GEORGE S. PATTON DIARIES Annotated transcripts Sept. 27-Dec. 3, 1945

BOX 3 FOLDER 13

September 27, 1945
      As I had to leave the office at 1000 to fly to Frankfurt, the only way we could do any hunting was to start very early, so we had breakfast at 0430 and, with a new guide, proceeded up a new canyon. We saw two groups of chamois, which, the guide determined by use of a telescope, contained no warrantable heads. Again we reached the head of navigation and walked until the snow obscured all the hillsides. We then returned and were driving down the valley when we saw chamois to the left at a range of about 1000 yards. We made a long stalk and when we got within 100 yards he saw us and ran away. Returning to the car, Sgt. Terill pointed out another chamois on the opposite side. We made a quick stalk on him and fired from behind a rock at a range of 350 meters. I was very lucky in hitting him with the first shot of my new rifle. It was too late to get him so we drove to Schurniz and then sent Terill and the guide back to get the chamois which they later brought to the office. I fired three shots and he was hit three times, which I believe speaks volumes for the efficacy of the new rifle.
      The assault on me in the papers is still going on, but is losing its steam.
September 29, 1945
      Yesterday the weather was unflyable, so Merle-Smith and I left by car for Frankfurt, travelling via Munich, Augsburg and Mannheim along the Autobahn. As we drove along, I was following my practice of 40 years in deciding how I would attack various positions that presented themselves in the changing landscape, or how I would emplace troops for rear guard action in the same country, when suddenly I realized that I had fought my last war and other people would have to be picking positions. Probably the success I have had was due to the fact  

September 29, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
that for so many years I had indulged in this form of amusement.
      The ride reminded me of a similar one Codman and I took from Knutsford to London after the Knutsford incident, when I was strongly of the impression I was going to be relieved and sent home - if not tried. I did not believe yesterday I would be tried, but I thought I might be relieved of command. 
      After a drive of seven and a half hours we reached General Eisenhower's headquarters. Ike was quite friendly and gave me a long oration on my inability to keep my mouth shut. I told him that in this particular case, the words I was said to have said had been deliberately altered. 
      One curious thing came up in the course of the conversation. I was thinking yesterday that perhaps my greatest virtue and my greatest fault was my honesty and lack of ulterior motive. Ike said my greatest virtue and my greatest fault was my audacity.
      He stated he was certainly at fault as much as I was in that, knowing my strength and weakness as he did, he should not have put me in as Military Governor. 1 I told him it was my considered opinion that 

      1.  After Secretary of War Stimson's visit to Bavaria late in August (I think) he called Beatrice Waters in Washington and with the words "relay this to your mother", talked for ten minutes, going into a great detail to the effect that Bavaria, under G.S.P. , was the best governed area in ETO.
      Two weeks later Sec. McCloy gave her a similar report, but when G.S.P. was relieved of his command, no voice was raised in his defense, though Stimson was a private citizen at that time.  BAP

September 29, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
Bavaria was the best governed state in Germany and that, since we had 
evicted from government employ some 49,882 persons out of 251,000-odd 
who had been screened, I felt we had probably removed and de-Nazified 
better than any other state.
      I also pointed out to him that practically all the ministers 
now governing Bavaria had been inherited by us from the Seventh Army,
due to a change of Army boundaries on 9 June 1945, to wit: 
      Minister President and Minister of Finance...Dr.Fritz Schaffer
      Minister of Economics...………………………………Dr. Karl Arthur Lange
      Director of the Department of
      Food and Agriculture...………………………………..Dr Ernest Rattenhuber
      
      The Minister of Labor, Mr. Albert Rosshaupter, was appointed on 
      20 June.

      The Ministers of Education and Interior, Hipp and Fischer respectively, 
      were removed from office by us. Fischer on 6 September 
      for Nazi connections ; and Hipp for lack of cooperation 
      on 18 September.

            Ike said that had he possessed any adequate command for me 
at the time, he would have given it to me rather than have me act 
as Military Governor of Bavaria. He then was apparently struck with 
an idea, which probably was acting on his part, that since Gerow was
going home it might be a good idea to transfer me to the Fifthteenth
Army, whose mission it is to write the account of the history and 
tactics of the war.  He talked about this at the time and said I
might be criticized because I would be taking the place of a three
star General although he too had been an Army Commander.  I told him
in my opinion I should be simply relieved, but he said he did not
intend to do that and had had no pressure from the states to that
effect.

September 29, 1945 (cont'd p.4)
               I said then I thought I should be allowed to continue the 
command of the Third Army and the Government of Bavaria. He said he
felt on mature thought I should certainly continue for ten days or 
two weeks and then he thought I should take command of the Fifteenth
Army because while he had complete confidence I would do my full duty 
as I understand it, I did not, in his opinion, believe in the policies 
being put into effect and that while I would not have ever expressed 
these views to my Staff, they had all absorbed them from in the 
same way they absorbed my battle system.
               At/the present moment I am of two minds. If I am kicked upstairs 
to the Fifteenth Army should I accept or should I ask for relief and 
put in my resignation? By adopting the latter course I would save 
my self-respect at the expense of my reputation but on the other hand, 
would become a martyr too soon. It is my belief that when the catch-
word" denazification" has worn itself out and when people see it is
merely a form of stimulating Bolshevism, there will be a flop of the 
pendulum in the opposite direction. 
            when that occurs I can state that I accepted the job with the 
Fifteenth Army because I was reluctant, in fact unwilling, to be a 
party to the destruction of Germany under the pretense of de-Nazifica-
ation. Further, that the utterly un-American and almost Gestapo 
methods of de-Nazification were so abhorrent to my Anglo-Saxon mind
as to be practically indigestible. Further, that I believe Germany 
should not be destroyed, but rather rebuilt as a buffer against the 
real danger, which is Bolshevism from Russia. 
            During the course of the interview, General Eisenhower brought

September 29, 1945 (cont'd)
in his G-5, General Adcock, and a Professor Dorn. Apparently the Pro-
fessor is the person who provides Adcock with all his information. He
is a very slick individual is disguise. I had great difficulty in not losing my
temper with him but knew that if I did, I would simply get more ad-
verse reports than I already had.
           Eisenhower  also said during the conversation that several of 
his staff officers had reported to him that I had told them that I 
believed we should strengthen Germany because we were  going to fight 
Russia in five years. The two staff officers who told him that were 
unquestionably Adcock and Bull as I had never made the statement to 
anyone else and only made it to them under the erroneous assumption 
that they were my friends. 
            Ike made the sensational statement that while hostilities were 
in progress the one important thing was order and discipline, but 
now that hostilities are over, the important thing is to stay in with 
world public opinion- apparently whether it was right or wrong; I 
suppose on the same basis as Decatur's famous remark: "My country, 
may she ever be right or wrong, my country." We could para-
phrase that to" My public, may ever be right but right or wrong, 
my public."
              Apparently Ike has to a high degree got the Messiah complex 
for which he can't be blamed, as everybody bootlicks him except myself.
            I asked the the professor what was the particular gripe  on Fritz 
Schaffer and found out he had been talking to one of the subordinates 
in the G-5 office or rather in the "E" Group of Military Government,
and found he had kept in he had kept in cabinet, in minor position it is true,





September 29, 1945 (cont'd p.6)
some twenty people (16 in Agriculture and 4 in finance) who were mandatory cases for removal under our instructions.
      General Eisenhower said he felt that no matter how much immediate removal of all Nazis from office adversely affected the administration of Bavaria, they should be removed because it was his experience that there was always some subordinate to take over the job of a superior. In battle I believe this is true and it is probably true in Military Government. It is a strange thing that in battle I am perfectly willing to chop off heads, but in peacetime my Anglo-Saxon ancestry makes me reluctant to remove people without due process of law. However, I shall carry out General Eisenhower's wishes to the letter and in the spirit also.
      Since it was very evident from General Eisenhower's demeanor that we had to relieve Fritz Schaffer, I asked him who he wanted for President. He said. "Ask Dorn" , which I did and Dorn recommend a man named Dr. Wilhelm Hoegner. So I called Harkins at 6:30 and told him to remove Schaffer, Lange and Ratenhuber and all members of their ministries in any way tainted with Nazism regardless of the setback it would give to the administration of Bavaria and the resultant cold and hunger it would produce - not only for the Germans but also for the DP's. This seemed to make everyone happy except myself.
      Ike was apparently very anxious that he should not seem too friendly with me because almost the first word he said was, "If you are spending the night of course you will stay with me, but since I feel you should get back to Bad Tolz as rapidly as possible, I have my train set up to take you and it leaves at 7:00 o'clock. " It was then 6:30. I took the train.

September 29, 1945 (cont'd p7)
               When we left we met in the hall the same group of correspondents who caused the trouble on 22 September, namely, Raymond Daniell of the New York "Time" ; Junius Morgan of the Chicago "Sun" and Carl Levin of the "Herald Tribune" , with two photographers. General Eisenhower asked them what they wanted and they said they wanted a statement from him as to what we had been talking about. He said "I have conferences with my Army Commanders whenever I feel like it - period." and went by.
               During the whole of the preceding interview, General Eisenhower was more excited than I have ever seen him and I believe this can be traced to the fact that he is very much worried about the|delay in getting appointed as Chief of Staff at home and fears that if he stays here, he will lose some of his prestige. I think this fear is well grounded, but I do not believe that a fear psychosis should make him so utterly regardless of his own better nature as to make him practically unmoral in his treatment of the Germans.
September 30, 1945
      Mr. Murphy, the Ambassador to Germany and political adviser to General Eisenhower, came to see me yesterday and was very much upset and annoyed at what had happened the day before. He had been here for three days, making up a plan for a new Bavarian government and naturally felt he should have been consulted.  He was very helpful and wrote the release on the new government which was put out by Third Army's Public Relations Officer last evening.
      Beedle Smith called up about 1:30 yesterday and read me a letter from General Eisenhower which he said General Eisenhower had directed him to read. The letter stated I would assue command of the Fifteenth Army on October 8th; that the order would be issued on

September 30, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
October 9th, and that no comment would be made. The last paragraph of the letter was full of soap which meant a little less, probably, than the paper used to receive it. 
      So, another die has been cast and probably for the best, as I am sure that hell is going to pop soon in this government business and trust I can avoid detection until the8th.
      Lucian Truscott will get the Third Army and I am sure will do as good a job as he can in an impossible situation.
      I asked Smith If I could take the following people with me : General Gay, Colonel Harkins, Colonel Koch, Major-Merle-Smith, Major Wellman, Captain Maurer, Lieutenant Lynch, M/Sgt. Meeks and S/Sgt Duncan.
      I have had a long standing invitation fro General Clay to visit Berlin on Monday, 1 October, to be present at a quadripartite conference. In order to insure getting there in time, it was necessary to leave today. However, in view of the short tenure of office remaining, I decided at the last moment it was more essential to visit some of the DP camps. I therefore requested Ambassador Murphy to pay my compliments to General Clay and explain the situation.
Monday, October 1, 1945
      I left the office at 1330 for the purpose of visiting the DP Camps at Feldafing and Wolfratshausen. I picked up General McBride, the Corps Commander and Colonel Mezger, Acting Chief of Staff XX Corps, and proceeded to the camp at Feldafing where we were met by Colonel James Polk, 3rd Cavalry, in charge. We inspected the camp and found material improvement since I visited it with General Eisenhower on 17 September. 

