GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON - THE UNTOLD STORY

In the summer of 1938, George S. Patton was a little known and deeply frustrated Colonel in the United States Army, commanding the 5th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Clark, Texas. While Patton was convinced of his own "unconventional" ideas on armoured warfare, Fort Clark was "the army's ultimate backwater, a place where old cavalry soldiers were sent to finish out their careers in peace and quiet" (D'Este, p366). 

Or so Patton's regular biographers (including the best of them, Carlo D'Este's "Patton - A Genius for War") would have it. While D'Este does record the powerful influence upon Patton of General Sir Edmund Allenby, Liberator of Jerusalem, whom he had met during the First World War:

"....Allenby had told Patton that 'for every Napoleon, Alexander, and Jesus Christ that made roles of [sic] history, there were several born. Only the lucky ones made it to the summit. He felt that in every age and time, men were born ready to serve their country and their God, but sometimes were not needed; you had to be at the right place at the right time - you had to be lucky...."

and acknowledges the depression and even despair Patton felt in 1938 at the prospect of not being involved in a major war during his active career, astonishingly to some - and notwithstanding recently discovered  (if somewhat grainy) photographic evidence - there is no mention of George S. Patton's involvement in the Hereford VBCW:

'General' George S. Patton on the road from Bromyard to Leominster, 1938 - an "Armoured Legend"

Whether Patton's presence in Herefordshire during 1938 was as a formal USA attache with the permission of General Marshall, or merely a spot of "officially unathorised leave" from his role with the 5th Cavalry, may still be a matter of academic argument. What is certain, however, is that Patton moved from a position of "observer" to "combatant" very quickly after his arrival "in County", and then reportedly with great relish - obtaining a tank from the well known VBCW "military suppliers to the gentry", Trumper and Shellgrove of New Bond Street (hence, a "TraSh Tank"), and promoting himself to "General" immediately.

As an American, Patton was obliged to retain a formal independence from any of the contending factions. However, it was always clear that Patton could never fight with the Royalists nor Albertines ("ain't no goddam patriotic American ever fought for an English King"), nor the BUF ("goddam Nazis"), and his views on the Russian backed Presteigne Communist Front were pretty much unprintable (but here goes anyway):

Slightly by default, therefore, the God-fearing Patton's usual role within the Herefordshire VBCW was as an ally of the Anglicans, and even more so as a "Senior Armoured Adviser" to the newly founded Independent Democratic Republic of Bromyard ("Goddam politics. Well, they got Democrats, see, and Republicans. Just like back in Washington, yessir..."). It is reported that Patton formed a particular friendship with Sir Alan McGuffin, Chairman of the Herefordshire Golf Club and enthusiastic proponent of the Bromyard Armoured Brigade, even finding time to learn the rudiments of golf in Sir Alan's company.

Why then has Patton's experience in the Herefordshire VBCW clearly been covered up? A favoured explanation is that Patton's subsequent rise to prominence - as a result of the Tennesee, Louisana and Carolina Armoured Manoeuvres of 1941 - had to be patriotically portrayed as a product of American genius, rather than accepted as part of Patton's experience of armoured warfare during the Hereford VBCW (and heavy borrowing from the armoured theories of the Very British Sir Alan McGuffin):

Patton during the 1941 Armoured Manoeuvres

The U.S. Army Publicity Machine gears up in Life Magazine, July 1941.
There is no mention of the Herefordshire VBCW within the article on Patton.

Thankfully, future posts on this blog will detail Patton's experiences in the VBCW, and thereby explode the many decades old conspiracy of silence:

 

Note: General George S. Patton and his "Trash" Tank constitute Umpire Clive's entry for the Modelling Challenge 2022 ("Armoured Legends") and is therefore playable as a "Free Umpire Bonus" at the Spring Big Game 2023!