Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:35 pm Post subject: 22Dec1945 Gen. George Patton assassinated by Douglas Bazata?
General George S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders claims new book
George S. Patton, America's greatest combat general of the Second World War, was assassinated after the conflict with the connivance of US leaders, according to a new book.
General George S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders claims new book
'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must save him from himself'. The OSS head General did not trust Patton
By Tim Shipman in Washington7:16PM GMT 20 Dec 2008
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3869117/Ge neral-George-S.-Patton-was-assassinated-to-silence-his-criticism-of-al lied-war-leaders-claims-new-book.html
The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with the Russians that cost American lives.
The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home.
But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox claims that OSS head General "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman called Douglas Bazata to silence Patton, who gloried in the nickname "Old Blood and Guts".
His book, "Target Patton", contains interviews with Mr Bazata, who died in 1999, and extracts from his diaries, detailing how he staged the car crash by getting a troop truck to plough into Patton's Cadillac and then shot the general with a low-velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers escaped without a scratch.
Mr Bazata also suggested that when Patton began to recover from his injuries, US officials turned a blind eye as agents of the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB, poisoned the general.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph that when he spoke to Mr Bazata: "He was struggling with himself, all these killings he had done. He confessed to me that he had caused the accident, that he was ordered to do so by Wild Bill Donovan.
"Donovan told him: 'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must save him from himself and from ruining everything the allies have done.' I believe Douglas Bazata. He's a sterling guy."
Mr Bazata led an extraordinary life. He was a member of the Jedburghs, the elite unit who parachuted into France to help organise the Resistance in the run up to D-Day in 1944. He earned four purple hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre three times over for his efforts.
After the war he became a celebrated artist who enjoyed the patronage of Princess Grace of Monaco and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
He was friends with Salvador Dali, who painted a portrait of Bazata as Don Quixote.
He ended his career as an aide to President Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission and adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign.
Mr Wilcox also tracked down and interviewed Stephen Skubik, an officer in the Counter-Intelligence Corps of the US Army, who said he learnt that Patton was on Stalin's death list. Skubik repeatedly alerted Donovan, who simply had him sent back to the US.
"You have two strong witnesses here," Mr Wilcox said. "The evidence is that the Russians finished the job."
The scenario sounds far fetched but Mr Wilcox has assembled a compelling case that US officials had something to hide. At least five documents relating to the car accident have been removed from US archives.
The driver of the truck was whisked away to London before he could be questioned and no autopsy was performed on Patton's body.
With the help of a Cadillac expert from Detroit, Mr Wilcox has proved that the car on display in the Patton museum at Fort Knox is not the one Patton was driving.
"That is a cover-up," Mr Wilcox said.
George Patton, a dynamic controversialist who wore ivory-handled revolvers on each hip and was the subject of an Oscar winning film starring George C. Scott, commanded the US 3rd Army, which cut a swathe through France after D-Day.
But his ambition to get to Berlin before Soviet forces was thwarted by supreme allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, who gave Patton's petrol supplies to the more cautious British General Bernard Montgomery.
Patton, who distrusted the Russians, believed Eisenhower wrongly prevented him closing the so-called Falaise Gap in the autumn of 1944, allowing hundreds of thousands of German troops to escape to fight again,. This led to the deaths of thousands of Americans during their winter counter-offensive that became known as the Battle of the Bulge.
In order to placate Stalin, the 3rd Army was also ordered to a halt as it reached the German border and was prevented from seizing either Berlin or Prague, moves that could have prevented Soviet domination of Eastern Europe after the war.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph: "Patton was going to resign from the Army. He wanted to go to war with the Russians. The administration thought he was nuts.
"He also knew secrets of the war which would have ruined careers.
I don't think Dwight Eisenhower would ever have been elected president if Patton had lived to say the things he wanted to say." Mr Wilcox added: "I think there's enough evidence here that if I were to go to a grand jury I could probably get an indictment, but perhaps not a conviction."
Charles Province, President of the George S. Patton Historical Society, said he hopes the book will lead to definitive proof of the plot being uncovered. He said: "There were a lot of people who were pretty damn glad that Patton died. He was going to really open the door on a lot of things that they screwed up over there."
