Date with History
‘He Brought It on Himself:’ The First Infantry Division and George Patton
Thursday September 3, 6pm
Visitors Center Theater
Space is limited, advance registration is required.
The reputation and reality of George S. Patton have been causes for dispute since the end of WWII. Many of Patton’s soldiers admired him for his battlefield aggression. Many soldiers under other commands were less enthusiastic. The First Infantry Division had an especially fraught relationship with Patton. The division came under Patton’s control in two major campaigns, Tunisia in March 1943 and Sicily in July 1943. Two proud commands clashed. Unpublished material at the First Division Museum, mainly soldiers’ memoirs, can expand our perspective on this conflict of leadership. Patton saw the First Infantry Division as slow, ineffective, and resistant to discipline; the division saw Patton as more concerned with polish than fighting power. The relationship worsened with the removal of First Infantry Division commanders Terry de la Mesa Allen and Teddy Roosevelt Jr. in August 1943 (which many division soldiers blamed on Patton) and Patton’s slapping two U.S. soldiers that same month. Eventually, a Patton ‘anti-mythology’ developed within the First Infantry Division that heaped blame upon his polished helmet for all its trials on and off the battlefield in 1943.
About the Speaker
Dr. Bradley Cesario is a research historian at the First Division Museum at Cantigny. He received his PhD from Texas A&M University and has previously taught courses in U.S. military history and U.S. foreign policy at Angelo State University, Texas A&M University, and the Bush School of Government & Public Service. He has also worked with the DPAA (Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency) as a historian in residence. His reviews have appeared in Marine Corps History, Britain and the World, and The Journal of Military History. His book New Crusade: The Royal Navy and British Navalism, 1884 – 1914 was published by De Gruyter in 2021.