Barton was about to leave the hospital in a good mood when he suddenly saw a young man in his twenties squatting on a box near the dressing place. He has no bandage on him, and obviously he is not injured.
Barton looked back at the wounded man who was seriously injured and covered in blood in the tent, then looked back at the soldier, suppressed his anger and stepped forward.
"Are you fucking enjoying the sunshine here? Why not go to the front? " Barton asked.
"I don't think I can stand it." The soldier replied stubbornly.
"Fucking coward!" Barton was so aggressive that a slap flew over and the soldier fell back to the ground. Barton grabbed him by the neck again and kicked him out of the tent.
"Don't you son of a bitch, I won't let a coward like you ruin the honor of the army here!" Barton was furious and shouted, "Colonel, check this man at once and send him back to the front."
The soldier was still lying on the ground and Barton pointed at him. "Did you hear me? You have to go back to the front now, asshole! "
The medical staff present were extremely shocked. In fact, the soldier has a high fever, chronic diarrhea and dysentery.
The irascible Barton made a huge mistake.
Fortunately, the soldiers did not appeal, and the medical staff also thought that the general's slip of the tongue was excusable, so the matter was not investigated.
A week later, due to unexpected difficulties on the battlefield, Barton's nerves were close to collapse again, and the second slap in the face started in another rear hospital.
This time, Barton plays professional soldier Paul. Paul is a brave soldier, but when he saw his best friend being torn to pieces and his brains flying, his spirit suddenly collapsed in a gun battle. From then on, he fell into deep fear and anxiety and could not extricate himself. The medical staff showed deep sympathy for the poor soldier, so they were all very angry when he was slapped down by Barton.
The chief medical officer reported the matter to General Eisenhower. After weighing the pros and cons, General Eisenhower decided to block the news and keep things strictly within the scope. Because he thought, "if this gets out, Barton will lose the opportunity to serve in the war." But Barton is one of the key figures in our victory, and I have no choice. But I promise this will never happen again. "
At the same time, General Eisenhower wrote a letter to Barton in his own name and severely reprimanded him. Barton also realized the seriousness of the problem, and he seriously carried out Eisenhower's orders. He summoned the beaten soldiers and all relevant personnel to the headquarters and sincerely apologized. He explained: "My original intention was to help the soldiers recover their heroic fighting spirit."
Everyone forgave General Patton. Barton thinks it's time to relax. In fact, Barton didn't take it as a big deal. But the situation took a turn for the worse, and the reporters of the Seventh Army learned about it. They were extremely angry at the American general's beating of soldiers and demanded that General Eisenhower send Barton to a military court.
In order to save Barton, General Eisenhower had to be honest with reporters: sincere, frank and selfless. Seek their understanding. He told reporters: "When chasing the enemy and opening up the situation, we need a commander who will go ahead. The harder you are to soldiers, the more you can save their lives. Barton is such a general. For the highest interests of the Allies, in order to meet the major battles on the European battlefield, we should save Barton. "
Finally, the reporters reached an agreement with the Allied Supreme Command, agreeing to "forget" the matter and strictly block the news.
1943+00 In June, Barton was successfully promoted to the rank of Major General, and General Alexander also suggested that Barton should command the Fifth Army. Everything seems to show that the slap in the face is over, but a bigger storm is yet to come. In June 165438+ 10, an army reporter disclosed this matter in the news of ABC, and took it out of context: no matter the whole article or the content of the conversation, he only took a paragraph or the meaning of a sentence independently according to his own needs. , greatly rendered. This caused an uproar in the United States: a metaphor for a big dispute or commotion …
But the position of the top leadership of the US War Department on this issue is the same: Barton must go to war because no one can replace him; But at the same time, Barton must turn over a new leaf.
General Eisenhower was very concerned about Barton's fate. He said: "We must remember that although Barton's behavior is unforgivable and the officers who know about it are angry, he personally supports, inspires and helps soldiers materially, and there are countless things in this regard."
Finally, after Marshall and Eisenhower spared no effort, Barton finally saved his military career and continued to gallop on the battlefield.
But Barton's grumpy temper has never changed in his life.
1944, Barton, who played a supporting role in the battle of overlord, was unlucky and almost ruined his future.
The first thing is that he is suspected of ordering the slaughter of prisoners of war. This matter can be traced back to: going upstream to Heyuan, which is a metaphor for exploring the origin of things. To Sicily. At that time, in order to cheer up the soldiers who participated in the war for the first time, he made a very inflammatory speech. He asked the soldiers to treat the enemy quickly, violently and mercilessly, and even said that he would "kill those fools who dared to confront us."
Barton originally wanted to cheer up the soldiers with these exaggerated words, but he got himself into trouble. As a result, the division he led had a series of massacres of German prisoners of war in the future. British and American war correspondents reported this.