Accident and death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton#Accident_and_death
Patton's grave in Luxembourg City
On December 8, 1945, Patton's chief of staff, Major General Hobart Gay, invited him on a pheasant hunting trip near Speyer to lift his spirits. Observing derelict cars along the side of the road, Patton said, "How awful war is. Think of the waste." Moments later his car collided with an American army truck at low speed.[193][194]
Gay and others were only slightly injured, but Patton hit his head on the glass partition in the back seat. He began bleeding from a gash to the head, and complained that he was paralyzed and having trouble breathing. Taken to a hospital in Heidelberg, Patton was discovered to have a compression fracture and dislocation of the cervical third and fourth vertebrae, resulting in a broken neck and cervical spinal cord injury that rendered him paralyzed from the neck down.[194]
Patton spent most of the next 12 days in spinal traction to decrease the pressure on his spine. All nonmedical visitors, except for Patton's wife, who had flown from the U.S., were forbidden. Patton, who had been told he had no chance to ever again ride a horse or resume normal life, at one point commented, "This is a hell of a way to die." He died in his sleep of pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure at about 18:00 on December 21, 1945.[195]
Perhaps most famous for his commanding of the 7th Army during World War II, Old "Blood and Guts" often gave rousing speeches to motivate, inspire, and educate his soldiers. We collected up 11 of his most famous quotes (courtesy of his estate's official website) that show how larger-than-life he really was.
1. "A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood."
Soldiers are not good on the battlefield without training hard beforehand. Whether it's a soldier, a civilian wanting to run a marathon, or a CEO running a company, being successful at what you do requires focus, effort, and learning.
For soldiers especially, working extra hard in training can save their lives later.
2. "A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week."
Known for his brilliance on the battlefield, Patton often had to make decisions based on limited information and time. But he knew to avoid "paralysis by analysis" and make a decision and execute it the best he could. Otherwise, the enemy might be able to maneuver faster and beat him.
Patton (second from left) with other American generals, 1945.
3. "Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. "
Perhaps one of the most famous quotes that people don't realize originated with Patton, this mantra summed up his style.
4. "Do everything you ask of those you command."
Patton led his soldiers by example. While he's best known for commanding troops during World War II and perfecting the art of tank warfare, his troops knew he was more than willing to personally get into the fight. During World War I for example, Patton was shot in the leg while directing tanks, after he repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire.
5. "Say what you mean and mean what you say."
Patton didn't mince words. Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he began giving his now-famous "blood and guts" speeches at Fort Benning. They were often profane, but direct.
"This individual heroic stuff is pure horse *," he told troops on June 5, 1944, before D-Day. "The bilious b****** who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about f--king!"
6. "Many soldiers are led to faulty ideas of war by knowing too much about too little."
The general didn't sugarcoat what combat would be like for his soldiers. While movies and books tend to glorify war, Patton gave speeches to his men where he explained exactly what they faced:
"You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared."
7. "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."
People hate to be micromanaged. A good leader, as Patton knew, tells his or her subordinates what is expected, or what the overall goal is. They don't need to give a step-by-step explanation. It's a waste of a leader's time and worse, most people resent it.
8. "If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking."
Good leaders don't want to hear from "yes men." They encourage healthy debate, talking over strategy, and planning out different options. Patton may have been a brilliant tactician on the battlefield, but he was also human. If one of his subordinates noticed something wasn't working or had a better idea, according to this quote, he'd be interested to hear what it was.
9. "Do more than is required of you."
The bare minimum amount of work didn't cut it for Patton. "An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse sh--," he said.
He wanted his men to think about what more they could do for the greater good of the unit, instead of only thinking about themselves. This quote can certainly apply to organizations outside of the military.
10. "Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men."
Good leaders encourage their subordinates to always act with integrity. Even when it's not the most popular thing to do. Moral courage is all about doing the right thing, even if that decision may result in adverse consequences. Patton understood the value in this — along with the reason why most people didn't have it.
11. "I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight."
Having served the U.S. Army for 36 years, Patton was a career soldier who served as an example for his troops. He believed in his country, his mission, and winning the battles he was tasked with. He also knew very well how to motivate his troops to fight with him:
Patton was relieved of command of the 3rd Army by Eisenhower just after the end of the war for stating publicly that America had been fighting the wrong enemy— Germany instead of Russia
According to the 1987 book Cannon fodder: growing up for Vietnam the exact quote is:
We may have been fighting the wrong enemy (Germany) all along. But while we're here (on the Soviet border), we should go after the b****** now, 'cause we're gonna have to fight 'em eventually.
The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognisance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously.
