SOLDIER STRUCK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 24 November 1943, Page 5

SOLDIER STRUCK

SHELLSHOCKED PATIENT APOLOGY BY GENERAL PATTON GENERAL EISENHOWER DENOUNCES CONDUCT (Rec. 11.30 a.m.) London, Nov. 23. Lieut.-General Patton has apologised to all officers and men for striking a soldier during the Sicilian campaign. At the same time Allied headquarters in Algiers have permitted correspondents to reveal the facts. General Patton struck a shell-shock-ed soldier in a hospital tent because he thought the soldier was shirking his duty. The general in a fit of fury expressed sympathy for men really wounded but made it plain that he did not believe this particular soldier was in that category. General Patton struck the youth with the back of his harid. The commanding officer of the hospital intervened, but General Patton, still in a high temper expressed his views and again berated the stricken soldier who offered to return to the front.

The facts showed that the soldier had an excellent record and had fought through the Tunisian and Sicilian campaigns. He had been diagnosed a medical case a week earlier but refused to leave his post. Finally a doctor ordered him to hospital. The incident was reported to General Eisenhower who wrote to General Patton, denouncing his conduct and ordering him to make amends or be removed from his command. Generzft Patton apologised to the stricken soldier. to the hospital commander and to all those present at the time and explained that at a time of stress a general is under great nervous tension and may do things he afterwards regrets. When the incident was first disclosed l 'y the columnist. Drew Pearson, it

was officially denied that General Eisenhower reprimanded General Patton. An official statement said: “General Patton is commanding the Seventh Army and has commanded it since it began activities. He is continuing to command it a’nd no report has ever reached headquarters of any soldiers refusing to obey an order by General Patton who has never been reprimanded at any time by General Eisenhower or anybody else in this theatre.” A high ranking official at Al7?e3 headquarters in a statement to-day on the incident repeated the official denial that General Eisenhower had reprimanded General Patton, but disclosed that General Eisenhower “mercilessly castigated” General Patton after the slapping incident. He officially explained that a reprimand would mean official military punishment.