October 1, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
      However, considerable remains to be done, primarily because the Jewish type of DP is, in the majority of cases, a sub-human species without any of the cultural or social refinements of our time. They prefer to live in densely, populated buildings, the sexes indiscriminately mixed. In consonance with the wishes of General Eisenhower, we had removed German families from thirty-two houses adjacent to the camp and on last Friday directed the transfer of the DP's into these houses. Here we , met with two peculiar resistance movements. First, in the majority of cases, they preferred to stay where they were. Second, Saturday and Sunday were the dates of a Jewish festival for taking in the harvest. Why this festival is celebrated by a group of persona who, so far as I know, have never engaged in agricultural pursuits, I do not know. However, in view of the festival they flatly refused to move, unless we used force, prior to Monday because they had to get ready for the celebration on Friday. When we inspected the camp on Monday, three houses had been occupied.

      Again we ran into the sub-human characteristics of these people in that they do not understand toilets and refuse to use them except as repositories for tin cans, garbage and refuse.

      We have moved the occupants of the camp hospital to a DP hospital at Tutzing, thereby making the hospital building available for groups of people ; the purpose being to cause the density of population among the DP's to become analogous to the density of population among the Germans, as ordered by higher authority. It is pertinent to remark that this order is more easily given than executed because, since they have to be issued rations, a wide dispersal of them makes the issuance of rations very difficult.

October 1, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
Furthermore, the eviction of German families, other than city dwellers, from houses naturally upsets the agricultural balance of the community in that a farmer, in order to till the soil, must live in the vicinity of his work.
      From there we drove to Wolfratshausen, which is a workers' village built by the Germans for the high class Germans help who operated on ordnance factory in the adjacent woods. This camp initially had DP's of other races than Jewish, but they are being removed and the village will eventually be wholly Jewish.
      The UNNRA woman in charge of the local UNNRA group there has done an excellent job but called my attention to the fact that the portion of the camp still occupied by Estonians was far better policed than that occupied by the Jews. I instructed the camp commander that the Jewish inhabitants were to be made responsible not only for the houses in which they lived, but also for the ground adjacent which, at the time of my visit, was covered with trash. I further stated that if they failed to comply, their rations would be stopped until they had done so. 
      The UNNRA woman informed me without solicitation that the Estonians detailed to cut wood for the camp cut four times as much wood per day as did the Jews. She believes, and I think with some show of veracity, that the Jews are in a psychopathic condition which may be materially improved, although personally I doubt it. I have never looked at a group of people who seem to be more lacking in intelligence and spirit. Practically all of them had the flat brownish gray eye common among the Hawaiians which, to my ind, indicates very low intelligence.

October 1, 1945 (cont'd p.4)
      The cooking and hospital facilities in the village were of a superior character and the Jewish doctors in charge seemed to be men of very high personal and technical capacity.
      The cooking facilities at the first camp were excellent but dirty and were defective in that the mess hall which has been constructed by the U.S. Army is quite a distance removed from the kitchen. I directed General McBride to secure some portable houses or else build woodw[e]n shacks in the immediate vicinity of the mess hall, and to move the kitchen equipment so it will be directly adjacent to the mess hall.
      Owing to the cooler weather the smell of theinhabitants was below average, but still extremely nauseating to western nostrils. It is an unfortunate fact that the people at home who are so vociferous in their demands for the betterment of the displaced Jews have no conception of the low mental, moral and physical standards of the objects of their solicitude. 

      While inspecting the camp I received a telephone call from Colonel Harkins, acting Chief of Staff, that a group of ten correspondents would arrive at the airport of the Third Army at 2:30 and would visit the two camps. Among this group were Mr. Levin and Mr. Morgan, who are the two gentlemen apparently detailed for a smear campaign against me. Owing to weather conditions, they could not land until about an hour and a half after schedule and so were unable to visit Wolfratshausen. The spent the night at our press camp and will go to Wolfratshausen tomorrow, Tuesday, 2 October. 
      I was informed by the PRO, Major Deane, that only two correspondents, namely Levin and Morgan, filed dispatches and that both of them reluctantly admitted to him and Colonel Polk that a material 

October 1, 1945 (cont'd p5)
improvements had been made, but stressed the point that it had not been made until the visit of General Eisenhower.
      So far as it is humanly possible, it is my purpose, and I shall strongly recommend it to General Truscott, to see that the density of population per house among the DP's and the German inhabitants is comparable. The result of this policy will be that should the German people ever rise from the state of utter degradation to which they have now been reduced, there will be the greatest pogrom of the Jews in the history of the world. 
      I believe the Jews realize this and probably for that reason are reluctant to move out of the camps.
      An inspection of the warehouse for the DP's, both for food and clothing, reveals the fact that they are in extremely good condition with the exception of shoes. However, we have at Feldafing about 40 cobblers who have been working together for a number of years and who seem to be efficient. Their present job is to repair shoes but there is on hand at the camp a supply of leather which will permit the fabrication of new shoes. There is also at the camp a quantity of cloth top leather for winter use, will be perfectly satisfactory in the spring.
      In thinking over the situation I could not but be impressed with the belief that at the present moment the unblemished record of the American Army for nonpolitical activities is about to be lost. Everyone seems to be more interested in the effects which his actions will have on his political future than in carrying out the motto of the United States military academy, "Duty, Honor, Country". I hope after 

the current crop of political aspirants has been gathered, our former tradition will be restored. 

October 2, 1945
      The portrait has at last been finished except for the sketch of the cannon which,apparently, is an essential side-show. Lt. Lynch took Professor Czedekowski and his wife to the Ordnance dump where we had located a cannon and informed me on her return that the Professor had made a sketch to his own liking.
      Just as I was about to go home at five o'clock, the telephone rang and General Eisenhower  told me over the phone that information of the ensuring change in command had leaked in Berlin and that therefore it might be necessary for him to make the announcement at noon tomorrow, Wednesday, 3 October.

      I said I could not see that that made any difference.
      I then said I wished to tell him that the correspondents Morgan and Levin had written a very nasty article about Feldafing, emphasizing all the defects and mentioning none of the good points.
      Ike said we were the victims of bad PRO's. It is true that the PRO's are bad but you can't keep them, under the redeployment system. He also said we should have used more speed in getting the Jews into better quarters. I told him I would stake my reputation on the fact that we had moved them as fast as we could after the decision to move had been made. In fact, the day after he visited the camps, the houses began to be evacuated by the Germans. The only way I could have gone faster would have been to use the ruthless Russian system which, personally, I do not propose to practice.
      After the conversation terminated, Colonel Harkins, who had listened to it, said the only person who could have let it spill in Berlin was Mr. Murphy. I said no, Mr. Murphy I would trust, but I did not trust Beedle Smith. This is interesting, as showing how guileless I still am, because on the way home, the truth suddenly

October 2, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
dawned on me that Eisenhower is scared to death, which I already knew, and believes that a more prompt announcement of my relief than the one he had originally planned will be beneficial to him. The alleged leak is nothing but a figment of the imagination, which is a euphemism for a damned lie.
      On the advice of Major Deane, we are going to have the International News Service and the United Press correspondents in at 1100, as they are probably the only loyal ones we have left, if any correspondents can be so termed.
      I called up General McBride and told him that no room for DP's should contain more than four beds except the large squad rooms and  in case the cubic space allowed American soldiers in barracks would govern the density of population.  He said the chief difficulty in carrying out my instructions would be the fact that it would be necessary to use force in order to get the Jews to separate themselves. He also told me he had visited another camp which he thanked God the correspondents had not seen where, although room existed, the Jews were crowded together to an appalling extent and in practically every room there was a pile of garbage in one corner which was also used as a latrine. The Jews were only forced to desist from their nastiness and clean up the mess by the threat of the butt end of rifles.
      Of course I know the expression "lost tribes of Israel" applies to the tribes which disappeared - not the tribes of Judah from which the current sons-of-bitches are descended. However, It is my personal opinion that this too is a lost tribe - lost to all decency.

Wednesday October 3, 1945
      The only thing of interest which occurred yesterday was an unnecessarily nasty article in Stars & Stripes emanating from Berlin, which instead of stating simply that I was being transferred from the Third to the 15th Army, made opprobrious comparisons between the strengths and importance of the two Armies. I think this is probably the payoff for my having told the Stars and Stripes in plain and simple language that I considered them a scurrilous yellow journal. In fact, in Sicily, I told their correspondence that if they could not write better articles than they were writing, in which they glorified the fact that they, as correspondents, hid in shell holes, I would kick them off the island.

      In reading a British Secret document called "The Collapse Viewed from within" , being the alleged shorthand diary of General Koller, Chief of the German Air Staff, I came to certain interesting statements: on the late evening of 23d April, General Christian of the German Air Force told Koller that Hitler had had all his papers burned in the courtyard of his dugout which was situated just outside the Reichstag. He then sent for Mr. & Mrs. Goebbels and their children to come to the dugout and sit with him. Koller asked Christian what he thought would happen, to which Christian replied, "They will probably kill the children and the adults will commit suicide." This is interesting as indicating that as early as 23 April, suicide was being thought of. Christian further stated that Hitler had determined to stay in Berlin and, having told all the other members of the Staff to leave, that Keitel and Jod1 wanted to take control to abandon the line of the Elbe and turn all the troops holding that line against the Russians. They apparently moved GHQ (OKW) to Krampnitz. 

October 3, 1945 (cont'd p.2) 
               This paper also points out the fact that on April 20, Hitler told Jodi that it was incumbent upon everyone to fight to the last although he knew at that time that very shortly the Germans would be out ammunition and gasoline.
               On the 23d or 24th, the paper is not specific, Jod1 ordered the 12th Army to leave the U.S. Front and attack the Russians in an effort to stop the latter, and also to demonstrate to the U.S. that the Germans only wanted to fight the Russians.
               Another statement of interest is that Goering is alleged to have stated that to continue the war after the late fall of 1944 was treason to the German nation.
October 4, 1945
               General Leven Allen and General Truscott were both supposed to come here for lunch but could not do so, owing to bad weather.
               Lieutenant Lynch cleaned up my desk and there is nothing left in the office. I feel very much like an undertaker undertaking my own funeral.
               In the Koller diary as of April 29, he states that there never was a redoubt, and that the food supplies in the location where the redoubt was supposed to have been were not adequate for more than two or three weeks. This was my contention during the whole march across Germany. Further along under date of 2 May, I find this paragraph which I believe, is well worth quoting:
               "One must have a feeling of respect for a nation that boldly 
               fights for its freedom; as worthy of admiration as a victory 
               is a defeat after brave defence. A storm can sweep strees 
               away, but not the grass. Rulers disappear when the storms 
               of history rage and make way for new holders of power. 
               But the masses of the needy, who have no history, forever 
               remain the same. It is only possible to maintain civilization 
               because they, the ones without a history, continue to 
               plough and weave, build and forge. World events swirl high 
               over their heads like storm clouds over the countryside."   
               