From C. Province's The Unknown Patton, he also was quoted as saying the following, when speaking about the Allied forces liberating Europe:
The notion that General George Patton was assassinated by the American Secret Service, or the Soviet NKVD, or some combination of both, makes an interesting story. However, does this conspiracy theory stand up to rational analysis?
Robert Wilcox did a huge amount of research for Target: Patton, but his book ultimately stands or falls on the veracity of Douglas DeWitt Bazata, who is dead. Some of Bazata’s claims don’t stand up to scrutiny. For example, according to Wilcox, Bazata said that he had informants in Patton’s HQ unit who gave him details of Patton’s planned trip on Sunday December 9, 1945, which allowed him to plan the attack.
However, Patton had expected to spend that day with his closest friend, General Geoffrey T. Keyes, Commander of the U.S. 7th Army who was visiting Patton’s HQ. Keyes was unexpectedly called back to 7th Army HQ early that morning, and only at that point did Gay and Patton decide to go hunting. That would have given Bazata very little time to prepare.
General Geoffrey T. Keyes
Bazata claimed that he followed Patton’s staff car to Saalburg and jammed the right rear window down while the car was left unattended. However, Patton’s chauffeur Woody Woodring was adamant that he had remained in the car while Gay and Patton walked round the Roman fort. Also, neither Gay nor Woodring recalled a rear window being jammed down – something that would have been very apparent on a bitterly cold December morning.
Then, Bazata claims that he went ahead of the General’s car to set up an ambush near the railroad crossing, though he wasn’t able to explain how he knew precisely the route that Patton’s car would take. He then waited for Patton’s car to arrive and he had a heavy truck in position ready to ram the staff car.
Patton in his Jeep
Patton in his Jeep
However, he explained to Wilcox, the collision that happened was entirely fortuitous and really was an accident which involved another truck which just happened to be in the area at the time.
He also explained that the assassination weapon, about which he seemed to remember surprisingly little, had an effective range of just ten yards. He did not explain how he was already in place ten yards or less from the spot where the collision happened – given that this was a fortuitous accident, this surely wasn’t in the exact place he had planned?
General George S. Patton Car Accident.
General George S. Patton Car Accident.
He then claims he shot Patton in the face through the open right rear window of the staff car in the immediate aftermath of the accident, breaking his neck. Apparently no one, including Patton, noticed this happening.
I don’t know about you, but to me this doesn’t sound like a description of a plausible and professional attempt at an assassination. There are just too many coincidences and unknown variables involved.
For example, how could Bazata have known the route that Patton’s car would take in sufficient time to have another vehicle standing by, ready to crash into it?
General George S. Patton Car Accident
General George S. Patton Car Accident
Also, with a range of just ten yards to his weapon, Bazata would have had to be very certain of the precise location of the crash and the position in which the General’s car would come to rest afterwards. I can’t see how that is possible, especially if the actual crash involved a different truck. I also find it difficult to accept that no one in the car, including Patton himself, noticed that the general had been struck by a projectile.
No one else seems to have heard of an assassination weapon similar to that described by Bazata. He said that it was from a “little country,” perhaps Czech or Swiss, and powered by a spring or compressed air. It could shoot almost anything – including, he claimed, “a teacup.” He describes the projectile used to injure Patton as a “bolt-shaped” piece of rubber, or possibly a small cube of rubber.
Bradley, Eisenhower and Patton (right) in Bastogne, Belgium, 1945
Bradley, Eisenhower and Patton (right) in Bastogne, Belgium, 1945
I have not been able to find any other reference to a weapon which fires a rubber projectile with sufficient force to reliably break a human neck. Rubber bullets are occasionally used by police, and these do sometimes kill, but they would not make a reliable assassination tool.
It’s also worth noting that Bazata’s description of this weapon is very similar to the gun described in the novel The Algonquin Project, though author Frederick W. Nolan later said that this wasn’t based on any real weapon and that he had invented it purely for the novel.
Finally, Bazata was adamant that he was ordered–and paid, in some accounts–to kill Patton by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). However, when President Roosevelt died in April 1945, support for Donovan, the OSS, and its proposed post-war replacement, the CIA, declined sharply.
On September 25, 1945, President Truman relieved Donovan of his command and ordered that the OSS be wound up within ten days. So, either the plot to kill Patton was hatched before September 25, or Donovan somehow retained control over sufficient OSS assets to undertake the attempted assassination over two months later.
