Killing Patton

2 Montgomery was not promoted to field marshal until September 1, 1944.

Chapter 4

1 His left arm was seriously mangled when he was twelve, in an accident involving a horse-drawn carriage.

Chapter 5

1 Alice Roosevelt was extremely loyal, and her flair for the cutting remark was later put to good use in defense of her cousin Franklin. When it was said that Wendell Willkie, FDR’s opponent in the 1940 presidential election, was a grassroots candidate, she agreed, noting that it was “the grass of 10,000 country clubs.” And of FDR’s 1944 opponent, the nattily attired and immaculately coiffed Thomas Dewey, she remarked, “He looks just like the little man on the wedding cake.” Dewey, a man so sensitive about his height that he sometimes sat on a phone book to look taller in his office chair, would be haunted by that remark the rest of his career.

2 Donovan won his Medal of Honor during World War I, as leader of a mostly Irish American regiment from New York known as the Fighting Sixty-Ninth. He was shot and wounded while battling German positions in France on October 14 and 15, 1918. Donovan refused to be evacuated, so that he might continue to lead the charge. In addition to the Medal of Honor, in his lifetime he was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Security Medal. No other individual has won all four of America’s top decorations. Also of note is that upon his return from World War I, Donovan worked with Teddy Roosevelt to form a new institution for veterans known to this day as the American Legion. The Fighting 69th, a film about the exploits of the regiment, starring James Cagney and Pat O’Brien, was released in early 1940. The actor George Brent played Donovan.

Chapter 6

1 Patton served as G-2 in charge of Hawaiian Islands security from 1935 to 1937. During that time he wrote a paper entitled “Surprise” in which he predicted the growing power of the Japanese military and its potential to attack the Hawaiian Islands through the use of aircraft carriers, submarines, and fighter-bombers. This made Patton the first American officer to accurately predict the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor four years later.

Chapter 7

1 Many refer to the West Point class of 1915 as “the class the stars fell on.” Fifty-nine of its graduates achieved the rank of general. Among them were Eisenhower and Bradley, who both attained five-star rank, the highest rank in the U.S. Army. At this point in history, only nine men had been selected for this honor, which also carries the title of general of the army. Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Philip Sheridan all held this title, but in the Civil War era, when there was no rank higher than four stars. General John Pershing held the same title just after World War I. Those who wore five stars are army generals Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Henry “Hap” Arnold, Douglas MacArthur, and George Marshall. The navy equivalent of five stars has been awarded to admirals Chester Nimitz, William Leahy, Ernest King, and William F. Halsey.

2 There is still a great deal of conjecture about who leaked the story, but due to the severe restrictions on what the press could and could not publish, the story would never have made it into print without the blessing of British and American authorities at the highest level. Churchill’s ongoing efforts to insert Britain in the postwar argument at the expense of the Soviet Union would have allowed him to seize Patton’s comments as an opportunity to heighten U.S.-Soviet tensions.

3 The group consisted of right fielder and player-manager Mel Ott of the New York Giants; pitcher Bucky Walters of the Cinci