October 4, 1945 (cont*d p.2)
               An article in the Stars and Stripes today says that several members of Congress are standing in back of me, including my special friend, Mr. May. 1  I also hear that poor Bradley is the current ewe lamb.
               The following paragraphs are from Koller's diary under date of 9 May.
               "There are many reasons why Germany lost the war; political, economic and military reasons which were our own fault. None of these reasons were decisive in themselves, nor were they together decisive. Had they been avoided, a more favorable development of the situation might indeed have been possible. Quiter apart from them, what was decisive in itself was the loss of air supremacy.
               "The campaigns in Poland, Holland, Belgium and France, and last but not least, in Norway had proved unequivocally how important air supremacy is in a modern war. Instead of radically drawing the proper conclusions, the German High Command strove to forget the historical facts as soon as possible and covered with glory branches of the servicd which, in the opinion of honest leaders, had played a less than moderate part in gaining the victories.
               "Not Germany, who showed what superior air forces and skill in leading them mean, had learned the lesson, but on the contrary the enemy countries, who drew the proper and logical conclusions and with an iron tenacity built up a superior air force which alone could lead to victory. As long as we had air supremacy, nobody interfered with our shipping in the North Sea, along the German coast and from Holland to Brest, Bordeaux and Spain. The English Fleet did not show itself , no noticeable traffic dared to enter the Channel, they often hardly dared to go into the Southern part of the Irish Sea, and everything was forced to the far north.
               "As long as we had air supremacy, nobody threatened our industries or the peaceful life of our homeland, our lines of communication in the Mediterranean were not interfered with. If our air supremacy had been kept up right from the beginning and at the cost of other armament programs, we would not have been defeated in Africa or in the Mediterranean area.
               "German air supremacy - and we would have been able to maintain a capable industry and intact lines of communication; German air supremacy and England's supplies would have been badly damaged before she could have built up her maximum war production. German air supremacy - and this massed concentration of strong air forces in England would not have been as easy as it was. German air supremacy - and there would have been no invasion, or it would have been turned back with the loss of much blood.
               "But the political leadership in Germany, in its short-sightedness and in complete misjudgement of the tenacity and mentality of the 

               1.  Actually not the case.

 
               

October 4, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
      "...Anglo-Saxons and the potential war power of the United States in the background had believed that the war in the west had already been won in 1940 and started out on the folly of the Russian war. The calls of us outsiders and little general staff officers for aircraft and more aircraft and for new types were either not heard or they were laughed off.
      "We remained voices crying in vain in the wilderness.  Promises were made to build up the largest air force possible after the close of the Russian war. Millions of soldiers were then to be released from the Army and were to be sent to the aircraft industry and to the German air force. Only the Air Force was to be built up. In the meanwhile, however, the air armament was put way down on the list; first were submarines, then came tanks, then assault guns, then howitzers and Lord knows what, and then cam the Air Force.
      "Meanwhile the Russian war was eating away men, material, armament and planes and the only thing that remained for the Air Force was a promise that was never kept. Its task was to make sacrifices."

Sunday, October 7, 1945
      Owing to the rain, we decided to have the transfer of command ceremony in the Gymnasium. The four Corps Commanders, (initials & corps) W.M. Robertson. E.N. Harmon, H.L. McBride and F.B. Prickett   assembled on the stage before we got there. On the right were the national colors, on the left the colors of the Third Army, while behind, in the middle, were the General's and Lieutenant General's flags.
      At exactly noon Truscott and I, followed by Brigadier General Don Carleton, Truscott's Chief of Staff, and Colonel Harkins, entered and marched on the platform. The Command, consisting of a company of MP's most of the clerks and all of the officers of both forward and rear headquarters, was then presented and four ruffles and four flourishes were played.
      I then made a speech, copy attached, after which Auld Lang Syne was played. At the termination of this piace, the color bearer with the colors of the Third Army approached me. I took the colors from him and handed them to General Truscott, saying I could think of no more worthy recipient. General Truscott took them and handed them back to the color sergeant, who withdrew to his former post.
   

October 7, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
The command was again presented and three ruffles and three flourishes
were played in honor of General Truscott.  Following this he made 
a short speech which I could not hear, as he was very emotional and 
shouted too loud into the microphone. I think he was very much perturbed 
at taking over command. 1 Of course, he had nothing to do with 
this, and was simply carrying out orders.  After this the band played 
the Third Army March.
We then left the Gymnasium together and while we walked out, the 
band played "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".
All the Generals and the heads of General and Special Staff Sections 
assembled in the Officer's Dining Room where we had some cocktails and 
highballs.  After this the Senior Officers had placecards at a table 
where we had lunch and quite a few speeches.
I left at exactly 2:30 and was accompanied to the Third Army train 
by General Truscott.  We pulled out at 3:00 o'clock
*      *      *      *      *      *      *      *

Speech of General Patton
to the officers and men
of the Third Army
on the occasion of his leaving

General Truscott, Officers and men:
All good things must come to an end. The best thing that has ever 
come to me thus far is the honor and privilege of having commanded 
the Third Army. 
The great successes we have achieved together have been due primarily 
to the fighting heart of America but without the coordinating and 
supply activities of the General and Special Staffs, even American valor 
would have been impotent.
You officers and men here represent the fighting, the administrative,
1. He was. When I met him on the funeral train Dec. 24, he acted 
as if afraid I would not speak to him, though he was an old friend. 
When I offered him my hands, he threw his arms around me and burst
into tears. BAP

October 7, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
and the supply elements of this Army. Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on your valor and devotion to duty, and my fervent gratitude for your unwavering loyalty.
      
      When I said that all good things come to an end, I was referring to myself and not to you because you will find in General Truscott every characteristic which will inspire in you the same loyalty and devotion which you have so generously afforded me. 

      A man of General Truscott's achievements needs no introduction. His deeds speak for themselves. I know that you will not fail him.

      Goodbye and God bless you.

October 8, 1945

      The train reached Bad Nauheim around 5:30 this morning. After breakfast General L.C. Allen came to pick me up at 8:30, as had been arranged, and we drove at once to the office of the Fifteenth Army.
      Allen gave me a good orientation and I found that his position is that of Deputy Army Commander, or Deputy President of the General Board so he doesn't interfere with having Gay for Chief of Staff and his knowledge of the procesure, so far, is essential to its success.
      The mission of the Board is set out as follows:

      a. To prepare a factual analysis of the strategy of the campaign in the European Theater and the tactics and administration employed by the U.S. Forces in the European Theater of Operations for the|purpose of
       (1) Presenting the strategy of the campaign as planned, and as actually carried out ;

       (2) Formulating pertinent Theater recommendations pertaining to such changes in U.S. Army (ground and air) and naval tactical administrative doctrines, techniques, organization and equipment as may be indicated by the results of this analysis;

      b. To make studies and recommendations on such special problems that may be referred to it by Theater Headquarters.
      c. The period to be covered by this analysis will commence with the approval of the OverLord Appreciation and Outline of Plan in August

October 8, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
1943 by the combined Chiefs of Staff and terminate with V-E Day. 
         I spoke to the Chiefs of the various Sections, telling them I proposed to make no changes for one week and that "the best is the enemy of the good", by which I mean that something now will be better than perfection when it is too late to have any influence.
         Mr. McDermott of the Associated Press called, and I talked to him in the presence of General Allen and Lt. Lynch and, most of the time, Major Merle-Smith. Lt. Lynch took a transcript of the conversation.
October 13, 1945
         I have already stated somewhere that our present form of governing Germany is totally at variance with the arrangements which impelled us to fight the Revolution and the Civil War.
         We fought the Revolution to insure the right of habeas corpus, the right of man, and no taxation without representation. At the present time in Germany in the Third Army area alone there are 30,000 civilian internees. These people are persons whose names appear on a list started in 1941. The purpose of the list is to put down all people who might in any way be considered a menace or who held high positions, or any sort of position, in the Nazi government. These people are on a mandatory arrest list and are picked up and put in jail and kept there by our counter-intelligence corps people. To me this is an absolutely illegal procedure because there is no proof, by trial, that the people in question are guilty of anything, and I have had enough experience in governing countries such as Moraco, Sicily and Bavaria to know that when the "outs" get in, they always accuse the former "ins" of every crime they can think of.  

October 13, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
          Turning now to the reasons, or alleged reasons, for which we fought the Civil War - namely the abolition of human slavery. Yet we have contracted with France to turn over to France some 1,300,000 Germans to perform what is the exact equivalent of slave labor. In the daily paper today it was stated that the shipment of Germans to France had been discontinued due to the fact that the International Red Cross accused the French of starving the German prisoners - which I believe is highly probable.
           The set of so-called military laws under which we are supposed to control the American part of Germany are wholly at variance with Anglo-Saxon ideas. Of them, Number VIII is, in my opinion, the worst in that it specifies that no person who is known to have been a Nazi can occupy a managerial or executive position in any company, even if he owns the company. Therefore he can only work as a laborer, and the leader of a band of three musicians has been defined as a man in a managerial position. Therefore, you have to fire the band-leader.
             Now it is perfectly clear that under the Hitler regime, any person operating a business or manufactory in order to get contracts, and probably in order to avoid going to jail, had to state that he was a member of the Nazi party, probably had to wear a badge, and had to pay dues. But the ideology of the Nazi party did not necessarily adhere to him.
             There is a former German Officer named Arnold Rechberg, who continues to write to me on the Russian danger. Today he wrote me, bringing out the fact that wheras the United States, England, and France are reducing their occupying forces to a pitiable extent, the Russians have in no way reduced theirs. In the current issue of NEWSWEEK I came on a statement "Russian soldiers now occupying Germany are not

October 13, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
likely to see their homeland for a long time. The Kremlin fears 
that returning soldiers may spread dissatisfaction by drawing unfavorable 
comparisons between the comparative abundance of consumer 
goods in defeated Germany and the absence of such goods in Russia. 
For this reason occupation troops of Russian origin will remain in 
Germany, or if they come home will not be given leave but sent at 
once to the Far East" This connects up exactly with what I have noticed 
along the border in Czechoslovakia where the Russians are very 
insistent that their soldiers do not have an opportunity to talk to 
our soldiers, and frankly stated they do not wish the Russian soldiers 
to know how well our soldiers live, eat and are clothed.
      Rechburg further states that a certain Major Stephani, who had 
full knowledge of the German equivalent of the atomic bomb, has been 
captured by the Russians and has probably, due to torture or revenge, 
given them the formula. He further points out that under the present 
regime in Germany, all the Army officers and many of the men, particularly 
if they joined the SS, are utterly hopeless and that therefore 
utterly hopeless men will possibly do some very dangerous thing. 
He keeps talking about a guerilla army. He also states thatin Russia, 
there is a concealed German army of some 500,000 men under a 
German General Seydlitz. According to him, the Russian hope to induce considerable trouble in the portion of Germany not occupied by 
themselves through guerilla bands of desperate and hopeless individuals 
whom they, the Russians, will finance and arm. Then when the 
Allies have been worked on sufficiently, The German Army of Russia 
will go into action.