Gen. George Patton’s homecoming at end of WWII
Gen. George Patton’s homecoming at end of WWII
Bazata doesn’t seem to have publically mentioned his involvement in the attempted assassination of Patton until 1979, following the release of a movie, Brass Target, loosely based on the novel The Algonquin Project. Bazata was reported as saying to a gathering of former OSS operatives in Washington DC in October 1979, “I know who killed him because I am the one who was hired to do it. Ten thousand dollars. General William J. ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan himself, director of O.S.S, entrusted me with the mission. I set up the accident.”
Later that year, Bazata gave an interview to The Spotlight, a right-wing weekly newspaper published in Washington DC, published as “I was Paid to Kill Patton.” In the interview, he claimed that he was asked by Donovan to kill Patton but that he refused.
William Joseph (‘Wild Bill’) Donovan, Head of the OSS
William Joseph (‘Wild Bill’) Donovan, Head of the OSS
There are only two possible scenarios here: Either in 1974 author Frederick W. Nolan wrote a novel in which, by an astounding coincidence, the precise circumstances and even the unique weapon used in the actual assassination attempt on Patton were described in detail. This is despite the fact that Nolan never met Bazata and the novel was written before his public claims.
Or, Douglas Bazata read the novel and invented a story which closely followed its plot. We know that Bazata read the novel, because it is mentioned in his diary – he describes it as factual in parts and fantasy in others.
But why would Douglas Bazata lie? In Target: Patton, Wilcox describes Bazata in the late 1970s as “bitter and in need of money.” At one point, Bazata described his former OSS colleagues as “weaklings, liars, sneaks, cowards, thieves and especially betrayers.” Apparently, he was angry in part because he had not received pensions and benefits he claimed had been promised to him by Donovan.
General William J. Donovan reviews Operational Group members in Bethesda, Maryland prior to their departure for China in 1945.
General William J. Donovan reviews Operational Group members in Bethesda, Maryland prior to their departure for China in 1945.
These things don’t constitute proof, but it seems at least plausible that Bazata might have decided to invent a story which showed Donovan and the OSS in the worst possible light, and which might also provide him with a source of revenue.
It’s also notable that Bazata changed his story more than once. He sometimes claimed that he attempted to kill Patton, but he also said that he was there but someone else did the actual shooting. At other times he said that he had been asked to undertake the assassination but refused.
His diaries contain all those versions of the story, and even Target: Patton notes that Bazata was “conflicting” on this point. It seems very difficult to believe that Bazata couldn’t recall whether he had or had not personally attempted to assassinate Patton.
Patton during a welcome home parade in Los Angeles, June 9, 1945
Patton during a welcome home parade in Los Angeles, June 9, 1945
What then of the other evidence of a plot? The car in the Patton Museum certainly does seem to include parts from both a 1939 and 1938 Cadillac Model 75. However, museum staff contend that, after the crash, the car was repaired using parts from a similar, 1939 Cadillac. This sounds plausible and anyway, even if this isn’t really Patton’s staff car, how does this prove that there was a plot and/or a cover-up?
The “missing” reports on Patton’s accident also seem to be something of a red herring. Patton, who was conscious for much of the time between the accident and his death, was convinced that what had happened was nothing more than an accident. He ordered that no further investigation should be undertaken or either driver punished, which probably accounts for no reports being filed.
General George Patton (standing in the jeep) prepares to depart from Ohrdruf after an official tour of the newly liberated camp, 1945.
General George Patton (standing in the jeep) prepares to depart from Ohrdruf after an official tour of the newly liberated camp, 1945.
Patton’s driver, Woody Woodring, was interviewed about the accident many times, and even took part in a publicity tour for the movie Brass Target. Woodring was certain that the event was an accident. He said of his involvement in publicity for the movie “My purpose was to set the record straight. The movie certainly didn’t.”
Woodring was also certain that the first military policemen on the scene were Lieutenants Valandingham and Smith of the 818th Military Police Company, not Lieutenant Peter Balabas who later claimed to have produced a report on the accident which mysteriously disappeared. It may or may not be relevant here to note that in 1987, Peter Balabas became the first Virginia state senator to be formally censured for unethical conduct.
American Generals Omar Bradley (1893 – 1981) and George Patton (1885 – 1945) with Secretary of War Henry Stimson (1867 – 1950)
American Generals Omar Bradley (1893 – 1981) and George Patton (1885 – 1945) with Secretary of War Henry Stimson (1867 – 1950)
What then of the motive for the assassination? In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, the author of Target: Patton noted: “I don’t think Dwight Eisenhower would ever have been elected president if Patton had lived to say the things he wanted to say.”
