Army Magazine has given historian Kevin F. Hymel’s book, Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership, Volume 2, August–December 1944, an impressive review. As noted by the reviewer, Col. Cole Kingseed, U.S. Army retired:
“Hymel has demonstrated once again that he is one of Patton’s most distinguished biographers, on par with Martin Blumenson in The Patton Papers and Carlo D’Este in Patton: A Genius for War. Readers will anxiously await the concluding volume of Patton’s War to accurately assess Hymel’s opinion that “World War II was truly his war.”
The second volume of Patton’s War picks up where the first one left off, examining General George S. Patton’s leadership of the U.S. Third Army. The book follows Patton’s contributions to both the Normandy and Brittany campaigns—the closing of the Falaise Pocket in Normandy, and racing to the port cities in Brittany. It ends with Patton and his corps rescuing the besieged town of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge.
An excerpt of the review is appended below, and you can continue reading entire review online at Army Magazine.
Patton Proves Himself During World War II
Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership, Volume 2, August–December 1944.
Kevin Hymel. University of Missouri Press.
480 pages. $39.95
By Col. Cole Kingseed, U.S. Army retired
“Nearly 80 years after Allied forces invaded France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Gen. George Patton Jr. continues to fascinate military historians and students of World War II. In the second volume of his acclaimed Patton’s War trilogy, Kevin Hymel provides a more comprehensive understanding of his subject’s leadership from the time Third U.S. Army became operational in Normandy, France, on Aug. 1, 1944, through the Battle of the Bulge.
The author of four books, including Patton’s Photographs: War as He Saw It and Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership, Volume 1, November 1942–July 1944, Hymel is a contract historian at Arlington National Cemetery and a tour historian at Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours, where he has led multiple tours in “Patton’s Footsteps.”
This current volume, Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership, Volume 2, August–December 1944, is radically different from the first volume, as Hymel discovered that Patton’s transcribed diary was highly embellished from the general’s handwritten notes.”
Continue reading on Army Magazine >
Travel with Kevin Hymel
Kevin will be leading the 80th Anniversary of D-Day: Patton’s 3rd Army Tour.
The first part of this tour covers the planning and launch of the D-Day Invasion, Operation Overlord. We will begin in England, visiting the Churchill War Rooms in London and the key sites, and then ferry to Normandy. You will walk the sands of Omaha and Utah Beaches stirred by the memories of the young men who came ashore under fire in June of 1944. As we make our way to Patton’s Headquarters in Nehou, we will visit the town squares, woods, and fields significant to the Allied victory.
We will then follow Patton’s Third Army across France, to its relief of Bastogne and invasion of Germany. Along the way, you will learn about Patton, the man, the leader, and the general. We will pay our respects to the Maverick General at his final resting place at the American Cemetery in Luxembourg.
Join him!
Learn more about the 80th Anniversary of D-Day: Patton’s 3rd Army Tour >