October 13, 1945 (cont'd p.4)
      While I have no proof of this, it seems perfectly possible. Also, one must realize that the most fruitful ground for an idealism,such as Communism would be for the Germans is found among desperate people - just as in a poker game the biggest plunger is the man who has nothing to lose.
      Another thought which interests me is that unless we give Germany some opportunity to re-industrialize, the Germans will not be able to buy anything.
      Now the Russians occupy all Central Europe, most of Western Germany, all Poland and the Baltic States. They are not going to permit these people or the puppet governments in them to do much buying from capitalistic states. Therefore, America, France and England will wake up with no market and will then be|forced to reduce their standards of living  .  It is always a historical fact that when standards of living are reduced, revolution frequently result.
      Rechberg makes one good statement to this effect:  the German people have excellent military qualities; they are most able and intelligent industrial organizers; the German workman is disciplined and diligent; but the Germans lack absolutely all political intelligence. "I am convinced," he says, "that the Democratic nations could try for twenty years to interest the German people in democracy and fail." "Of course the period of twenty years depends on whether or not Russia will let Americans remain in Germany." I am still quoting.) And he further states that after a period of twenty years of indoctrination in democracy, the German people would rise up and follow the first sergeant who gave them an order. 

October 13, 1945 (cont'd p.5)
       Not only has Russia acquired most of the middle of Europe and th Baltics but it is highly probable that she will secure a zone of influence in Korea and Manchuria and that while ostensibly backing the Chiang Kai Shek regime, she will also quietly back, arm and command the Communists in China with the result that, as heretofore, China will be her own worst enemy and gradually destroy herself through internecine strife.
      It is a very gloomy picture in which nobody except possibly General Sibert and I are interested. He is coming up this afternoon for a discussion although I am sure we can do nothing, because the people at home care only for the joys of the present political mess and not for the future of our country.
      John Eisenhower, a Lieutenant in the Fifteenth Army, told his father yesterday that since I had taken over the 15th Army, people have begun to work.
      During the course of the dinner, which I had with Eisenhower on a purely social basis, I stated to him that I could not hereafter eat at the same table with General Beedle Smith. Eisenhower said that Smith said he had been misquoted and wished to apologize. Eisenhower was also quite anxious for me to run for Congress - I presume in the belief that I might help him.
      As I stated before, I cannot imagine a situation in which if the Devil and Mars had conspired together to produce a new war, they would have found a more happy set of circumstances. Poland is under Russian dominance, so is Austria, so is Hungary, so will be Czechoslovakia and so is Jugoslavia - and we sit happily by and think everybody loves us. Already the atomic bomb has been countered and war will go on, and yet idiots like Congress and the New York papers have the 

October 13, 1945 (cont'd p.6)

temerity to criticize people like General Marshall on the subject of war.

      I arranged yesterday for the Public Relations Officer at General Eisenhower's headquarters to handle all correspondents who come to see me, because I have no PRO here and they are becoming a nuisance. I also made a statement as to why I think war will come and also a statement on politics, which I gave to the PRO for publication if he thinks best.
      Again referring to the Russians, it is of interest to note that whereas our troops in Czechoslovakia have been reduced to two very weak divisions, the Russians have not only not reduced their forces, which initially were around 350,000, but have probably brought in another 200,000 from Bohemia. All these troops are living off the country. Some of them have built semi-permanent winter quarters in the forest and others are evacuating Czechs and living in their houses - that is, where they cannot find Sudetan Germans to drive out. There is certainly no evidence of their leaving Czechoslovakia. Practically no supplies from Russia come to their armies with the result that they quite rapidly eat up a country. Within the last two weeks they made a dicker by force, or guile, to have the Czechs provide them with cattle and other commodities from the American occupied portions of the country, and they started to send Russian troops over to collect. General Harmon very correctly told the Czech government they could sell whatg they wanted to but they would have to collect it themselves and not let the Russians cross the line.  An interesting phenomenon is that on the American side of the line there are ample flocks and herds of cattle, sheep, chickens, and geese. On the Russian side animal life practically does not exist. 

October 13, 1945 (cont'd p.7)
      Another point to be noticed is that, at a party in Prague, an American officer wearing the shoulder patch of the First Army was present. This patch was worn by inadvertence. However, when the Russians saw it, they were very much excited and demanded to be informed why they had been deceived. Having been told that the First Army had gone to the Pacific, they could not understand why a First Army Patch was visible in Prague. This, in my opinion, emphasizes the fact of their extreme stupidity.
October 14, 1945
      General Everett Hughes invited Major Merle-Smith, Lt. Lynch and myself to spend the weekend with him in the vicinity of Frankfurt. After breakfast we decided to go to the football game between USFeT Staff and the 508th Parachute Regiment. The MP's put General Hughes and myself next to General Eisenhower, whom we did not know was at the game.
      As is always the case, a large number of soldiers with cameras were trying to get pictures and were being held back by the MP's. General Hughes suggested to General Eisenhower that he permit the soldiers to come up and take pictures. General Eisenhower decided that instead he would go down where the soldiers were, which he did. When he returned the soldiers stayed and began calling, "We want General Patton". I went down and received quite an ovation - in fact, in both my opinion  and in that of General Hughes, it much exceeded the one accorded to the Supreme Commander. When I got back, General Eisenhower suggested we both go down, which he did.
      At the end of the half, Eisenhower and I walked across the field and sat for the third quarter with the Parachute Troops. On the way back Hughes was quite pleased, pointing out the fact that I had not lost my constituency. In this connection, I have received quite  

October 14, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
a few letters from enlisted men and a number of letters from former 
enlisted men expressing regret at my change of position.
Tuesday, 16 October 1945
General Keyes flew up from Heidelberg to see me. I think his sole 
reason was to express in a very refined manner, as is always the case 
with him, sympathy. I was delighted to see him as I think he is one 
of the pleasantest companions and most loyal friends I have ever known.
October 17, 1945
It is interesting to note in the Stars & Stripes ofOctober 17th 
a statement that, "The arrest of more than nominal nazis is proceeding 
at the rate of about 600 a day." This rate was proceeding at the time 
of my unfortunate press conference, September 22. The paper goes on 
to state that "the task of finding replacements for those removed from 
office is the biggest headache the Military Government has. The problem 
of replacing public officials is so acute in some areas that 
Military Government, fearing a breakdown of public service, has retained 
in office between 2 and 5 per cent of the persons who fall into the 
mandatory arrest category."  
The criticism of me was based upon the fact that an alleged 20 (actually 
16) Nazis less important than those in the mandatory arrest category 
were in the secretariat at Munich. It was not brought out at that 
time that we had already removed from employment more than 48,000. My 
mathematics is not good but I believe that 20 is less than 2 percent 
of 48,000.
Returning to Stars & Stripes, it states that in the Aalen area, 
discharged army officers are being recruited as local mayors. It further 
states that General Eisenhower now says that emphasis in de-Nazification
is shifting from government to private business and the professions.

October 17, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
I think that when the time is ripe all that data and much more that 
I will enumerate will make the headlines. 
Another thing for which I was criticised by correspondent Levin was 
that I asked him if he wanted nothing but a bunch of Communists in Germany. 
Under dateline of October 16, General Eisenhower is alleged to 
have stated that the Communist Party had formed a political bloc in 
Berlin and indicated that such a device would find no welcome in the
American zone. 
At the time I stated that I favored increased fraternization I had 
already received an order from higher headquarters stating the policy 
would be changed to remove the ban on fraternization. 
October 19, 1945
Yesterday General Giraud, of the French Army, who has been talking 
to General Eisenhower, asked if he might come to luncheon. I was, 
as always, delighted to see him. His purpose in coming was to thank 
me for having rescued his wife, daughter-in-law and some other relatives 
from a German detention camp near Weimar. He jokingly stated 
he and I were the two best Generals and worst politicians which our 
respective countries possess. I certainly am glad to have him class 
me with himself as a soldier because I think he is a good one. 
Giraud also stated that he felt that America was being bluffed by 
Molotov and that the Russians, being Asiatics, could not and did not 
want to understand us, nor we them; that for the next five years we 
could destroy them, but after that they would probably destroy us. In 
these statements I agree.
In speaking of the Glaoui of Marrakech, he made the interesting 
remark that he was the No. 1 gangster of Morocco, although a great 
general and magnificent friend. Giraud said that when he was Chief

October 17, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
of Staff to Marshall Lyautey, at the first of each year automobile dealers, factors, florists, etc., would come to him stating that the Glaoui in spite of his income of fifteen million francs a year, was in debt for an almost equal amount. Giraud would send for him and ask him what was the matter and the Glaoui would say with a happy smile, "You know I control practically all the Mohammedans in Africa and if the Republic of France cannot pay my trivial debts I can surely find some country that will." Giraud stated that he first made this remark twenty-six years ago and at that time he suggested that the country he was going to importune was the United States.
      When Mr. Roosevelt, after the Anfa Conference, inspected the 2d Armored Division, I drove back with him from Port Lyautey to Casablanca, a drive of some two hours. During this time the President stated that he felt that as a partial repayment of our efforts in behalf of a democratic world, we should annex Morocco and asked me if I would be Governor General. That he must have been in earnest I think is evidenced by the fact that his boyfriend, Harry Hopkins, came to see me the same night and asked me the same question.
      At lunch today we were discussing the origin of the Breton, and I was explaining that he was probably the second race to occupy France and was pushed west by the Gaul, who was later pushed west by someone else. It suddenly occurred to me that the same thing is happening now and that the reason our finite minds do not appreciate that another great migration from the east is taking place is that we are not historically conscious. When you realize that Rumania, Bulgaria, Jugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, half of Germany, the Baltic States and Austria are all under Communist rule and that through the efforts of the Communists at home we are noe demanding the trail of General Staff Officers

October 17, 1945 (cont'd p.4)
who carried out orders, and are not stopping strikes or doing anything else we should, it would seem to me we are in a hell of a fix.
      I heard last night from a reliable source that when that eminent Tarter, Marshall Zhukov, arranged to fly to the United States, he refused to do so unless either General Eisenhower or his son John accompanied him on the plane - by way, I suppose, of hostage. I think this is a very good sidelight on the mentality of the Russian who, being totally dishonest himself, cannot believe that anyone else is honest.
      In the October 1945 issue of the Reader's Digest, I note two articles of considerable importance on the future - one on Page 16 by Charles Lanus entitled "I Saw the Russian Take Over Bulgaria" . The acts which he describes for Bulgaria have been repeated in all other countries under Russian domination and indicate very clearly the trend which is taking place - that is, of communizing Europe.
      On Page 45 of the same issue there is an article taken from the Saturday Evening Post entitled "Stalin Pays 'Em What they're Worth". This brings out the fact that the differential in pay between the executive and the worker is far greater in Russia than in any other country. Furthermore, In Russia the policy is to pay the worker an increased emolument based on industry and imagination and to avoid the tendency, present in other countries, to pay increased wages based on seniority rather than on merit. 
October 23, 1945
       Tomorrow Merle-Smith, Leven Allen, Moses and myself are flying to Paris for the purpose of lunching with de Gaulle on the 25 and being decorated. I believe I have stated before in this Diary, but repeat it now in case I have not, that I received a letter from General Juin, asking me to this lunchon in which he stated that France had always desired, and that Genral de Gaulle, who represents France, also desired to

October 23, 1945 (cont'd p.2) 
decorate me for my preeminent part in the liberation of France but that 
as a result of my recent change in command status, France is more than 
twice as anxious as before to do me honor.