It is certainly true that Eisenhower was elected U.S. President in 1953 and that, even in late 1945, he may have been considering a political career. However, like many other aspects of this story, this one doesn’t really hold up to close examination.
Patton was certainly highly critical of aspects of Eisenhower’s military leadership during the war, as well as distrusting and disliking the Soviet Union, but by late 1945 Patton was becoming marginalized due to his increasingly erratic behavior, his praise for Germany and his support for a war with the Soviet Union. There is no real evidence at all that anything Patton could have said would have seriously damaged Eisenhower’s political ambitions.
Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, Omar Bradley, and Courtney Hodges, 25 March 1945.
Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, Omar Bradley, and Courtney Hodges, 25 March 1945.
What of the contention that Patton was poisoned at the hospital in Heidelberg by the NKVD? This isn’t impossible: the NKVD had certainly carried out assassinations and had used poison.
The problem is, there is no evidence to suggest that this actually happened. The official cause of death was pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure. In simple terms, those who are paralyzed are prone to develop pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that develops in a blood vessel and then travels to a lung, where it can cause an interruption to blood supply and subsequent heart failure.
Coffin of General Patton on his way to the funeral.
Coffin of General Patton on his way to the funeral.
Although Patton had seemed to be recovering well, an X-ray taken on December 20 showed an embolus in the upper part of his right lung. Doctors were very concerned about it, and his death the following day was not a surprise to medical staff.
So it is not impossible that Patton died as a result of poisoning, but there is no evidence at all to support this, and what evidence we do have accords with the formal cause of death. If we apply Occam’s razor, it seems far more likely that Patton died as a direct result of the injury he received on December 9, rather than because of an NKVD plot.
Funeral of General Patton
Funeral of General Patton
There are a couple of other points raised by conspiracy theorists that are worth mentioning. The first is a claim that senior officers were present at the accident scene suspiciously soon after the accident. The second is that the ambulance in which Patton was taken went to a hospital in Heidelberg rather than the hospital in Mannheim, which was closer.
Funeral of General Patton
Funeral of General Patton
The first point makes no sense at all – it suggests that one or more senior officers were waiting at the accident site to ensure that the assassination attempt was successful. Quite apart from the fact that this would be incredibly stupid, it’s also not possible. As previously mentioned, no one knew what route Patton’s car would take, so no one could have been waiting at the place where the accident actually happened.
As to the second point, the hospital at Mannheim certainly was closer to the accident site than the 130th Station Hospital at Heidelberg, which was around fifteen miles away. However, the hospital at Heidelberg was the closest U.S. Army hospital, so it seems perfectly logical that that would be where U.S. Army medics would choose to take an injured American officer.
Funeral of General Patton
Funeral of General Patton
The notion that General George Patton was assassinated has grown out of a fictional thriller published in 1974. What is surprising is how much credence this theory seems to have gained despite the lack of evidence.
For the reasons explained here, I don’t think that the different stories told by Douglas Bazata are feasible or credible. Without those, we are left with nothing but surmise and presumption. I like a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, but I prefer these to have at least a measure of credible supporting evidence. That’s notably lacking here.
Read another story from us: Home-grown British Plot to Kill Eisenhower and Montgomery in London
Perhaps people simply find it difficult to accept that a person as charismatic and flamboyant as Patton could die as the result of something as mundane as a road accident. Despite that, in this case, I believe that the evidence strongly suggests that General Patton really did die as a result of sheer, blind, bad luck – not as the result of a conspiracy.
General Patton's ADMITTED assassin
"General Patton had figured out that FDR planned on handing all of Eastern Europe over to the murderous Soviet Communist thugs 60;on a silver platter61;. Patton voiced his opinion that such an action was basically insane, and for that he was relegated to a non-combat position. He would later have an automobile "accident"(?), and when it looked like he was beginning to recover in the military hospital 51; well, he had another "accident" (most likely with some cyanide), and he died. ((If you doubt that Patton was murdered, you need to get a copy of A. Ralph Epperson's book The Unseen Hand 51; please see the last section of this newsletter for information on how to order it. Epperson reports that General Patton was planning on resigning from the military so that he could speak out about the betrayal of the American people [by high-level U.S. officials]. Epperson also states that an undercover Office of Strategic Services (OSS) agent, Douglas Bazata, had received orders to murder Patton from OSS administrator [Knight of Malta] William Joseph 'Wild Bill' Donovan!))"
