General Patton was a Leica-nut!

A while back, I picked up a picture book by Michael Green, titled:

Patton's tank drive - D-day to Victory

One prominent 3/4 length at-work portrait had a long description

about his famous .45 Frontier revolvers and listed one of his famous

quotes about them, but what I noticed, was around his neck. It looks

like Leica in a leather half-case with a collapsible lens.

About 7-8 photos in the book show him in the field and he has the

camera at the ready in most of them, with the case open and no cap.

Sorry - no scanner here to share with.

Re: "General Patton was a Leica-nut!"

 

That explains it. ;*)

While he was certainly not financially destitute, it was his wife

who had the money. That explains it.

seeking perfection; that explains it.

German bodies.

yes, it is a rare "Heer" Leica II ;)

stolen, 䨠liberated in germany

Yep, he certainly was a "nut" - but quite a brilliant one at that! In the movie, "Patton", in which George C Scott superbly became Patton's alter ego, I think the only time I saw him with a camera around his neck, seemed it looked like a Contax (Contarex), but I will certainly stand corrected if I'm wrong. Maybe the film producers also got it wrong - I've not seen the book by Green.

Patton had considerable respect for things German. His personal firearms collection featured several Lugers and at least one 1896 Broomstick. It would have been in character for him to carry a Leica.

His regard did not extend to German civic conformity or politics. He thought German soldiers to be extremely obedient and brave, but narrowly trained and inflexible. He was astonished at the lack of mechanical aptitude and deficiencies of encampment hygiene of most of the common German troops; an amazement shared by Montgomery and Eiesenhower. He theorized that the former was due to fewer appliances and automobiles among the general population, and the latter to much greater emphasis upon movement warfare rather than static defense.

Over a restaurant counter in Hatfield or Whately Mass. I saw a huge B&W blowup of Patton standing on a pontoon bridge peeing in the Rhine. And scowling at the photogtapher.

fyi the US Army did issue Leicas.

 

In WWI the US reportedly paid Germany for violation of Mauser's bolt action rifle patent...don't know if we paid Barnack during WWII :-)

 

Things aren't as simple as history books and "patriots" make them out to be.

The American GI has never been slow in sizing up the "true value" in the countries we liberate. Even if Gen. Patton knew or cared nothing about cameras, it's only natural that sooner than later someone on his staff would alert to the Leica and push a clean one upstream as a way to suck up. That's how a military culture works, folks.

I don't know about the US Army "issuing" Leicas. However, a do know that a sizeable number of German military Leicas were "expropriated" by GIs and brough home to the USA. These cameras and lenses were a major source of WWII military engraved Leica cameras and lenses, eg. the "Luftwaffen eigentum" (air force property) and "Heer" or Wermacht Heer (WH) [Army] Leicas. If you look in the cases that came with these cameras, often there is a pouch containing a card with the name and rank of the soldier that "liberated" the camera. I have a Luftwaffen Leica with a case that had a card containing the name of the US Army Colonel that brought the camera home.

 

They were considered historical souvenirs by the soldiers.

I believe US Army actually provided operational and repair manuals...I think they've been advertised on this site. That's my only evidence.

Actually Patton was so high strung his doctors ordered him to find a hobby... so he took up photography. He ordered an underling on his staff to find him a camera that took great sharp pictures with exceptional bokeh and "glow". And then he added, "and don't bring back any of that digital crap either." ;>)

BTW, I think I heard that story on the History Channel... or I made it up. I can't remember which. ;>)

"I believe US Army actually provided operational and repair manuals...I think they've been advertised on this site. That's my only evidence."

 

John is correct. The US Military bought a number of Leica cameras and lenses before and during the war (through third parties or neutral countries). The Army did issue Operations and Repair manuals. Amazingly, it was still possible to obtain new Leicas even after the Nazis ordered that the entire Leitz factory production go to the German war effort (which was around 1942, I believe).

I forgot to mention, I didn't know that Patton carried a Leica, but I am not surprised. Patton had an appreciation of fine instruments.

Well, that certainly explains Patton liking pearl-handled pistols.

Brad, didn't you see the movie? His pistols had ivory handles. Patton said something like "Only a two-bit pimp from a New Orleans whore-house would carry a pearl-handled pistol."

"The General's Personal Sidearms"

 

http://www.pattonhq.com/unknown/chap05.html

A few historical errors to correct; 1. Patton himself was quite

wealthy as his father had been a very successful businessman.

He did marry into more money but he was not a poor boy. 2. The

movie Patton is a whitewash written by a former member of

Patton's staff. Do you know why Patton was relieved from

command in Germany after the war? It wasn't for insulting hte

Russians. Patton was given the boot because he refused to

DENAZIFY southern Bavaria. In fact he put a fair number of Nazis

back in power (many of whom were eventually arrested and sent

to jail). He was warned to stop this practice but he continued and

paid the price. 3. Patton was a vicious anti-semite who made life

hell for his Jewish officers... Patton was a nut alright. BTW,

Pattons hobbies were shooting, riding, playing polo and believe

it or not sailing. He had a moderate sized yacht that he sailed on

the east coast adn another that he used to sail to Hawaii in 1935

or so when he was stationed there.

For Eliot:

I have a pair of German binos I got from a Red Army vet in Tbilisi a few years ago. Old, wor, but very clear & sharp: marked, "E.Leitz - Wetzlar. They have army proof marks like found on various issue weapons. This the Leitz camera factory as converted to the war effort?

Dave

At some point in the European war, word got to the US high command that too many of Patton's men were having their way with German women. High command put pressure on Patton to stop this practice, but Patton resisted, saying, "A man won't fight if he can't f_ck."

 

Sunsequently, this quote was relayed to Roosevelt with the thought that the president would be outraged. On hearing these words, however, Roosevelt only responded, "Patton is a joy!"

 

Joy though he may have been, Patton was also a sadist, a sociopath, and, as has been mentioned, a vicious anti-semite. (In all regards perhaps not unlike many of his current coevals.) Hence, no doubt, his famous statement at the end of the war that, "We've been fighting on the wrong Goddamn side!"

Here's a quote from a speech Patton gave to his soldiers on the eve of D-Day (found at the "PattonHQ" site linked above). All the bad stuff I just mentioned notwithstanding, this speech shows, if nothing else, what an interesting and intense character he was. I'm sure many of his men appreciated that.

 

"When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun cocks_ckers by the bushel-f_cking-basket. War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it's the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you'll know what to do!

 

"I don't want to get any messages saying, 'I am holding my position.' We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shi t out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shi t through a tin horn!"