October 25, 1945 Paris
      General Allen, General Moses, Major Merle-Smith and I went to the
 Ministry of War at 1:30 for a special luncheon given in my honor, and
 so stated on the invitation and on the menu, by General de Gaulle, 
President of the French Republic. There were about thirty-five guests, 
including Lt. General Lee.

      Before we went to luncheon, de Gaulle talked to me for about 
twenty minutes in his office, apparently getting date from which to
make his speech. At the end of the luncheon he made a most fulsome
 one, in which he compared me to everybody from Napoleon up and down. 
I replied by stating/[that] the history of France's great leaders had always 
been an inspiration to American soldiers and that in the room there
 were the busts of two such leaders and also the living presence of
 two others. The busts were those of Turenne and Conde and the soldiers
 were deGaulle and Juin. Apparently this did a good deal to impress the 
President-General.

After lunch we went to the Invalides and presented the signed copy 
of the Third Army map of the march across France to the Governor, who
then took me to the tomb of Napoleon and we went downstairs where
people are not normally allowed. It was very impressive and we all
enjoyed it.

At 8:00 o'clock Merle-Smith and I dined with Juin, his wife and
his Chief of Staff and wife, and two other officers. As usual, Juin
got on the question of the Russians, whom he distrusts and fears as
much as I do.

October 26, 1945
      Nothing was scheduled for this day so Merle-Smith and I visited Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle on the Island, and went to the Musee de Cluny which, unfortunately, had not yet been reopened. 
      We the drove to Versailles and had a quick look around. I had not been there since 1912 but it has not changed. I then went to the Visitors Bureau and looked up Lt. Codman, whom I found in good health and apparently doing an excellent job.
October 27, 1945
      We left Paris at quarter of 10 and arrived at Rennes after flying over Fougeres to kill time. We were met by the Mayor, Prefect and Commissaire of the Republic who is sort of superprefect. We drank champagne at the offices of each of these gentlemen and then had luncheon at which I was pleased and surprised to find my friend, General Koechlin-Schwartz.
      At the close of the luncheon, and as a great surprise, they had twelve Breton dancers, men and women, do some of the folk dances. Each wore the costume of his special district and the dancing was extremely well done. At the end of it a very fat and sweaty young girl presented me with a large bouquet of flowers and then she demanded that I kiss her and I found that she had certainly bathed recently because she tasted soapy.
      After the lunch we had a military review of the troops and each of the Mayors of the towns who had made me Citizen of Honor made a political speech for which I was the excuse. At the close of this I made a short speech in English which Major de Forceville translated. 
      We then drove to Angers where there was a tremendous crowd of practically all the inhabitants. After drinking champagne, I appeared on the balcony and was loudly acclaimed. I made a speech in

October 27, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
French to the effect that when I visited Angers in 1912, as a 2d Lieutenant, I did not imagine I should ever return to receive the distinguished privilege of becoming a Citizen of Honor.
      We then went through a shouting crowd to another building, which was the headquarters of the Franco-American Union, run by a French woman who talked exactly like the woman on my phonograph.
      Here we met Mme. Becourt Foch, who is the second daughter of General Houdemon. Her husband, General Becourt-Foch, the only grandson of Marchal Foch, was killed by my troops in Africa. 1 Aside from mentioningthis fact she did not bring the question up. She takes after her father and sister and is one of the best looking women I have ever seen. She was particularly striking in that she had on no makeup at all.
      We spent the night with the prefect.
October 28, 1945
      This morning we left Angers at 7:15 and departed from Rennes by airplane at 9:15
      We got to Chartres at 10:30 and were met by the Mayor, Commissaire, prefect and all the leading citizens. We then went to the Mairie where a selected group of about 100 listened to speeches from the Mayors and the Commissaires concerning the Third Army and myself. After this, and for the purpose of killing time I think, we made a tour of the city on foot and the last part in automobile. During the course of

1. General Becourt-Foch was the son of the Daughter of Marchal Ferdinand Foch of World War I. With all the Foch men gone, Madame Becourt added the hyphenated Foch to keep the line alive. This is the French custom since France has lost so many men.

October 28, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
this tour I came to the bridge which blew up in my face the day we took the town. The stream which|it crossed looked to me, on that day, about the size of the Mississippi, but today I believe that with a good start, I could have jumped it.
      The head of the FFI and his wife, who was also a murderer, were present and swore they had seen me at the bridge, but I doubt if they ever got that near a fight. 
      We then went to the Cathedral where the first Te Deum conducted by the Bishop since the war was held in honor of St. Hubert. 1 I was met at the door by a fairly high powered priest with a large blue ribbon around his neck to which was appended a cross. The ribbon was very dirty and so was the priest. He and I walked up the full length of theCathedral and were seated by a bandit armed with a pike in one hand and a baton in the other, with which he beat people who got in the way.
      At the channel steps we were met by the Bishop and two assistant priests, also with blue ribbons. I thought the Bishop was a Cardinal because he had on a red suit but apparently he did not have on enough red to make him a Cardinal. He was a very smart man. He greeted me and then escorted me to a prie-dieu well forward of the place where the choir and priests sat.
      Ad soon as I was seated, ten huntsmen appeared in full hunting costume which in France consists of a coat like our huntsmen's coat but with a black velvet collar with silver bands and a wide belt, and a black velvet hat with silver bands. Each of the men was equipped with a French horn on which they played brazen anthems to the 
      1. Patron saint of the hunt. 

October 28, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
the glory of God and hunting, as far as I could make out. Then the choir of about 100 boys sang appropriate melodies, during the course of which the Bishop did a few prayers. The singing was really very beautiful and the service short.
      At the end of the service the Bishop made another speech in which he extolled me, somewhat to the detriment of the higher members of the Church, as nearly as I could figure out. He then blessed me and turned me over to my former guide and the halberdier, and we retraced our steps down the aisle of the Cathedral which must have had at least 5,000 people in it. There were many more outside yelling "Vive Patton" and some of them, to the scandal and disgrace of religion, started yelling in the Church. The passage up and down the Cathedral was a sort of cross between a funeral and a wedding.
      After this we went to a restaurant where they had a luncheon for about 150 people. At the close of the luncheon we went to the city square where the troops paraded. The troops I saw at both Rennes and Chartres were impressive by their insignificance. I have never seen poorer physical specimens, dirtier uniforms or a lower standard of military discipline. The high French officers know this and are very much worried. Apparently there is a gap in the officer personnel between senior majors and captains. The junior officers, captains and lieutenants are either extremely young or else very old - probably ex- non commissioned officers.
      As a result of this trip I collected ten Citizen of Honor certificates, two plaques and a tremendous case of indigestion. We returned to Paris in the late afternoon and went to the Folies Bergeres, which has gone steadily down hill since 1912.

October 29, 1945
      Some days ago I heard an interesting story which I should have put in the diary sooner. When Murnane was in Paris on his way to the United States, he ran into de Guingand's Aide. De Guingand has been Monty's Chief of Staff since El Alamein. The Aide told Murnane that when Von Rundstedt broke through, Monty said the position could not be held and was contemplating, or had partially ordered, a withdrawal of the British and the Ninth and First American Armies to the line of the Meuse. At this point de Guingand called him up and states that he, de Guingand, had just heard that the Third Army was going to move against the southern edge of the Bulge, that Patton would surely attack and, with his fantastic luck, would win, which would make a monkey out of Mont and that therefore Monty must issue an order to stand fast. As a result of this phone call, Monty did issue such an order.
      This is interesting in the light of the conversation which Bradley and I had on Christmas night, 1944. He had just returned from General Eisenhower's headquarters where he had seen Monty. He told me Monty said the Northern Group of Armies could not attack for two months and the only thing to do was to fall back, including the Seventh Army, for the purpose of giving me enough troops to hold on the south flank of the Bulge.
      These two stories certainly must have some connection.
November 2, 1945
      Yesterday I received a letter from General Eisenhower which gave me rather sinister pleasure. It seems he wrote General Arthur Wilson a letter of inquiry as to whether Wilson had received adequate recognition in the form of decorations. Of course, the implication is obvious that he wrote Wilson after becoming aware of the fact that Wilson, being from Missouri and also a crook, is an intimate friend

November 2, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
of Mr. Truman's. He sent me Wilson's reply stating he had not received any ribbons while serving under me in Morocco, and suggested that I might care to make a recommendation. I returned the letter, saying I had no recommendation to make. His continuous and futile attempts to ride the super-heated winds of public opinion are amusing and, I believe, destructive.
      Yesterday he made statements in Stars and Stripes about the danger of an uprising in Germany on account of the German resentment at fraternization. Of course the Germans have nothing with which to uprise and there are not enough men in Germany to make the competition keen. He then stated and this was the meat of his release, that the DP's were causing depredations by pillaging, murdering, etc. When he told me on 17 September to remove the guards from DP Camps, I told him this would happen. I sisncerely hope it will necessary to replace the guards. 
      General Boudinot of the 2d Armored Division called this morning to pay his respects and stated that as of October 26 the Seventh Army had started sending General Officers to inspect DP Camps. The Third Army started this on 24 August - two months earlier.
      General Gay's brother-in-law, Colonel Pierce, spent the evening last night on his way to Washington from Berlin, where he has been on duty for some months. He says in the Russian occupied Zone the Russians materially augment the food allowance to all Germans who become Communists. This is reminiscent of Mohammed's method of securing Mohammedans. He was a very excellent camel thief and when starting on an expedition made it a practice to post himself at the first pass in the hills. He would then stop all the youthful aspirants to camel thievery who were not Mohammedans and tell them that  