The Omega File
"440000 - OSS agent Douglas Bazata receives contract on General George Patton's life. Feuerball aircraft constructed at aeronautical factory at Wiener Neustadt. Germans test Bellonzo-Schriever-Meithe designs based on Coanda disk."
"The power elite's ultimate goal is a World Socialist Government, including population control such as killing by abortion. Leading Socialists like H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell have all expressed the view that killing innocent people will be part of this effort. And in case you don't believe anyone in the U.S. government is capable of killing innocent people, reflect upon the fact that OSS (Office of Strategic Services) agent Douglas Bazata on September 25, 1979 told 450 invited guests at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, that OSS head William Donovan paid him $10,000 to kill Gen. George Patton. Bazata also gave this information to THE WASHINGTON STAR!"
"Former OSS (Office of Strategic Services; forerunner of the CIA) agent Douglas Bazata told the Washington Star that he was given $10,000 to “put him down”. He claims he did not assassinate Patton, but was told how it was done by a fellow spook credited for the deed. Polygraph tests taken by Bazata gave no evidence of lying."
The murder of Patton is known for a fact, known for the very simple reason that an agent of the well-known OSS (Office Of Strategic Services), an American Military Spy named Douglas Bazata, announced it in front of 450 invited guests, nearly all high-ranking ex-members of the OSS at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC the 25th of September, 1979.
Bazata stated, word-for-word: "For diverse political reasons, many extremely high-ranking persons hated Patton. I know who killed him because I am the one who was hired to do it. Ten thousand dollars. General William J. 'Wild Bill' Donovan himself, director Of O.S.S, entrusted ne with the mission. I set up the 'accident.' Since..."
The tragic fate of General George S. Patton convinced other 'colleagues' and their honorable 'compatriots' of the uselessness of fighting against the 'War Powers' That Be.
>>>>>> it seems they even killed general patton: "Until recently, it
>>>>>> was only speculation that Patton had been assassinated. Now it
>>>>>> is known for a fact. And it is know for a very simple reason.
>>>>>> Because an agent of the well-known
>>>>>> OSS (Office of Strategic Services) or American military spy, a
>>>>>> certain Douglas Bazata, a Jew of Lebanese origin, announced it in
>>>>>> front of 450 invited guests; high ranking, ex-members of the OSS,
>>>>>> in the Hilton Hotel in
>>>>>> Washington, the 25th of September, 1979. Bazata said,
>>>>>> word-for-word: "For divers political reasons, many extremely
>>>>>> high-ranking persons
>>>>>> hated Patton. I know who killed him. Because I am the one who was
>>>>>> hired to do it.
>>>>>> Ten thousand dollars. General William Donovan himself, director
>>>>>> of the O.S.S, entrusted me with the mission. I set up the
>>>>>> accident. Since he didn't
>>>>>> die in the accident, he was kept in isolation in the hospital,
>>>>>> where he was
>>>>>> killed with an injection." ""
http://bookz.ru/authors/ral_f-epperson/eppersonrlf01/page-20-eppersonr lf01.html
Patton was very dissatisfied fact that it occurred, since Russia obtained a large part of East Europe, and many heard him at an assembly where he described the wars and this treachery to American people. But before he had the chance to confer with authorities he was killed, after arriving in the hospital after car wreck.
In 1979, a former secret agent of the administration of strategic services US gave a presentation in which he stated that it was he who was requested to kill Patton. This was Douglas Bazata, an experienced intelligence officer, who asserted that he received orders for the liquidation of Patton in order to deliver "impact". This came not from somewhere or other, but from the most legendary administration's Strategic services - directly from (its director) "Wild Bill" Donovan.
When Bazata was asked, why so many years later he came forth, he said he finally decided to make a public acknowledgement, and that "... his health was failing and he wanted the American people to learn truth".
The newspaper which printed the story stated that it had "...a professional analyst, who interviewed him and subjected Bazata to a thorough analysis of his psychological stress. His conclusion: "there is no proof of the lie of Bazata whatever ".
According to Bazata, although he received more than $10,000 dollars for the liquidation of
Patton, he did not take direct responsibility for his actual death. However, he stated that he knows who killed Patton, and that that was a prescription of a dose of cyanide in the hospital he entered after the car wreck, and that he perished from cyanide.
Douglas DeWitt Bazata, who served with the United States Office of Strategic Services behind enemy lines in France in World War II and later became an artist, died on July 14 in his home in Chevy Chase, Md. He was 88.
The death of Mr. Bazata was belatedly reported to The New York Times.
