Couverture / Jaquette

A stirring World War II combat story of how the legendary George Patton reinvigorated a defeated and demoralized army corps, and how his men claimed victory over Germany's most-feared general, Erwin Rommel



In March 1943, in their first fight with the Germans, American soldiers in North Africa were pushed back fifty miles by Rommel's Afrika Korps and nearly annihilated. Only the German decision not to pursue them allowed the Americans to maintain a foothold in the area. General Eisenhower, the supreme commander, knew he needed a new leader on the ground, one who could raise the severely damaged morale of his troops. He handed the job to a new man: Lt. Gen. George Patton.



Charismatic, irreverent, impulsive, and inspiring, Patton possessed a massive ego and the ambition to match. But he could motivate men to fight. He had just ten days to whip his dispirited troops into shape, then throw them into battle against the Wehrmacht's terrifying Panzers, the speedy and powerful German tanks that U.S. forces had never defeated. Patton, who believed he had fought as a Roman legionnaire in a previous life, relished the challenge to turn the tide of America's fledgling war against Hitler-and the chance to earn a fourth star.



Story Locale: North Africa

Note biographique

Stephen L. Moore

Fonctionnalité

LIVING WITNESSES: Steve Moore befriended several of Patton's surviving veterans to tell this story, including 100-year-old artilleryman Hubert Edwards and 94-year-old infantryman Harley Reynolds. He also personally interviewed 97-year-old Lloyd Richards, believed to be the last surviving member of the famed Darby's Rangers division (Richards has since passed away).

FRONTLINE PERSPECTIVES: Though not a memoir, Patton's Payback, enriched with so many stories from veterans, will appeal to readers of recent WWII memoirs, such as All the Gallant Men (125K in hardcover), Never Call Me a Hero (34K), and Every Man a Hero (50K).

MOORE HAS A STRONG TRACK OF GRIPPING, DRAMATIC HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS: He's received great reviews from the Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, America in WWII, and Wild West magazine

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