November 2, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
unless they joined the faith, they could not go stealing with him. His reputation for successful thievery was so great that they all joined. There is very little new under the sun. 
      The Russians are also very angry with the other members of the Governing Body because they do not permit only Russians to be presidents of trade unions.
      Colonel Pierce stated that while driving west of Berlin, he passed three lines of trenches which the Russians are erecting to protect themselves from the encroachment of the capitalistic nations. He also mentioned that there was a Russian General in Berlin who was summarily relieved because he could speak a little English and was willing to cooperate. 
      The utter folly of the Potsdam Convention which contemplated the ability of four antagonistic nations, one of which is not even civilized, to govern by unanimous consent is, according to Pierce, being admirably justified.
Monday, November 5, 1945
      Yesterday while driving to Mannheim for a shoot and looking over the utter devastation of Frankfurt and Mannheim, it occurred to me that the only possible salvation for a country so completely destroyed as Germany is another messiah - whether he serves God or the devil. Nothing conceivable could be more apt to bring back a Hitler than what we are now doing.
November 7 - 8, 1945
      By arrangement with Mr. Sawyer, Ambassador to Belgium, Major Merlesmith and I drove from Bad Nauheim to Brussels via Cologne, Aachen and Liege. Except for the fact that it was raining and nasty, the trip by car was not unpleasant. I had never seen this portion of the front nor 

November 7-8, 1945 (p.2)
had I been over the autobahn between Frankfurt and Cologne, the cutting 
of which was the primary objective of the attack of the VIII Corps of 
the Third Army when it crossed the Rhine.
Cologne is very badly liberated as is Aachen. I kept wondering 
how Charlemagne would have felt about his former capital could he see 
it today, which he probably can.
Owing to bad roads and low visibility, we were quite late when we 
got to Liege, passing two of the famous forts en route, so we picked 
up two motorcycle MP's, who were highly delighted to make a fast run, 
driving Belgians and Englishmen off the road. When we reached the outskirts 
of Brussels, we were picked up by a Belgian gendarme motorcycle 
escort which took us directly to the Embassy, rather than to the 
SHAEF mission, which had been previously arranged, thereby eluding 
about 5,000 Belgians who were standing outside the SHAEF Mission for 
the ecstatic privilege of seeing me. There was a similar number at 
the Embassy, but we could not wait as we had only two minutes to make 
the Palace, which we did with one minute to spare.
We were met by a full Colonel wearing a DSM, who was nothing but 
a God damned interpreter in the last war, and probably never heard a 
gun go off in agner. The ceremony was very simple. I walked into a 
room where the Ambassador and His Royal Highness were standing. HRH 
spoke excellent English and said he wanted to give me a medal, which 
he proceeded to pin on - namely, Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold 
and the Croix de Guerre of the same Order with Palm; also a Belgian 
1940 Croix de Guerre with Palm. Either the Belgian protocol on decorations 
is wrong or the Prince is ignorant, because he pinned the 
sunburst on my left breast where, according to my understanding, only 
Grand Cross sunbursts should go, Grand Officer sunbursts going on the 
starboard side. After pinning the Prince produced a very poor map,

November 7-8, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
on which I described the activities of the Third Army, and promised 
to send him a good map.
On the way back we stopped at Liege at the Fabrique Nationale 
hoping to order a shotgun, but found they were unable to make them 
any more. The trip back took eight hours.
General Harmon, Lt. Lynch and a Miss Rueben who is a Dutch interpreter 
for General Harmon, came to dinner. The ladies spent the night 
at the WAC Hotel and General Harmon stayed in the room next to me. I 
went to bed at nine o'clock, as I had a temperature and a bad cold.
November 13, 1945
In my capacity as Acting Theater Commander, I visited USFET 
Headquarters at Frankfurt and was present at the morning staff conference. 
During the course of this conference the fact was brought out 
that the gentlemen representing the President on behalf of the Jews 
is apparently using grapevine methods to induce a larger number of 
Polish Jews to migrate from Poland into Bavaria. Since these Jews 
have to cross two frontiers, it is very evident that they are being 
assisted by the Russians and Poles and Czechs who are probably as 
anxious to get rid of them as the Jews are to change domicile. It 
seems possible that the New Jerusalem may occur in Bavaria rather 
than in Palestine. 
However, since I am simply pinch-hitting during the brief absence 
of General Eisenhower, I do not conceive it to be my duty to 
make any radical changes pending his return.
After the meeting, I signed a number of court martial cases and 
discovered that it is the policy of the Theater Commander not to give 
death sentences to any American soldier accused of raping a German 
woman. This seemed somewhat at variance with Anglo-Saxon customs.

November 16, 1945
      I again visited USFET Headquarters at Frankfurt and at the Staff 
Conference brought up the point that in view of the critical housing 
shortage existing in Germany, which will unquestionably get worse, I 
doubted the expediency of blowing up factories, because the ends for 
which the factories are being blown up - that is, preventing Germany 
from preparing for war - can be equally well attained through the destruction 
of their machinery, while the buildings can be used to house 
thousands of homeless persons. I therefore directed thatinquiry be 
made to see if the machinery could not be removed and destroyed and the 
buildings made available for housing - the buildings to be destroyed 
in the spring, should it be found that the Control Committee believed 
such action necessary. 
      I also approved a paper for a loan to Yank Magazine, in order 
to let it pay its outstanding indebtedness - this money to be repaid 
from money owing the magazine which has not yet been collected. 
November 17, 1945
       The other day Beedle Smith brought up the fact that General 
Eisenhower will take a final farewell of his troops between December 
20th and 30th. The question of a proper farewell entertainment was 
discussed. I suggested/that the colors from all regiments, divisions, 
corps and armies be brought with a small detail from each to form a 
military review to be followed by a luncheon. The General would/then depart 
on his special train for America. In bringing up this subject I 
stated that we should go all out to make a very appropriate and solemn 
ceremony in order to honor the greatest General who had ever lived.
      Today I have been working on my thoughts as to how to reduce 
the human expense of war by a judicious increase in mechanization.

November 17, 1945 (cont'd)
Americans, as a race, are adept in the use of machines, and also in 
the construction of machines. The people whom they will have to fight 
will be the Russians and the Japanese,neither of whom are adept in the 
use of machines nor in their construction; but both have a large manpower
which they are willing to expend recklessly. It therefore behooves 
us to devise military formation which will exploit our natural 
aptitude for machines and at the same time save our somewhat limited 
and very valuable manpower.
Today I received a further installment of the writings of General 
Arnold Rechberg. As I think I have formally stated in the Diary, I 
have never met this man and did not answer his first two or three 
letters. However, he seems to haveinformation which probably is of 
value to the United States. Therefore, I had Colonel Merle-Smith acknowledge
his last letter. After reading these letters I turn them 
over to G-2 of the ETO. Summarized, the letter just received is as 
follows:
According to Rechberg, around 1920 the Red Chiefs, as he calls 
the ruling class in Russia, were convinced that the Anglo-American 
armies were far superior to the then badly organized and poorly 
equipped Russian Army, and thatin order for Russia to carry out its 
ambition of conquering Western Europe, it would be necessary to induce 
a second World War between the Anglo-Americans and the Germans. 
To accomplish this end, the Russian leaders persuaded the generals commanding
the old German Regular Army/that in the time the Russian Army, when 
properly trained, would turn out the Bolsheviks and, as a result, the 
German leaders o the time helped to train the Russian army by sending 
General Staff Officers and Company officials to it. He states that 
the Russians hoped to make an alliance between the Germans and the

November 17, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
Russians for the overthrow of France, England and America, but when 
they became convinced that the German Army and the German Republic of 
the time would not undertake such a hazardous operation, they decided 
to produce a situation more to their liking.
In 1930 Marshal Stalin persuaded General Von Schleicher, one 
of the political leaders of the German Army, to finance Hitler's party 
with forty million gold marks provided by Russia, on the believe that 
Hitler, due to ignorance of international affairs and to vaulting ambition, 
was the only probable dictator who would get Germany mixed up 
in a second World War.
[In 1939 Marshal Sta]
He states that when in 1939 Hitler was still reluctant to start 
the war, Stalin by a secret pact signed between Germany and Russia, induced 
him to attack Poland. Also, according to the German General, 
Stalin was responsible for persuading Hitler to persecute the Jews in 
order to cause all civilization to become anti-Hitler.
As a result of these machinations, which terminated with the 
destruction of Germany on May 8, the Russians secured at least half of 
Western Europe including the Balkans, half of Germany and the Baltic 
States, also Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary. This was all done 
without obviously angering - or at least not producing a war with - 
the French-Anglo-American group.
Further, it seems highly possible that theRussians have spheres 
of influence in Korea, Manchuria and Mongolia. Now, while in many of 
the States such as Czechoslovakia and Austria, an alleged democratic 
form of government exists, it is actually under the thumb of the Russians 
and it is quite certain that the Russians will not permit any 
large scale economic relations between the Bolshevik-ruled countries

November 17, 1945 (cont'd p.4)
and the rest of the world because if they did, too many foreigners 
would be able to look behind the curtain and see what actually goes 
on in these Communist countries, because if the Communist people and 
the rest of the world found out how Communism is run, the leaders 
would have to either retreat or retire, and retreat for a Communist 
leader means death.
One result of the Bolshevik conquest of half of Western Europe 
is that they have reduced the scale of living in those countries to 
the Russian scale, which is very low, and furthermore, have prohibited 
the United States and England from selling to about a third of their 
former markets. In view of the fact that the world financial arrangements 
were based on sales to and between all members of the world nations, 
the removal of a third of these nations is bound to upset the 
political economy of England and America, and therefore throw large 
numbers of men out of work and consequently make them readily acceptable 
victims of the virus of Communism.
Rechberg then goes on to discuss the probability, or possibility, 
of a war induced through necessity between Russia and the Anglo-American-
French combination. He states that while the Americans have the atomic 
bomb (American plan) it is certain that the Russians captured the data 
for, and the scientists who conceived, the German atomic bomb. He 
also points out that the atomic bombardment against closely packed industrial 
centers such as exist in the United States and Great Britain 
would have more disastrous effects than bombardment against themuch 
more widely separated industrial organizations of Bolshevik Russia.
Finally, he closes this part of his argument by stating that it 
is possible that just as poison gas was not used in the last war

November 17, 1945 (cont'd p.5)
because both sides feared its devastating effects, the same thing may 
apply to the atomic bomb. Personally, I do not agree with this - certainly 
not in the initial phases of the war when the aggressor, and the 
aggressor will never be the United States, will attempt to destroy the 
arsenal of democracy by a sudden and violent atomic bombardment.
      Pursuing his discussion of a war between the Anglo-American-French 
forces on one side and the Russians on the other, Rechberg ostensibly 
quotes certain notes made by General Hoffman, who was Chief of Staff 
on the Eastern Front in the first World War, and who wrote an excellent 
book called "The War of Lost Opportunities". According to Rechburg, 
Hoffman's idea on a war between civilization and Communism is outlined 
as follows: Communists have, in every country, a certain number of 
their Communist party who, in the event of war, will ruthlessly sabotage 
and otherwise hinder themilitary effort of the nation in which they 
live, against theRussians.  Another consideration in fighting the 
Russians is the necessity for a very large army in order that a sufficient 
zone of operations to seriously cut off the Russians or to cut 
them in two, may be occupied at the same time. Also the question of 
the mud which appears in Russia in the spring and fall must be carefully
considered in timing the period of attack.
      A rapid advance into Russia, according to Hoffman, is not desirable 
as, due to the Russian practice of having Red partisans arise 
behind the armies, it will be necessary to move rather slowly and 
methodically in order to insure adequate bases and means of communication. 
It will also be necessary for an attacking army to provide itself 
with food and other necessities, so as not to have to live off 
the country.  He believes that if this were done, the Russian peasant