He was described as ''a red-haired soldier of fortune who called all colonels 'Sugar' '' in a 1978 book, ''Honorable Men,'' by William E. Colby, a former Director of Central Intelligence, and Peter Forbath.
Mr. Bazata had already served in the Marines and was a skilled boxer and marksman when he became an Army officer in 1942 and also joined the O.S.S., the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
He went on to be one of a daring group of about 50 American parachute officers who volunteered for what Mr. Colby described as ''a highly hazardous mission'' in Nazi-occupied France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Other members of the group included Stewart Alsop, later a noted journalist, and Mr. Colby.
In Britain, the American group received training for operations as commandos and behind-the-lines guerrillas in what was called the O.S.S.'s Operation Jedburgh. It is said to have received that name from a place in Scotland where ''Jedburgh justice'' for sheep rustlers was said to mean, ''Hang them first and question them afterward.''
More than 250 American and other Allied ''Jeds,'' as they became known, were dropped by parachute in three-man international teams across France, Belgium and the Netherlands to aid in leading the resistance in those countries against the German occupiers.
In 1944, Captain Bazata, as he then was, managed to parachute into the Haute-Saone department in eastern France without being captured by the Germans. He was the leader of a three-man Jedburgh team, including an American radioman and a French officer. Their team's code name was Cedric.
Once on the ground, Captain Bazata got in touch with a British secret agent whose code name was Emile. Emile had arrived in the Haute-Saone earlier, also by parachute, with the mission of assisting the area's Maquis, as the French anti-Nazi guerrillas were known, in various ways, including providing liaison between the Maquis and Allied elements in Britain. Mr. Bazata recalled, at a Jed reunion in 1988 in Washington, that when he parachuted into France, he brought along $300,000.
The Maquis, along with Captain Bazata and Emile, harried the German troops and, it is said, drew attention away from a sector of France's strategically important Mediterranean coast.
Mr. Bazata, a major by the time he left the Army in 1947, was recalled admiringly by Emile in a volume of memoirs, ''Maquis,'' which came out in 1947. Emile, whose real name was George Millar, wrote that ''walking with the tempestuous Bazata toward the German lines was like riding a horse with a mouth of iron.'' Once Emile and Captain Bazata escaped the attention of nearby Germans by pretending to be innocent Frenchmen gathering mushrooms.
Bernard Knox, an American Jed and also a noted classicist, recalled on July 28 during Mr. Bazata's funeral in the chapel of Arlington National Cemetery, that during the war, ''when it came to close quarters, he was all steel.''
His mettle was tested particularly during operations against the Germans in August and September 1944, when he earned the Purple Heart four times as well as the Distinguished Service Cross and France's Croix de Guerre with two palms.
Mr. Bazata's postwar life was mercifully peaceful, and diverse. He studied wine making in Paris and worked in the wine industry in Europe for some years. A decade after the war's end, he also plunged into painting, in the abstract expressionist vein, and had one-man shows in France, England and Germany as well as the United States.
His fellow painter Salvador Dali executed a canvas called ''Homage to Bazata'' in which Mr. Bazata was got up as Don Quixote. An admiring British art critic, Michael Webber, remarked in 1969, in the British journal Arts Review, that by then Mr. Bazata had lived ''a life eventful enough for a dozen novels.''
In the early 1970's Mr. Bazata, having given up both the wine industry and the painting world, began operating a pheasant preserve and hunting club in Maryland. In later years he held a post in the Veterans Administration and went on to serve in the Reagan Administration as special assistant to Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman Jr.
Mr. Bazata was born in Wrightsville, Pa., the son of a Presbyterian minister. He studied at Syracuse University and served in the Marines from 1933 to 1937.
His marriage in 1943 to Diana Chirieleison ended in divorce, as did his marriage in 1948 to Penelope Grant.
WASHINGTON, April 9, 2018: “Christ!” he said through clenched teeth, his face covered in blood, “What a way to start a leave.” It was not how he pictured his death. Gen. George S. Patton thought it more noble to die by “the last bullet of the last battle of the last war.”
Gen. Patton (inset). U.S. armored unit from World War II. Photo: National Archives.
But the war in Europe had ended seven months prior, and Patton was intent on breaking the peacetime monotony with a pheasant hunt near Mannheim, Germany.
Head-on collision or assassination?
Illustration of crash that killed Gen. George S. Patton. Screen grab from documentary “Silence Patton.”
