Beattle" Smith? Why Patton? Was it an attempt to force him to retire so the army wouldn't have to deal with him and some how claim ignorance or was it the final chapter between him and Ike? Was it an assignment of punishment with the chance of redemption or a deliberate set-up for him to fail and allow the army the ammunition to shelve the great ground tactician?
Those are the questions that will never be completely answered and swirl around Patton long after we are all gone.
Note: The only draw back was the Introduction and Prologue. Mr. Farago died two weeks before the book was going to the publisher. It was finished by his son who attempted to provide justice to his father's lifetime work. I'm sorry, but fell short of dad when it came to a good clean writing style.
If you are looking for a book that asks more questions then provides answers, this is a most for all battle field and arm chair historians.
June 1, 2015
Farago did a good job of capturing the confused - and confusing - military and diplomatic climate that simmered in the months after VE Day. I found it a bit difficult to keep all the players straight in Farago's build up to the unfortunate climax to Patton's life but I think the author did a masterful job of sketching out the circumstances that have led to so many conspiracy theories today, while carefully avoiding the appearance of lending any one of them much credence. Sure, we might like to think that some sinister plot took this great fighting general from us but the fact may be that he simply wasn't cut out to return to a peacetime existence in the postwar military and, while outwardly sudden and cruel, the outcome may have been for the best, though one can't help but wonder what Patton might have gotten up to if he had survived beyond 1945.
Farago gives a balanced account of Patton's behavior and, without seeming to apologize for it, provides some explanation as to why the general may have taken some of the positions he took in the final months of his life. I'm glad I read this book.
Farago gives a balanced account of Patton's behavior and, without seeming to apologize for it, provides some explanation as to why the general may have taken some of the positions he took in the final months of his life. I'm glad I read this book.
February 21, 2018
I was so disappointed with the discursive mess of Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General that I had to read something that actually addressed the potential conspiracy head-on. This does that. Apparently, if these quotes and excerpts of Patton's writing can be believed, Patton was an ultra-nationalist, anti-Semite, Nazi coddling commie hater that was a potential embarrassment to Eisenhower. Still, his death appears to be no more than a tragic car accident made mysterious by an unfortunate lack of investigation and autopsy. No, no real evidence of a conspiracy to get the potentially embarrassing Patton out of the way...
April 29, 2018
Un libro detallado acerca de los últimos meses de vida del general Patton, que después de ser parte vital en la victoria de los aliados sobre Alemania, y convertirse en un héroe americano, solo tres meses bastaron para caer en desgracia debido a los tratos cordiales que dio a los nazis durante su gobierno en Baviera, y el maltrato que dio a los judios liberados.
Teniendo en cuenta el título del libro, el autor te da a conocer buena parte de la vida del general, y aun teniendo pocos conocimientos sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial, te queda claro toda la situación y el ambiente que se vivía en la Alemania ocupada por los aliados.
Teniendo en cuenta el título del libro, el autor te da a conocer buena parte de la vida del general, y aun teniendo pocos conocimientos sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial, te queda claro toda la situación y el ambiente que se vivía en la Alemania ocupada por los aliados.
June 30, 2023
This is a highly readable account of the final nine months of George S. Patton’s life. I was fascinated to see the trajectory of Patton’s personal philosophy. He seemed to grow soft on the Nazis almost to the point of deliberately overlooking many of their atrocities. He retained a bellicose anti-communist perspective, but he increasingly embraced antisemitic views. Those changes ultimately led to his dismissal by General Eisenhower.
In the early portion of the book, the author devotes a good bit of space to the existence of Nazi gold and treasure. I must be defective somewhere because I didn’t find that section all that electrifying. But for treasure seeker wannabes, you’ll love those two sections.
Patton the soldier simply couldn’t stop fighting. While the world noisily celebrated the German surrender in May 1945, Patton believed the war ended too soon. He took the approach that fighting Americans could defeat the Soviets if he turned them loose to do it.
Although he came home to a hero’s welcome during his final summer of life, a sense of depression dogged him. He made several gaffs that hurt his career and left military PR flacks scrambling to “clarify” what he meant. No sooner had he returned to the U.S. than he was restless and ready to return to Europe.
I was shocked and sickened at his devolution to antisemitism. The author quotes several statements, and they sickened me. That this man could so brazenly mock Holocaust survivors after he witnessed them firsthand blew me away.
The final three or so chapters that dealt with the mysterious accident that ultimately took his life read like a novel. They will pull you almost forcibly into the book and keep you there until your potty break needle pegs in the red zone or until you take the book with you and thumb your nose at the potty break gauge. This is a great history that puts you at Patton’s bedside with his small but larger-than-life wife in the room with you. Knowing that he will surely die, you still feel a certain level of suspense as the imaginary calendar in your head clicks inevitably closer to December 21, 1945—his last day on Earth.
Most of us in a specific age range immediately see George C. Scott as Patton. The reality is Patton had a high squeaky voice that squeaked more as he got increasingly excited or animated. He is every bit the military hero and strategist his supporters and history claims he is. But the book shows a dark and seamy underside that I knew nothing about, and that fascinated me.