After learning these terrible news, Bradley immediately told Barton the situation. Barton, however, thinks that these reporters are worried: they deliberately say something scary to surprise the audience. And ironically wrote in his diary: "I think I am right. It is a big mistake to kill a large number of prisoners in a cruel way. "
Bradley investigated the matter and two officers will be tried. Barton participated in their defense. They said Barton had told them, "If we get close to the enemy and they are still resisting, they will be killed."
The US War Department attached great importance to it and sent inspectors from Washington to Britain to conduct a special investigation on this accusation. Barton realized the seriousness of the problem and painstakingly prepared a defense, arguing that the two defendants deliberately misinterpreted his words and confused (xiáo) right and wrong. The final conclusion of the investigation is that Barton has nothing to do with the massacre of prisoners of war.
This incident taught Barton a major lesson. For a long time, Barton's troublesome mouth didn't say much. But before long, that mouth brought him a second trouble.
On April 25th, he made a short speech at an opening ceremony. At first, he was able to control himself and say something irrelevant, and then he unconsciously expanded the topic. He said: "There is no doubt that ruling the world is the mysterious mission of the British and Americans, and of course the Russians."
This last sentence almost drove Barton back to his hometown in America. The next day, the British Publishing Association published Barton's speech without Barton's consent and deleted the word "Russian". This caused an uproar. Some newspapers in Washington criticized Barton as "the number one person who put his foot in his mouth" and "a difficult child to cultivate".
Barton felt angry and wronged about what had happened, and at the same time he was a little scared. He felt like a boat, in a sea of Wang Yang, just sitting there doing nothing, waiting for fate to play tricks on him.
The attitude towards Barton and Eisenhower is also very contradictory: on the one hand, he doesn't want to lose an Iliad because of a trivial matter; On the other hand, he was afraid that Barton would cause any trouble.
Finally, Eisenhower made up his mind to call Barton to the office. "Barton, you know, you are now facing very serious difficulties. It is difficult for me to choose! "
Barton replied devoutly, "Eisenhower, your work is much more important than mine." Don't let you get hurt to save me. Just throw me out! "
"Barton, you know I won't do that. I managed to keep you in spite of your carelessness. I only did it because I believe you are a good commander. But this is the last time. If you make another mistake, I can't help you. " Eisenhower said.
Barton was moved to tears. He finally got the chance to stay in the army. But Barton didn't take this lesson to heart. Finally, this talking mouth ruined him!
1945 In May, Barton returned to China for a vacation and was soon overwhelmed by flowers, ribbons and cheering crowds. In Boston, at least 6.5438 million people lined up for 40 kilometers to welcome General Patton.
Barton immediately found that the popular peace trend in the United States had a strong collision with his belligerent character.
This question appeared in Barton's speeches in various places.
In Barton's speech, his military manner and heroic attitude left a good impression on the audience. Sometimes, Barton also appears extremely humble. When speaking in Los Angeles, he stroked the ribbon on his chest and said, "Brave people won medals, but only we wear them." As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears and he couldn't help it.
But more often, Barton always used his passionate and wild emotions in wartime to explain his thoughts and ideas of killing people, as if a militant was mobilizing for the war.
Barton said in a speech: "It is generally believed that only those who die on the battlefield can be regarded as heroes. But I think that those who die on the battlefield are often big fools! "
When this statement came out, public opinion was in an uproar. Barton had to publicly apologize to the martyrs' parents again in order to solve this matter. His excessive and inappropriate conversation aroused people's strong dissatisfaction.
1945 One day in February, Barton drove to the forest to hunt, and his car collided with a big truck.
Barton was taken to the hospital immediately. The news of the car accident immediately reached Frankfurt, and Barton's military doctor arrived at the hospital within a few hours. Several famous neurosurgeons also came to attend the consultation. The results showed that Barton was completely paralyzed from the neck down.
Barton's illness is as good and bad as his temper, which is difficult to grasp.
By 2 1 afternoon, Barton's condition had further deteriorated. At 5: 50, Barton died of acute heart failure.
The morning after Barton was buried, newspapers all over the world published editorials to pay tribute to Barton. The New York Times's editorial said:
"History reached out and embraced General Patton. His glorious position is solid, and he is one of the greatest military generals in the United States ... "
"As early as before the end of the war, Barton was a legend. He is conspicuous and conceited; He insisted on his own opinions, believed in religion and blasphemed. He is a wonderful mixture of fire and ice. He was brave and ruthless in the battle, and he never wavered in his pursuit of his goal. He is by no means a desperate tank commander, but a visionary strategist.
"He is not a peacetime figure, and he has experienced more battle scenes than anyone else. Perhaps, he would rather die when all his subordinates follow him faithfully. His motherland will miss him with the same loyalty. "