The historical fact: On December 12, 1945, a drunken soldier out for a joy ride crashed his half-ton U.S. Army truck head-on into Patton’s staff car, critically injuring the warrior known the world over as “Old Blood and Guts.” He died of complications from a broken neck 18 days later.
But the debate continues. Was the bizarre demise of George S. Patton an accident? Or was the opinionated and talkative military leader considered so dangerous he was murdered?
That’s the debate explored in the 2018 independent documentary film “Silence Patton,” written and directed by Robert Orlando. The film is a reasonably-priced, downloadable rental currently available through Google Play. Currently, you can also catch the film in a very limited number of theaters across the U.S.
Stalin’s Oval Office champion
Russian dictator Joseph Stalin meets with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference. Screen grab from “Silence Patton.”
In wartime Washington, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a curiously cozy view of Russian dictator Joseph Stalin. He expressed that view in a communiqué to his ambassador to the Soviet Union:
“I think that if I give him [Stalin] everything I possibly can, and ask for nothing in return, he won’t try to annex anything. And he will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.”
From hot to Cold War
Left to right: Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Far earlier than Winston Churchill’s 1946 Fulton, Missouri, speech, in which the British wartime leader described the Soviet post-war occupation of Eastern Europe as “an iron curtain” descending “across the continent,” Patton had already seen the approach of the Cold War the previous year, preferring it turn red hot while the U.S. had the military advantage:
“We promised the Europeans freedom. It would be worse than dishonorable not to see that they have it. This might mean war with the Russians, but what of it? They have no air force, and their gasoline and ammunition supplies are low. I’ve seen their miserable supply trains; mostly wagons drawn by beaten up old horses or oxen. I’ll say this; the Third Army alone and with damned few casualties, could lick what is left of the Russians in six weeks. You mark my words. Don’t ever forget them. Someday we will have to fight them and it will take six years and cost us six million lives.”
So, did the Soviets murder the American general before he could return home to sway U.S. public opinion away from appeasing Stalin?
Patton vs. the U.S. military-industrial complex
Gen. Omar Bradley (left), Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gen. George S. Patton.
Another conspiracy theory involves Patton’s old West Point chums. According to the documentary, the Allied Supreme Commander in Europe, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, assembled a post-war meeting with high-ranking staff. He expressed concerns Congress might hold hearings to investigate how the U.S. military handled the war in Europe, find what mistakes were made and by whom.
According to historian Charles Province of the Patton Historical Society:
“General Patton was actually planning on coming home and telling the truth about what happened over there. And all of the bad decisions that were made. Eisenhower, [Gen. Omar] Bradley were all scared that Patton was going to tell the truth. And all the things they did wrong were going to come out.”
Read also: Touring Normandy and Belgium where WWI and WWII history are found
Eastern Europe recedes into the darkness
Red Army plants the Soviet flag in Berlin. Photo: National Archives.
The military blunders, in Patton’s view, primarily involved Eisenhower’s acquiescence to Russian demands that U.S. forces not advance into Eastern Europe, allowing Russia to expand beyond its borders. When Eisenhower finally decided to allow the Red Army to overrun the German capital, Patton was incensed.
Grabbing Eisenhower by the shoulders, he said,
“We had better take Berlin and quick, and on to the Oder [River] to prevent Russian advances.”
“Who would want it [Berlin]?” replied Eisenhower.
“I think history will answer that for you,” said Patton.
He would later muse, “I wonder how the dead will speak… when they know that for the first time in centuries we have opened Central and Western Europe to the forces of Genghis Khan.”
Syndicated columnist and military historian, Victor Davis Hanson. Screen capture from “Silence Patton.”
America’s first MAGA general?
The cigar-chomping general with the ivory-handled pistol in his holster, in Victor Davis Hanson’s view, was more in keeping with the durble romantic archetype we can trace back to America’s frontier.
“Every great western is based on the same theme as George Patton’s fate. He’s a western hero. He comes on the scene. He shocks. He wins the war. He tells us how he’s going to win it, what is the nature of evil.
“And when he’s done, we say, ‘You know what? We never really liked you. We don’t believe in these things you say. You use too much profanity. We don’t like you slapping soldiers. So, you’re gone. Don’t bother us until we need you again.’
“That’s the American way.”
So, did Patton die at the hands of Soviet assassins? Or was it a Stalin-friendly Washington, with the aid of the U.S. military-industrial complex, that dispatched this colorful, America-first war hero?
To discover the answers, consider renting and downloading “Silence Patton” at Google Play.
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