Incidentally, the author firmly asserts that Patton’s car crash was just that—a car crash, not some woo-woo conspiracy that turns the accident into an assassination, as many believe.
In the early portion of the book, the author devotes a good bit of space to the existence of Nazi gold and treasure. I must be defective somewhere because I didn’t find that section all that electrifying. But for treasure seeker wannabes, you’ll love those two sections.
Patton the soldier simply couldn’t stop fighting. While the world noisily celebrated the German surrender in May 1945, Patton believed the war ended too soon. He took the approach that fighting Americans could defeat the Soviets if he turned them loose to do it.
Although he came home to a hero’s welcome during his final summer of life, a sense of depression dogged him. He made several gaffs that hurt his career and left military PR flacks scrambling to “clarify” what he meant. No sooner had he returned to the U.S. than he was restless and ready to return to Europe.
I was shocked and sickened at his devolution to antisemitism. The author quotes several statements, and they sickened me. That this man could so brazenly mock Holocaust survivors after he witnessed them firsthand blew me away.
The final three or so chapters that dealt with the mysterious accident that ultimately took his life read like a novel. They will pull you almost forcibly into the book and keep you there until your potty break needle pegs in the red zone or until you take the book with you and thumb your nose at the potty break gauge. This is a great history that puts you at Patton’s bedside with his small but larger-than-life wife in the room with you. Knowing that he will surely die, you still feel a certain level of suspense as the imaginary calendar in your head clicks inevitably closer to December 21, 1945—his last day on Earth.
Most of us in a specific age range immediately see George C. Scott as Patton. The reality is Patton had a high squeaky voice that squeaked more as he got increasingly excited or animated. He is every bit the military hero and strategist his supporters and history claims he is. But the book shows a dark and seamy underside that I knew nothing about, and that fascinated me.
Incidentally, the author firmly asserts that Patton’s car crash was just that—a car crash, not some woo-woo conspiracy that turns the accident into an assassination, as many believe.
February 20, 2023
Patton is an extremely interesting historical figure. History can occasionally be oversimplified into simple good vs. evil, but with people like Patton that couldn't keep their mouth shut, their unique perspectives get shuffled into the overall story. His mouth got him into all kinds of trouble throughout his career.
"The Last Days of Patton" is story of Patton's strange death that he incurred that was never probed. There are many myths and legends and theories that Patton had been assassinated in elaborate plot. It was repeated relentlessly that he was killed because he was hated by superior officers due to jealousy and fear. They feared him because he was going to expose many the incompetent and corrupt things done by the Allied High command during WWII. Some have implied, that General Dwight D Eisenhower may have been an accomplice. If that was not enough there was claims that the Russians were also trying to assassinate him because Stalin hated him.
Lastly, this book goes into great detail about the accident that resulted in Patton's eventual death. It is a tragic tale which is worth reading. It is sad to think that one of our greatest warrior's from WWII died after the war in a rather random traffic accident. The existence of so many anomalies in the circumstances before and after the death of Patton raises more questions than answers: missing files on the accident; no official investigation by American military officials; no autopsy on his body; and the fact that he was recuperating in a hospital before suddenly taking a turn for the worse and dying as a result of a probable embolism on December 21, 1945, suggest that something is not right about reporting his death.
Does Ladislas Farago answer those theories of an assassination? If I tell you that I would be giving away the story. What I will tell you is that this is a good book to digest those theories and stories and lets you decide for yourself as to what really happened. An interesting book, but very sad.
"The Last Days of Patton" is story of Patton's strange death that he incurred that was never probed. There are many myths and legends and theories that Patton had been assassinated in elaborate plot. It was repeated relentlessly that he was killed because he was hated by superior officers due to jealousy and fear. They feared him because he was going to expose many the incompetent and corrupt things done by the Allied High command during WWII. Some have implied, that General Dwight D Eisenhower may have been an accomplice. If that was not enough there was claims that the Russians were also trying to assassinate him because Stalin hated him.
Lastly, this book goes into great detail about the accident that resulted in Patton's eventual death. It is a tragic tale which is worth reading. It is sad to think that one of our greatest warrior's from WWII died after the war in a rather random traffic accident. The existence of so many anomalies in the circumstances before and after the death of Patton raises more questions than answers: missing files on the accident; no official investigation by American military officials; no autopsy on his body; and the fact that he was recuperating in a hospital before suddenly taking a turn for the worse and dying as a result of a probable embolism on December 21, 1945, suggest that something is not right about reporting his death.
Does Ladislas Farago answer those theories of an assassination? If I tell you that I would be giving away the story. What I will tell you is that this is a good book to digest those theories and stories and lets you decide for yourself as to what really happened. An interesting book, but very sad.
March 11, 2022
A compelling read after Patton: Ordeal and Triumph. The author dedicated his life in writing the life of Gen. George S. Patton and it was certainly an important thing to close the issue of what transpired in the last days of Patton. It was a disheartening read. And the issues that transpired could not be denied.
