Patton's Prayer: A True Story of Courage, Faith, and Victory in World War II

“Alex Kershaw . . . displays his admiration for Patton, especially in his and his army’s exploits during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944–January 1945.”

General George Patton did not have a politically correct bone in his body. Throughout his distinguished military career, he said what he meant regardless of the consequences to his own career. He was a 19th century man who waged war in the 20th century based on 19th century values: God, country, and victory. He would be entirely out of place in today’s army which has institutionalized “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and whose military academy at West Point recently replaced “Duty, Honor, Country” with “Army Values” in its mission statement.

Alex Kershaw in his new, scintillating history Patton’s Prayer, displays his admiration for Patton, especially in his and his army’s exploits during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944–January 1945. With the 101st Airborne Division surrounded in Bastogne, Patton was ordered to pull-out of his winter offensive to come to the aid of the heroic defenders of that crucial Belgian town. In the midst of one of the worst European winters on record, and against well-trained German forces, Patton’s army adhered to the general’s military philosophy: “Attack, attack and keep attacking. Never give your enemy a chance.”

The story of Patton’s and the Third Army’s role in the Battle of the Bulge has been told before, but Kershaw writes about it with verve, energy, and insight on every page of this book. When Hitler launched his surprise attack in the Ardennes Forest on December 16, 1944, the German advance pushed the American forces back, forming a “bulge” in the allied line of advance. Hitler hoped that his tanks would sweep across Belgium and reach the port city of Antwerp, thereby dividing allied forces. It was a desperate gamble that led to the greatest and most costly American battle of the war.

Kershaw notes that autumn rains had turned roads into mud, while the winter brought with it extreme cold temperatures, fog, and snow that hampered visibility. The weather appeared to be on Hitler’s side. This slowed Patton’s tanks as allied air power could do little to help.

Patton believed that God was on the side of the Americans in World War II. He was a deeply religious man who reportedly read the Bible every day, yet he used profanity regularly in referring to his enemies and urging his men forward. Kershaw notes that the generals who served with Patton, such as Omar Bradley and Harry Semmes, testified to Patton’s deep faith and his reliance on prayer. As General Bradley said of Patton: “He strutted imperiously as a commander, but knelt humbly before his God.”

In December 1944–January 1945, Patton’s armies were fighting both Germans and the inclement weather. So he asked army chaplain Father James O’Neill for a prayer to end the “immoderate” weather and enable his troops to defeat the Germans. This was Father O’Neill’s prayer: “Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.”

When the weather briefly cleared, paving the way for Patton’s forces to gain ground, Patton awarded Father O’Neill the Bronze Star. Kershaw notes that Father O’Neill “was the only man to be awarded a medal in World War II for writing a prayer.”

After Patton’s forces crossed the Rhine River, the general wrote in his diary: “I am grateful to the Lord for the great blessings he has heaped on me and the Third Army, not only in the success which He had granted us, but in the weather which He is now providing.” Many U.S. troops called it “victory weather.”

But Patton also knew that it was more than prayers that won victories in battle. Kershaw notes that Patton repeatedly praised the courage, tenacity, and sheer guts of the soldiers who fought fiercely against a desperate enemy. Patton wrote to his wife that the relief of Bastogne was “the most brilliant operation we have thus far performed and is in my opinion the outstanding achievement of this war.” Kershaw writes that “Patton’s warriors and the defenders of Bastogne had written one of the most glorious chapters in all US military history.”

Kershaw is careful, however, not to glorify war as Patton often did. Kershaw describes the fighting as “merciless,” and notes that the American soldiers “were increasingly brutalized by the conditions and by the relentless killing.” Prisoners were rarely taken, especially when the story of the Malmedy Massacre (where German Waffen SS troops massacred 84 Americans who had been taken prisoner by machine-gunning them in an open field) circulated among the troops. “Death,” Kershaw writes, “was everywhere.”

Kershaw is also careful to highlight the critical roles played by Patton’s subordinates and staff, such as Col. Creighton Abrams who led the push to Bastogne and who would later as a four-star general effectively command American troops near the end of the Vietnam War. The author also highlights several infantrymen who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for their service in the Battle of the Bulge.

Kershaw’s admiration of Patton is not unvarnished. He is critical of some of Patton’s decisions, including Patton’s reckless and costly attempt to rescue his son-in-law and other American prisoners of war in March 1945. That expedition was, Kershaw concludes, “an inexcusable waste of lives” conducted for purely personal reasons. He is also critical of Patton’s lack of diplomacy with our Soviet allies at war’s end. Patton was above all a warrior, ill-suited for leadership in peacetime.

Patton, who wanted to die from the last bullet fired in the last war, suffered an inglorious death as a result of an automobile accident in postwar Germany. His life, Kershaw writes, had been one “defined by courage, victory, and faith.”