November 17, 1945 (cont'd p.6)
would yield more readily to the invaders, and not rise against them 
as they did against the Germans during both World Wars because the 
Germans, owing to lack of supplies, had to live off the country, thereby
devastating it andmaking the peasants desperate. 
Next he brings up propaganda for better treatment for Germany 
which is very cunningly and not wholly disingenuously selected. He 
starts out by saying thatif the Anglo-Americans continue to reduce 
their holding forces and still talk to the Bolsheviks, the Bolsheviks 
may at any time suddenly start to attack. This is a statement in 
which I concur. He further states that the Communists have a great 
advantage in dealing with American statesman because they have an 
absolute disdain for all signed obligations. This is a fact and has 
been recently demonstrated both in London and Berlin. 
On the question of how armies sufficiently large to fight the 
Russians can be raised, he states that the English and the Americans 
could do it if they wanted to. The French are not much good and 
neither the French nor the English nor Americans have had any experience
fighting in very cold weather. On the other hand, a German army 
of mercenaries staffed and commanded by German officers could very 
readily be hired not to fight the whole war, but to augment the troops 
sent from America and England. The Germans have on two occasions successfully
fought in the very bad climate of Russia.    
He then points out that there is in Russia at the present time 
a German Red Army under a German General Seydlitz, composed of German
officers and soldiers who have been captured by the Russians, or possibly 
turned over to them by us. These soldiers and officers joined 
the Russians as a better choice than working in the mines. Naturally 
this German Red Army, which is alleged to contain two million men,

November 17, 1945 (cont'd p.7)
although I personally believe it should be about 200,000, is not only 
watched over carefully by the OGPU but also is filled with propaganda 
that will be used by the Russians to establish a Communistic, but 
nevertheless a great,  Germany so that the German officers and soldiers 
who fight in this army feel that they are doing a duty towards their 
country.
Having painted this picture, he states that in order to counter 
it, we should deal more intelligently with the Germans and let them reestablish
their army but in so doing, we should have the necessary safeguards 
to see that they will not start another world war. He brings 
out an alleged statement by Marshal Foch as to how a German and French 
Army could be mutually powerful without being mutually dangerous and 
could be used jointly against the Russians. The plan has nothing new 
in it and is simply the idea of having representatives of one arm with 
the other army. He states that Foch gave it to Hoffman and Ludendorff, 
who approved it, but that at the time of its approval, General von 
Seeckt had already got himself involved with the Russians, and as a 
result of this involvement, Marshal Foch's scheme was not realized. 
It is pointed out that the establishment of a powerful German-Anglo-
American-French army might induce the Communists to desist from their 
war of aggression, which will certainly not be the result if the English 
and American statesman try to satisfy the Communists by continued concessions,
which is what they are doing now.
The paper closes by charging that Hitler's actions against the 
Jews were inaugurated and increased by the Russians, and that the Russians 
will be more hard on the Jews than was Hitler when the Jews are 
no longer useful to the Russians. This is beside the point so far as 
the United States is concerned.

November 17, 1945 (cont'd p.8)
      The point, however, which he has previously reiterated, that an 
utterly hopeless and devastated Germany not only cannot exist but is 
a fruitful source of extending Communism and that, further, the best 
officers and enlisted men of the German army who are apparently, according 
to him, being offered pay and emoluments in the Russian army, 
will accept these positions and fight with the Russians against us in 
a war between us and Russia, which is just as certain as tomorrow's 
sunrise. In fact it is more certain than tomorrow's sunrise, because 
in Germany the sun does not rise.
      Just as I was terminating this dictation, because I am sending 
the original paper to General Sibert, Mr. Basil O'Connor and a number 
of his adherents in the American Red Cross called on me. We had quite 
a conversation.
      After they left, General Walker, former Commander of the XX Corps, 
came in to see me. He is in Europe to attend with me the ceremonies 
at Verdun. It was his Corps which took Verdun. I took advantage of 
his presence to have him look over our tables of organization for the 
cavalry regiment and the armored division. He made a statement which 
may be sound, that Eisenhower is at heart opposed to armor, and that 
therefore we will not get as good a division as the one we have devised.
November 23, 1945
      Attended the meeting at USFET. Beedle Smith brought up the fact 
that during the preceding night a group of Polish DP's had attacked 
a German farm and killed eight people and wounded two others. He
recommended that all DP Camps in the vicinity of which the depredations 
had occurred have military guards reestablished, and that the camps 
be closed so that the inmates cannot come out.  He asked my authority

On Tuesday, May 8, 1945, at Regensberg, Germany, General Omar Bradley, the Army Group Commander, directed "that displaced persons and allied prisoners of war would be kept in camp, regardless of the forces necessary to enforce this order; that he, General Bradley, no longer would stand for displaced persons wandering up and down the roads, looting and committing other crimes".
      The above order was dictated to a stenographer, Headquarters, Third Army, on the above mentioned date.  

November 23, 1945 (cont'd p .2)
to issue this order.  I asked the General Staff their opinions and 
all assented except General Adcock, G-5, who remained silent. I specifically 
asked him if he concurred, to which he replied, "Yes, certainly 
I concur." This is important, as I believe Adcock is a double-
crossing s.o.b.
I then was handed a telegram stating that General Eisenhower, owing 
to a cold, will not be able to return and that General McNarney 
was coming to the ETO to take command.
When General Eisenhower spent the night with me on 16 September he 
told me that McNarney would replace him. It was on this same night 
that he directed me to remove the guards from all DP Camps. This was 
in answer to the criticism which Mr. Harrison had made when he stated 
that the DP's had simply exchanged captivity under the Germans for captivity 
under the Americans. I argued with him against removing the 
guards at all and particularly against removing them from the Polish 
and Russian camps. He acquiesced in the retention of guards in the 
last named camps. Evidently since my departure from the Third Army, 
the guards have also been removed from these camps. 
It was my contention then, and the evidence proves me correct, 
that DP's were potential bandits. Apparently this is the best vindication 
of my policy, as everything else I had previously been doing has 
since been adopted.
I saw a telegram sent by Beedle Smith, under my authority as Theater
Commander, recommending that all repatriable persons who fail to request
repatriation by 31 December be removed from DP Camps and have their 
rations stopped. This will result in turning quite a few thousand potential 
bandits loose on Germany. However, it is probably the only

November 23, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
solution because when they start raising hell, as they will, they can be rounded up and put in POW camps.
      At 11:15 Prince Bernhard of Holland decorated a number of USeT officers including Major Briggs, Major Western and Lt. Summersby. The last was in a high state of nerves as a result o hearing that General Eisenhower is not returning. 
November 24, 1945
      Admiral Lowry, the Navy member of the General Board, returned from a visit to Vienna. He was appalled at the utter destruction of the city and stated that in that portion of it under Russian control, the Russians are removing every movable article from the few remaining homes and that he personally saw a trainload of chairs, tables, bureaus, etc., enroute to Russia and he also saw large numbers of Viennese from the Russian sector moving into the American and English sectors with nothing left but what they could carry on their backs. 
      I advised him to spread the information when he gets home, as it is simply another evidence of the inevitable war with Russia and another evidence of our criminal folly in letting them take over any part of Western Europe. 
November 25, 1945
      Colonel Harkins, Lt. Col. Marle-Smith Lt. Lynch and I came to Metz, detraining at 9:30 this morning. We proceeded first to the house of General Dody, the Governor, where we had champagne. We then went to the Maire and from there walked to the Cathedral through quite a large crowd.   
      We arrived at the Cathedral just after the early morning labors of a number off diarrhetic pigeons had been cleaned up and were received by a pure German with a gray beard, a sword, a halberd and a baton, who introduced us to the Bishop - chosing for the spot a very dangerous

November 25, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
place just below the pigeons.
      They then brought out three sacred objects, a crook, a wafer box 
and a monstrance. These had been removed from the Cathedral by the 
Germans and recaptured by the Third Army near Nuremberg and the French
attach great symbolism to my returning them to the Cathedral.
      We then entered the Cathedral, where I sat between Prince Felix 
of Luxembourg and a French official who was dying of bad teeth and 
constipation and insisted upon breathing on me. The service lasted a 
long time in a zero atmosphere, which gives some reason for the upper 
bracket clergyman wearing ermine capes.
      After the service in the Cathedral, we drove to the Town Square 
where I first walked around the troops and later participated as a 
decoratee and decorator in a ceremony which lasted an hour. 
      There was then a march past and then a luncheon which lasted four 
hours, with much oratory. The Mayor of Metz, M. Hocquard, is a very 
intelligent man, and, I believe, a teacher of English when he is not 
Mayor. He is also a graduate of Oxford. 
      I forgot to state that at the Town Hall I was made a Citizen of 
Honor of the following towns) which was three in excess of what we had 
planned on) : Metz, Toul, Reims, Luxembourg, Chateau Thierry, Saarguemines,
Thionville, Epernay, and Verdun.
      At the Maire I met General Houdemon, and after the luncheon I drove 
him back to Pont-a-Mousson where I met his wife and was presented by them with
two much treasured porcelian figurines of the Grenadiers of Napoleon 
Army, in which Houdemon's grandfather was a general. I tried to persuade 
them not to give them to me, but had no success. 1
      1. They are now treasured at Green Meadows .  BAP

November 25, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
We reboarded the train and had supper at 8:00 o'clock and will return 
to Frankfurt tomorrow morning.
November 27, 1945
Colonel Merle-Smith and I left on a special train from Frankfurt at 
15:30 yesterday enroute to Copenhagen. The train was a six-car affair 
which I considered quite unnecessary for four people - that is, myself, 
Merle-Smith, Sgt Meeks and Sgt. Duncan. However, we were informed it 
was expedient to break up trains and cost no more to move six cars than 
two. The two cars we actually occupied were those used by Field Marshal 
von Hindenburg in the last war and were very comfortable. 
At Copenhagen we were met by Mr. Davis, Minister to Denmark, and 
several other officers of his staff, including Lt. Col. Bonde of the 
Swedish Army, who acted as ADC to me while in Sweden. He is the son of 
Count Bonde who won the dressage competition in the 1912 Olympics. 
      We drove to the Consulate where a large group of eminent Danes, including 
a couple of princes and princesses, were present and had 
very good cocktails. From there we drove to the station and entered 
the Swedish train, which is carried across the water from Denmark to 
Sweden on a ferry - the trip taking about an hour and a half.
November 28, 1945
We arrived in Stockholm at 0800 and were met by the following eminent
individuals:
Lt. Gen. W.A. Douglas, Chief of the Swedish Army;
Maj. Gen. H.A.M.C. Gadd, Chief of the Swedish Army Staff
Maj. Gen G.P.W. Dryssen, Commander 4th Military District
Col. P.D.R. Janse, 4th Military District
Lt. Col. C.G. F. af Klintberg, C/S 4th Military District
Major B.E.L. Brusewitz, Gst
Major G. Schultz, 1st Inf. Reg.
and also eight of the former Pentathlon team headed by Osbrink and 
Lillihook. Patrik de Laval was unable to arrive in time.