May 7, 2019
Not my usual reading but quite interesting to learn about the man behind the household name.
December 17, 2020
I thought that the book was well written and well researched. I have read other books on Patton, yet I learned things about him that I never knew.
January 17, 2016
The effect of reading The Last Days of Patton is I imagine akin to reading Peter Guralnick's Careless Love or Edmund Morris’ Colonel Roosevelt. This is the story of a life in descent, when the best days are behind and the subject is in decline and their flaws most glaring. Whereas Roosevelt and Presley had years of decline; George Patton had just a year between his greatest triumphs and his death. Ladislas Faragó author of Patton: Ordeal and Triumph wrote this book to debunk claims Patton was murdered. That idea he almost summarily dismisses. The weight of the book instead explores just how Patton spent the final year of his life.
After the war Patton wanted to go fight the Japanese, instead he was assigned to oversee denazification in Bavaria. That his personality and skills were hopelessly ill suited to this type of role should have been obvious to virtually anyone. However, as Faragó makes plain it was not merely his temperament, but also his stubborn and wholly his mistaken beliefs that doomed Patton’s efforts in that state. Patton’s obsession with fighting the communists was perhaps predictable. More surprising is that for a time Patton seemed to lose sight of the odiousness of the Nazi crimes cozying up to former officials and unbelievably leaning toward anti-Semitism- though Faragó argues this was a nuanced problem that was resolving itself even before Patton left Bavaria. By the time Patton is summarily dismissed as head of the third army and given control of a paper army its clear how right that decision was. However, this is the moment where history again curves allowing Patton’s character to rise.
Mere days away from a visit home, Patton plans a day of peasant shooting and ends up in a minor traffic accident that leaves him a paraplegic. Where some have tried to invent conspiracies and theories, Faragó clearly shows the accident was the result of a driver addicted to speed & Patton’s odd habit of sitting perched on the very edge of the seat.
The irony is that this accident allows Patton to rise to the occasion. At the moment he might well be excused anger and self-pity-Patton instead becomes a model patient. If his WWII campaigns were the height of Patton’s career, his bravery and good cheer in his final days Faragó suggests show the strength of his character.
Faragó proves as he would many times his mettle as an author. He is a marvelous writer. His prose is brisk and keeps the story moving. What elevates his work though is Faragó’s unwillingness to shy away from either the ugliness of Patton’s final year or the courage of his final days. Both, Faragó seems to suggest, lived simultaneously within Patton-the nobility and the ugliness and both are responsible for his legacy.
After the war Patton wanted to go fight the Japanese, instead he was assigned to oversee denazification in Bavaria. That his personality and skills were hopelessly ill suited to this type of role should have been obvious to virtually anyone. However, as Faragó makes plain it was not merely his temperament, but also his stubborn and wholly his mistaken beliefs that doomed Patton’s efforts in that state. Patton’s obsession with fighting the communists was perhaps predictable. More surprising is that for a time Patton seemed to lose sight of the odiousness of the Nazi crimes cozying up to former officials and unbelievably leaning toward anti-Semitism- though Faragó argues this was a nuanced problem that was resolving itself even before Patton left Bavaria. By the time Patton is summarily dismissed as head of the third army and given control of a paper army its clear how right that decision was. However, this is the moment where history again curves allowing Patton’s character to rise.
Mere days away from a visit home, Patton plans a day of peasant shooting and ends up in a minor traffic accident that leaves him a paraplegic. Where some have tried to invent conspiracies and theories, Faragó clearly shows the accident was the result of a driver addicted to speed & Patton’s odd habit of sitting perched on the very edge of the seat.
The irony is that this accident allows Patton to rise to the occasion. At the moment he might well be excused anger and self-pity-Patton instead becomes a model patient. If his WWII campaigns were the height of Patton’s career, his bravery and good cheer in his final days Faragó suggests show the strength of his character.
Faragó proves as he would many times his mettle as an author. He is a marvelous writer. His prose is brisk and keeps the story moving. What elevates his work though is Faragó’s unwillingness to shy away from either the ugliness of Patton’s final year or the courage of his final days. Both, Faragó seems to suggest, lived simultaneously within Patton-the nobility and the ugliness and both are responsible for his legacy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 9, 2011
This disturbing episode in Patton's life that lead to his death was not easy to read as it was not easy to write I'm sure. It is like any tragedy, you know the inevitable but continue to hope as he goes down, down and down.
November 21, 2014
This book describes the events leading up to George S. Patton's death at the end of World War II. Was Patton's death really the result of an accident?
March 25, 2013
A well written docomentary of General George Patton'd Last Days. Old Blood and Guts is a legend in Military History.
March 1, 2016
I really did not realize what a celebrity Patton was. Could not keep his mouth shut and fell afoul of the PC police of 1945. The chapters on his final days are very moving.
October 11, 2016
he is a douche but this book is very good
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews