The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II

by Winston Groom

Overview

Celebrated historian Winston Groom tells the uniquely American tales of George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and George Marshall, from World War I to World War II. These three remarkable men-of-arms who rose from the gruesome hell of the First World War to become the finest generals of their generation during World War II redefined America's ideas of military leadership and brought forth a new generation of American soldier. Their efforts revealed to the world the grit and determination that would become synonymous with America in the post-war years.

Filled with novel-worthy twists and turns, and set against the backdrop of the most dramatic moments of the twentieth century, The Generals is a powerful, action-packed book filled with marvelous surprises and insights into the lives of America's most celebrated warriors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426215506
Publisher:	Disney Press
Publication date:	11/10/2015
Sold by:	DISNEY PUBLISHING WORLDWIDE -EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	77,378
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Winston Groom is the beloved author of 14 previous books, including Forrest Gump; The Aviators; Conversations with the Enemy (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize); 1942: The Year That Tried Men's Souls; Vicksburg, 1863; and Shiloh, 1862. He served in Vietnam as an officer with the Fourth Infantry Division. He lives in Point Clear, Alabama.

Table of Contents

Author's Note 11

Preface 13

Part I Beginnings

Chapter 1 First Captain, VMI 21

Chapter 2 Master of the Sword 49

Chapter 3 The Champion of Vera Cruz 91

Chapter 4 "Some Damned Foolishness in the Balkans" 117

Chapter 5 Courage Was the Rule 161

Map of Meuse-Argonne Offensive 168

Part II Between the Wars

Chapter 6 The Sad, Great Heap of Fleurs Blanches 189

Chapter 7 "I Am All He Has" 233

Part III Brave as Lions, Bold as Bulls

Chapter 8 This Means War 255

Chapter 9 There Will Be a Big Tank Battle in the Morning 269

Map of North African Campaign 274

Map of Operation Husky 293

Chapter 10 "I Shall Return" 303

Map of Defense of Bataan 309

Map of Pacific Theater 318

Chapter 11 Overlord 339

Chapter 12 Let's Win It All 359

Map of Operation Overlord 360

Map of Battle of the Bulge 378

Chapter 13 These Proceedings Are Closed 397

Chapter 14 Old Soldiers Never Die 431

Notes 475

Notes on Sources and Acknowledgments 491

Bibliography 495

Index 502

Illustrations Credits 510

Editorial Reviews

09/15/2015
Furnishing much more than the World War II experiences of three consequential American military commanders, notable writer Groom (Shiloh, 1862; Forrest Gump) has written an accessible, honest, largely laudatory contextualized narrative of the intertwined careers of George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and George Marshall. The men excelled as strategists and managers of war, with Marshall successfully adapting his talents as a peace-seeking secretary of state; the European Recovery Plan (Marshall Plan) bore his name and earned him a Nobel Prize. Blunt-speaking Patton, a promoter of armored warfare, overcame dyslexia to become an avid writer of poetry. Equally swashbuckling and contradictory, MacArthur imagined that people conspired against him but often offered wise counsel. Their commonalities are striking—all had Episcopalian and at least partially Southern family backgrounds and consequential life-shaping experiences in World War I. Groom explains terms and synthesizes secondary sources such as published papers and diaries (notably of Patton). The larger-than-life personas of these legends arguably helped shape the world's view of immediate postwar America, yet so did Dwight Eisenhower, who appears here throughout all of their sagas. VERDICT There is much material on the battle tactics of both World Wars, which should appeal to military buffs, while general readers will welcome a review of the facts about these men conveyed through felicitous prose.—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC

Library Journal

During WWI, Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall, and George Patton were involved in the same key battle. During this pivotal incident, all three showed the skills and talents—and weaknesses—that would mark their careers during the Second World War. Robertson Dean offers a solid narration of this work, carrying listeners along as the author recounts the life stories of these three larger-than-life military leaders. He varies his pacing throughout, never getting ahead of the listener but never letting the narrative languish. He doesn't try to impersonate speakers, although he adds an appropriately gruff tone to some of Patton's quotes. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2015 - AudioFile

2015-09-08
Interwoven biographies of three of the great American military leaders of the 20th century. Groom's (The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight, 2014, etc.) three subjects are both interesting in their own rights and sufficiently contrasting personalities to keep the narrative from bogging down. Patton developed the essentials of tank warfare in World War I and went on to use them brilliantly in World War II. Marshall became typecast as a staff officer, too valuable at organizing logistics, personnel, and supply to risk in a combat command. He remains best known for the plan that led to the economic revival of Europe after the war. MacArthur was perhaps the finest field general of them all, yet like Marshall, his greatest achievement may have come when the war was over, in creating the groundwork for modern Japan. Steady, self-effacing Marshall was a team player, while the other two were ego-driven and jealous of all rivals. Groom takes each of them from youth to the ends of their careers, taking advantage of opportunities to comment on historical trends. While the author is by no means a strong stylist—too fond of clichés, given to piling up adjectives, often clumsy on the sentence level—he's a first-rate storyteller, and these three men give him plenty of material. He trots out the great quotes and the telling anecdotes from each of their careers and takes full advantage of their many interactions with other famous figures, such as MacArthur's discovery that Lindbergh was flying fighters in the South Pacific during the war. Groom also has a novelist's sense of timing and scene-building. His research, drawing on his subjects' own writings, effectively draws out their characters. Some readers may find his sympathy with the rather conservative politics of MacArthur and Patton off-putting, but one suspects that sympathy was a strong ingredient in his ability to paint such compelling pictures of them. Military history that reads like a novel, full of great stories and vivid scenes.

Kirkus Reviews