November 28, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
We went to the Grand Hotel, where we stayed in 1912. Here we were 
provided with a suite of drawing room and two bedrooms and had breakfast 
with Count Bernadotte, who also met me at the station, and later, 
accompanied by the American Minister, Mr. Johnson, we called on 
the King at 1100.
The King, who is 88 and still plays twenty minutes of tennis daily, 
seemed to me rather feeble, but mentally very alert. I was supposed 
to stay fifteen minutes but he did not seem inclined to let me go, 
so it was necessary for the Minister to make the motion.
From there we drove to the City Palace (the king now lives in the 
country palace) where we had an audience with the Crown Prince, who 
has changed very little since 1926, when I last saw him. 
We then drove to the residence of Count Bernadotte, who is married 
to one of the Manville daughters and is consequently not impoverished, 
and had lunch with the family, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess and 
his Equerry, a count off sorts whose name I have forgotten.
The Defense Minister, or, rather the Commander in Chief of the 
three armored forces of Sweden, had intended to have me call on him but 
owing to a cabinet crisis caused by the refusal of the Swedish people 
to turn the Baltic DP's over to Russia, he was unable to do so.
The Pentathlon's nine members called at 1700 and we drove to the 
Olympic stadium where a special ice carnival, consisting of figure-skating 
by the male and female champions of the world, and a hockey 
game, was put on for my benefit.
We then went to a cave, where a replica of the 1912 pistol shoot 
was enacted, Patrik de Laval, who won in 1912, made a score of 192
out of 200. I came second with a score of 187, which, I believe, is 
13 points better than I made in 1912.

November 28, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
We then went to the Officers' Club, which was founded by Charles 
XII, and contains his death mask, which I was photographed looking at. 
There we ate and drank steadily for some two hours. After this we adjourned
to another room, where movies and still pictures of the 1912 
Olympic Games were shown to the accompaniment of Swedish punch, which 
is now almost impossible to obtain.
After this it was felt that I was probably famished, so Georg 
de Laval, the senior of the three brothers who competed in the Pentathlon, 
took us over to his apartment, which is a most interesting place, as 
it contains one of the best weapons collections covering the years
1500-1811 which I have ever seen.
At one in the morning, it was decided that refreshments were in 
order so everyone sat down at the table and, with the exception of myself, 
ate a third hearty meal. I confined my self to drinking beer and 
eventually reached the Grand Hotel at 1:30 a.m.
November 29, 1945
We left the Grand Hotel at 0920 and, accompanied by General Walter 
Douglas and his General Staff (Douglas, by the way, is a direct descendant 
of a Scottish Colonel who served under Gustavus Adolphus) 
we drove to the barracks of the First Cavalry Regiment, which is a 
combined unit consisting of the former First Guards Cavalry and the 
First Dragoon Guards Cavalry, and is commanded by Colonel Toren.
We were present at a squad competition consisting of rifle shooting, 
scouting, patrolling, riding remounts, mortar firing and tent 
pitching. There were some points of interest. The tactics I 
thought poor and archaic and so stated. The remounts were excellent 
and well ridden. They have a magazine for their sub-machine

November 29, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
gun, which by the simple expedient of using two cartridge instead 
one permits a magazine the same length as our Thompson magazine to 
carry 50 rounds of amunition.
They have a stove, the chimney of which acts as a tent pole. The 
stove is 2 1/2 feet tall and 9 inches in diameter. It burns anything, 
has hooks on which canteens can be hung to melt the ice and a rack 
on which the clothing and equipment of all the occupants of the tent 
may be hung to dry. It is an excellent idea.
We then saw an 81 mm mortar with a sub-caliber device worked with 
a spring, which is extremely efficient, and which I shall recommend 
having investigated by our Ordnance Department. We then had an hour 
and a half lunch consisting of various types of dead fish, alcohol 
and speeches.
After lunch we visited the Officer Candidate School commanded by 
Colonel Nordvish. This school was also founded by Charles XII and 
contains his nursery. Apparently he lived in the castle. They had 
a very stereotyped infantry attack supported by tanks all manned by 
students. After that we|visited the Gymnasium where a group of officers 
put on an outstanding performance in gymnastics. This was followed 
by a parade at 4:00 p.m. , conducted by lamplight, as at that 
hour it is quite dark.
Later we attended the Swedish-American Society's dinner, which was 
the ostensible reason for my going to Stockholdm. There were some 500 
ladies and gentlemen at the dinner, which lasted three hours, with a 
few speeches. Prior to the dinner, I received three telegrams and a 
letter from interned Baltics and Germans requesting my intervention 
to prevent their return to the Russians, where they very rightly anticipated 
elimination. I could do nothing about this.

November 29, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
I made a speech primarily on the subject of discipline, because 
General Douglas had asked me to stress this, owing to the fact that 
the present Swedish Government is opposed to discipline on the ground 
that the American Army is undisciplined. I stated this was untrue 
and then stated that the hope of the world for peace depended on the 
multiplication of such societies as the Swedish-American Society and 
that I hoped these societies would contain English, Americans, Swedes 
Danes, French, Norwegians, and Germans - I then paused and said, "No, 
never Germans" because they were beyond the pale of humanity and added 
that perhaps at some future date, when they had become humanized they 
too might be permitted to enter such organizations. At the close of 
dinner everyone felt famished so they provided more food and liquor 
and terminated about 2:30.
November 30, 1945
We drove at 8:15 to the Headquarters of the 8th Infantry at Uppsala. 
The 8th is not the oldest in Sweden, since it has only maintained 
continuous organization since 1627. It is commanded by Colonel 
Norman. The maneuver was excellent, except that they insisted upon 
advancing in rushes and halting in the open. I explained the folly 
of such a maneuver. However, they did cross a frozen stream up to 
their necks without hesitation. At the close of this maneuver, we 
inspected the infantry company which is organized in three rifle 
platoons, one heavy weapons platoon and one engineer platoon; a fairly 
good organization. All transport in the Swedish infantry is horse, 
which, owing to the fact that they intend to fight in the northern  
woods, is probably correct.
We then visited the University of Uppsala and the Swedish Air 
Force School, which [is] in the same town. We then had a short lunch of

December 1, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
and one armored infantry company. The assault was good except that they 
did not use marching fire, and that in the first pahse the infantry preceeded 
the tanks. At the close of the combat problem they gave a demonstration 
of motorcycle riding which, while of no military value as far 
as I can see, certainly required great hardihood on the part of the 
participants. For example, the whole company passed in review with two 
men on a motorcycle, both standing on the seat and moving without touching 
the handlebars on an icy road at 40 miles an hour. 
We then inspected the regimental maintenance shop, which corresponds 
to our second, third and fourth echelon maintenance, and is wholly 
run by civilians under the Swedish ordnance department. I asked how 
this would work in war and they said very well, as they would draft all 
the people in the shop. 
After this we had lunch with the regiment, which also dates from 
1629 (but at that time it was infantry) and I was presented with another 
plaque. The colonel could not speak English, so made a speech in French 
to which I replied in the same language. I trust my French was better 
than his.
The Bishop of the province was present and took us through the 
Cathedral of Starangnas, which is a fairly modern edifice, dating from 
the eleventh century and is in a perfectly horrible taste. However, it 
had a complete set of armor of Gustavus Adolphus and also a complete 
suit of armor,man and horse, of Charles X, grandfather of Charles XII. 
Again I was surprised at the length of time complete plate armor was 
worn.
After leaving the cathedral we went to the palace of Gripsholm, 
where we arrived at three thirty, but could see very little, as there

December 1, 1945 (cont'd p.3)
are no lights in the palace and it was already dark. I visited this 
palace in 1912. The custodian was a retired major of cavalry and insisted 
on feeding us, fearing we would otherwise perish.
After this we drove to an old chateau called Hornengholm, belonging 
to Count Carle Bonde.. This was formerly a fort and was burned by 
the Prussians in 1720. Some of the rooms had apparently not been burnt 
and the walls were covered with magnificent Spanish leather, mostly in 
gold. They also had a boat hook with a cannon in the end of it and a 
hat worn by the devil. The way you know it is the devil's hat is that 
the devil is supposed to have a round head and this hat is exactly
round. It looked like the hats worn by the pilgrim fathers and is made
out of leather. As long as the Bonde family keeps the hat they will
not go broke. This is proved by the fact that the count sold the estate
to a rich Swede but kept the hat. The Swede went broke and sold the
estate to another Swede, who also went broke, as did the third buyer,
from whom the count re-bought the place at one quarter of the original
price, and he has lived on the proceeds ever since.
We took the train for Copenhagen at 2150. On board was Gustavus,
son of the present Crown Prince, who, unless his grandfather dies soon,
will undoubtedly be king. He is a very inferior little man.
December 2, 1945
We were met at the Station in Copenhagen by Mr. Davis, U.S. Minister
to Denmark, and taken on a tour of the city, which was most interesting.
We then had an audience with the King, who is chairbound owing
to an accident he had, which I personally think was a stroke. He is a
young man of 75 and very bright. Again I had to break off the meeting
in order to catch the plane for Frankfurt.
It is my considered opinion that anyone who can survive a trip



December 2, 1945 (cont'd p. 2)

to Metz and one to Sweden within a week is apt to live forever or die of
a stroke.

December 3, 1945

General Smith gave a luncheon for General McNarney, the new Theater 
Commander, at which were present all the youth and beauty of the ETO. With 
the exception of Generals Keyes, Truscott, Allen, Gay and myself and a 
limited number of others, I have rarely seen assembled a greater bunch of 
sons-of-bitches.

On the way back General Gay made a very profound remark to the effect 
that if in 1939 the Russians and Germans had united their military 
skill and manpower, the world would have been theirs. As a resu[tl] of 
the current form of alleged government in Germany, it seems to me highly 
probable that such an unholy union will probably take place shortly - 
certainly before 1949.

I had a good deal of fun at luncheon, quoting from recent articles 
on the Military Government of Germany, which I had the forethought to 
take with me, and which removed the appetite from Bob Murphy and the new 
CG of the ETO. The trouble with both of them is that their answer is 
that they could not do anything about it as they were carrying out orders. 
May answer is that a man who receives a foolish order should not 
carry it out - but such is not the breed of cats now in authority.  

It is certainly quite a criticism of our form of Military Government 
to find that the Deputy Theater Commander, General Clay, and the 
Theater Commander, General McNarney, have never commanded anything, including 
their own self-respect, or if that, certainly not the respect of 
anyone else.

December 3, 1945 (cont'd p.2)
        The whole luncheon party reminded me of a meeting of the Rotary Club in Hawaii where everyone slaps every one else's back while looking for an appropriate place to thrust theknife. I admit I was guilty of this practice, although at the moment I have no appropriate weapon.

Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.