Hitler's Last Days by Bill O'Reilly Read Free Book Online Page B

carries a three-by-five card that has a Christmas greeting from Patton on one side and a special prayer for good weather on the other. He firmly believes that faith is vital when it comes to doing the impossible. And even though he has given the cruel order that all SS soldiers are to be shot rather than taken prisoner, Patton sees no theological conflict in asking God to allow him to kill the enemy.
    Patton continues:
    I don’t like to complain unreasonably, but my soldiers from Meuse to Echternach are suffering tortures of the damned. Today I visited several hospitals, all full of frostbite cases, and the wounded are dying in the fields because they cannot be brought back for medical care.
    Patton’s prayer is clear. Not only is he asking for deliverance, he is asking for power. Few men are ever given the chance to change the course of history so completely. No one, not even Dwight Eisenhower, is standing in Patton’s way. If the men inside Bastogne are to be rescued, it will be because of the brilliance of George S. Patton—as he himself knows. But to succeed, he will need a little help from above.
    The last words of Patton’s prayer are for the ages.
    Damn it, Sir, I can’t fight a shadow. Without Your cooperation from a weather standpoint, I am deprived of accurate disposition of the German armies and how in the hell can I be intelligent in my attack? All of this probably sounds unreasonable to You, but I have lost all patience with Your chaplains who insist that this is a typical Ardennes winter, and that I must have faith.
    Faith and patience be damned! You have just got to make up Your mind whose side You are on. You must come to my assistance, so that I may dispatch the entire German army as a birthday present to Your Prince of Peace.
    Sir, I have never been an unreasonable man; I am not going to ask You to do the impossible. I do not even insist upon a miracle, for all I request is four days of clear weather.
    Give me four days so that my planes can fly, so that my fighter bombers can bomb and strafe, so that my reconnaissance may pick out targets for my magnificent artillery. Give me four days of sunshine to dry this blasted mud, so that my tanks roll, so that ammunition and rations may be taken to my hungry, ill-equipped infantry. I need these four days to send von Rundstedt and his godless army to their Valhalla. I am sick of this unnecessary butchering of American youth, and in exchange for four days of fighting weather, I will deliver You enough Krauts to keep Your bookkeepers months behind in their work.
    Amen.
    Head bowed, Patton continues to pray while Sergeant John Mims waits outside with his jeep. When the general is ready, they will set out for yet another day prowling the roads of the Ardennes Forest. Without planes to offer overhead reconnaissance, Patton must see the battle lines for himself.
    Their travels also serve another purpose. Patton seeks out American forces wherever he can, exhorting his troops as they march in long columns up the snowy farm roads. Tanks and trucks travel round the clock toward Bastogne. The infantry wear long greatcoats. The tank commanders ride with their chests and shoulders poking out of top hatches, faces swaddled in thick wool scarves. The heavy snow covering the roads, forests, and farmlands covers their vehicles and mutes the rumble of engines, giving Third Army’s advance a ghostly feel. But it can also lead to death: Unable to distinguish which snow-covered tanks are American Shermans and which are German panzers, some U.S. P-47 Thunderbolt pilots will make the cruel mistake of bombing their own.

    General Patton rides in his customary open-air jeep. [Mary Evans Picture Library]
    Patton is a relentless presence in his open-air vehicle, red-faced and blue-lipped as Sergeant Mims fearlessly weaves through the long column of tanks and trucks. Patton is frozen from the cold air as he rides to the front lines to rally his men. “I spent