Raid!: The Untold Story of Patton's Secret Mission

We've Got Our Orders

The order to form a task force to go to Hammelburg, 50 miles behind enemy lines, began its journey down through the chain of command of the United States Third Army late on the night of 25 March 1945. The order originated with Lieutenant General George S. Patton, commander of the Third Army, who sent it to Major General Manton Eddy, commander of XII Corps. Eddy, in turn, chose the 4th Armored Division to carry out the mission and drove over to the division's forward more >>

We've Got Our Orders

The order to form a task force to go to Hammelburg, 50 miles behind enemy lines, began its journey down through the chain of command of the United States Third Army late on the night of 25 March 1945. The order originated with Lieutenant General George S. Patton, commander of the Third Army, who sent it to Major General Manton Eddy, commander of XII Corps. Eddy, in turn, chose the 4th Armored Division to carry out the mission and drove over to the division's forward command post.

The 4th Armored was the best division in Eddy's command. It had seen a lot of action and had always succeeded brilliantly. Because it had spearheaded so many of Patton's spectacular attacks, it was called "The Point.'' The 4th and the 101st Airborne were the only divisions in the European Theater of Operations to have been awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation by order of the President. Every member of the 4th felt that the division was invincible.

Major General John "Tiger Jack'' Wood had trained the division. He believed in planning armored attacks carefully and executing them violently. The purpose of an armored force, he taught, is to terrify enemy infantry. A line of fifty attacking tanks is infernal. It comes upon soldiers with treads grinding, uprooting defenses, the big guns booming destruction, the machine guns spraying a deadly barrage. Behind the armor infantry follows to mop up anyone who escapes the tanks. Even an enemy unit armed with a Panzerfaust (bazooka) or an antitank gun is in danger of annihilation. If it does succeed in knocking out a tank, another forty-nine are left to grind inexorably toward its position. The armored force also has the advantage of surprise because of its extreme mobility. General Wood never let his command forget that the Nazis had conquered Europe by virtue of the Blitzkrieg, lightning fast attacks of armor with air support. In order to increase speed and maneuverability, American tanks carried much lighter armor plate than their German counterparts.

Now the 4th had a new commander. He was Brigadier General William M. Hoge, fifty-one. A tall, spare, blue-eyed Missourian, Hoge was a stern and demanding officer. He had been given command of the 4th Armored Division only four days before, after serving with distinction in the 9th Armored Division. When Eddy explained Patton's order to form a task force, it angered Hoge. Not only had his division finished thirty-six hours of intense combat taking the Aschaffenburg bridge across the Main River, but he had also received the order to move the division north along with the rest of the Third Army. It was too much. How was he to move his battle-depleted force and, at the same time, put together a special task force (which would have to consist of exhausted troops) and send it 50 miles eastward? Hoge told Eddy that the order was impossible to obey. He assumed that that was the end of the matter.

Manton Eddy returned to Third Army headquarters and explained Hoge's reluctance to General Patton. Patton called Hoge directly. "Bill,'' Patton announced without preamble, "I want you to put this little task force together. Now get on it.''

Hoge resisted. "We'd be encroaching on the Seventh Army zone.''

"I've cleared this with Bradley,'' Patton countered, citing the authority of General Omar N. Bradley, 12th Army Group commander.*

Stubbornly, Hoge tried again. "My people are exhausted. The division is only at half strength as it is.''

Patton's tone changed abruptly and he utterly surprised Hoge by saying, "Bill, I promise I'll replace anything you lose--every man, every tank, every half-track. I promise.''

Hoge had never liked Patton. He found the controversial commander to be mean and vainglorious, his habit of browbeating his subordinates unnecessarily a nettlesome, distracting waste of time. Hoge knew replacements were not the equal of tested t << less