GENERAL PATTON
STILL FACES HIS TROOPS
American Military Cemetery Gravesite - Hamm, Luxembourg
General
George S. Patton is probably American history’s best
known military commander and one of its most accomplished generals,
despite his legendary rough edges. Known as much for his brashness,
bravado and outsized
personality as for his daring and tactics which served to help win
World War II for the allied forces. The General, nick-named “Old
Blood n’ Guts” is possibly as famous for slapping a soldier
as he is for leading the 7th army armored division across North Africa
and chasing Rommel across the Mediterranean or relieving the besieged
101st Airborne defending Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge (see Battle
of the Bulge Monuments), but as with a surprising number of soldiers
who don't return from battle on foreign soil, Patton's death was from
tragic mishap rather than enemy fire.
The
famed general survived four years of warfare only to be killed in
a car accident. Riding
his army Cadillac
with his driver and another
general on a hunting trip in the Rhineland of Germany, the general’s
car ran head-on into a military transport truck making a turn
on a road near Mannheim and Heidelberg (see Patton
Car Crash). Patton
was thrown forward and hit his head on the front seat, breaking his
neck.
He lay
paralyzed
for
12 days before dying on December 21, 1945, a day before
he was scheduled to return home to California in time for Christmas.
The American war dead from the European theater of 1944 and 1945 were
gathered and buried in cemeteries in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
General Patton was laid to rest along with soldiers of the Third Army
and others seeing action in the fighting in the Ardennes forest, the
push across the Rhine into Germany and later occupation period in the
American Military Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg. Patton's headquarters
after the end of 1944 had been in Luxembourg, that small slice of a
country between the Belgian Ardennes forest and the Saarland of Germany,
and the cemetery was established there before the end of the war. The
gravesite where General Patton is buried with its simple military cross
headstone now faces toward the graves of his former troops on a gentle
slope of green grass surrounded by trees, marked by a small white chain
to keep visitors a respectful distance, kept adorned by fresh flowers,
in front of towering concrete monuments with marked with diagrams of
significant battle actions.
The 50 acre American Military Cemetery at Hamm is the burial place of 5,076 soldiers and military personnel, including one woman as well as the famous general. It is located off the main motorway from Belgium to Germany (A1), just across from the Luxembourg Airport and 3 miles east of the center of Luxembourg City. Exit 7 on the E25-E44 highway is marked by a sign indicating "Cimetières Militaires". The cemetery is an easy stop along the highway, just a minute down the Dwight D Eisenhower Allee road from the exit and a 10-15 minute cab ride from the city or the airport. By bus from downtown Luxembourg, from Monday to Saturday city bus transit Line 8 with the destination “Hamm/US Military Cemetery” departs from the train station once an hour between 9:30 and 3:30 and takes 20 minutes (see Benelux Rail Pass). The last return bus leaves the cemetery at 3:50. Luxemburg is about 4 hours from Paris and two hours from Stuttgart. © Bargain Travel Europe
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SEE ALSO:
AMERICAN MILITARY CEMETARIES IN FRANCE
WWI BATTLEFIELDS OF THE SOMME - ALBERT-PROZIERS
FLANDERS FIELDS WWI MONUMENTS MUSEUMS
GENERAL PATTON MEMORIAL WINDOW - CALIFORNIA
