WWII_Ch4_videos

=**Chapter 4 Video Clips**=

**European Theater 1944 and 1945**
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**Hitler Invades France**
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**D-Day**
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**Achieving Victory in Europe**
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**After the War**
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**Fall of the Third Reich**
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**Killing Patton ** * Patton is furious of the politics that deprived him of the manpower and firepower needed to win at Driant; Bermard Montgomery, his British rival, had the material – if Patton had it, they’d have taken Driant.
 * Prologue: **Room 110; U.S. Army 130th Station Hospital; Heidelberg, Germany; Dec. 21, 1945 5:00 P.M.
 * Patton is in the hospital with 45 minutes to live.
 * Car accident 12 days ago
 * “Old Blood and Guts” is a man both revered and feared – he has many enemies, which is why he has the white-helmeted guards posted through the hospital – called the “Snowdrops” due to their helmets. Journalists are not at the Nuremberg Trials, but trying to get stories on Patton.
 * He is paralyzed from the neck down – bones in his spine were dislocated when his car collided with an army truck full of drunken joyriding soldiers.
 * Patton dies of a pulmonary embolism brought on by laying immobile the past 12 days – his wife requests that he be buried at the American Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg. Years later when his wife dies, she’s denied burial next to him, so their children smuggle her ashes into Europe and sprinkle them on his grave.
 * The accident à  the army truck swerved into Patton’s car’s path as if intentional; the driver and his two passengers vanished after; no criminal charges ever filed; no accountability ever recorded.
 * The official accident report and witnesses went missing.
 * In Oct. 1979, a former intelligence operative confessed that he planned and participated in Patton’s assassination – a shocking assertion that was mostly ignored.
 * Ch. 1: The hills above Metz, France; Oct. 3, 1944 12:02 P.M. **
 * PFC Robert W. Holmlund is scared; age 21; assault on German fort Driant.
 * Men are being hit all around him. HOW A SOLDIER IS EQUIPPED à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> wears a block of TNT or satchel charge; grenades dangle from cartridge belt; 15 lb 4 ft long Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) – can fire 650 3-inch bullets per minute.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He is in Baker Company, which is ordered to get inside the fort; the ripping sound of the German MG-42 machine gun is nicknamed “Hitler’s Zipper;” bullets ripped at 1,200 rounds per minute and kill a man a half mile away.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Baker Company is blocked by barbwire surrounding the fort; cutting it by hand will take days, so commander Capt. Harry Anderson orders it to be blown away.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">A Sherman tank clears a path and Baker Company sprints through.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Holmlund dives into a shell crater – sweating and muddy he goes from crater to crater as do others; sounds of machine guns, hand grenades, screams of wounded, and “medic” fill the air.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">His squad went from 12 to 6 and he assumed command with the leader down and in 2 hours he’s on top of Fort Driant.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Four months ago, Holmlund heard Patton say “The real hero is the man who fights even though he’s cared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overwhelm his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton delivered “The Speech” on June 5, 1944 just before D-Day – soldiers found hope in his speech and belief in their own courage.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He says “alertness must be bred into every soldier” which is the reason for drills.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">East Company gets in through the barbed wire a half mile north (a few days ago they suffered a major loss at the barbed wire); they get through but are pinned down by German fire.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Men are digging deep trenches trying to stay alive; the pain of trench foot from the autumn rains aren’t mattering – they just want to stay alive.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton knows the battle for Metz is failing and East Company is being decimated – these are German vets willing to die for Hitler, not inexperienced new recruits that Patton was told of.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Supply shortages kept Patton from sending more firepower – he feels Eisenhower halted him as he was moving quicker than others toward Germany (Patton single-handedly aimed to win) – instead of sitting still like Ike wanted, Patton adjusted his lines.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Once he takes Metz, he’ll stand still, but first needs to take Fort Driant – he needs one of his soldiers to do something audacious à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> that’ll be PFC Robert W. Holmlund.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Germans radioed in fire on the exposed and vulnerable men of Baker on the fort – they can’t fight back – Holmlund finds a grate on top of the fort reveling a pipe into the fort (a ventilation shaft)..
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He considers his satchel charge but it would get stuck, so he calls in a Bangalore torpedo – he lights the time delayed fuse and sends it down – then a second – chaos inside with the Germans.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">B Company is joined with Company G and they go into the fort and are fiercely fighting for control – fighting from tunnel to tunnel.]
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">American P-47 Thunderbolts are now in the air and helping East Company
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The next day the Germans counterattack – Holmlund leaves his safe defensive position and one under fire and by himself is firing his BAR at the enemy and he ends the counterattack.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Suddenly, a shot rings out – a sniper hits Holmlund – he dies.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Days go by and the battle for Fort Driant is at a stalemate – Patton is in no mood to lose a battle especially with Montgomery and the British given the green light (and the gasoline) to attack deep into Germany – Driant is all that stands in his way of Germany.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Capt. Jack Gerrie hasn’t slept for two days and is on Fort Driant pinned down by German fire; finds a piece of paper to write a message to Patton; he’s been heroic in combat plus knows the difficulty of getting through or even taking Driant; German tank destroyers have halted the Sherman tanks
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Soldiers hug the ground and pray; many are new to battle and young; by day snipers fire and by night it’s even deadlier as Germans silently prowl (they know the terrain).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He writes “the situation is critical” and explains the dire situation; he writes “if we want this d---ed fort let’s get the stuff required to take it and then go. Right now, you haven’t got it.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton acknowledges he can’t take the fort and sets up a mission to get the remaining soldiers out by having booby-traps set up to discourage the Germans from following; he wants to lash out but has to watch his tongue around visiting political dignitary J.F. Byrnes from SC and close confidant of FDR
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The “October Pause” begins – a foolish move by Eisenhower to halt advances; the Allies are reinforcing, but so is Hitler who is planning his own major attack.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 2: The Wolf’s Lair; East Prussia; October 21, 1944 9:30 A.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler is encouraged by victory at Metz (he takes credit since he ordered reinforcements), scientists have given word that they’re close to a nuclear bomb, and he is rid of top generals who despised him à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> he’s ready to unveil his major offensive.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Operation Watch on the Rhine is Hitler’s major new offensive – known around the world as the Battle of the Bulge
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Otto Skorzeny is considered by British intelligence to be the most dangerous man in Europe
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler’s favorite commando – numerous times he went on suicidal type missions (including rescuing Mussolini when he was first captured by Italians and capturing Hungarian rebel – Miklos Horthy – who was ready to ally with USSR à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> this was Operation “Mickey Mouse” after Horthy’s son Miki).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Even without Rommel, Hitler feels his plan will be success building it around loyal worshippers like Skorzeny.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The goal is to split the British and American armies – deliberately launched north of Patton so not have to face him.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Skorzeny will be part of “Operation Grief,” which he and his men infiltrate enemy lines by dressing in American uniforms and pretending to be U.S. soldiers – they’ll speak English – killing and capturing areas à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> on way to Paris to capture Eisenhower.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Right there Hitler promotes Skorzeny to colonel and says he expects to hear great things; Skorzeny smiles and accepts the challenge.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 3: Trianon Palace Hotel; Versailles, France; Oct. 21, 1944 Early Afternoon **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Eisenhower is at his hq; he’s hoping that the war will be over by New Year’s Eve – a deadline set by his boss, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Marshall was in Europe and is back in the U.S. and is displeased (like Patton) with the “October Pause.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Marshall sends orders to Ike that nothing must be held back.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">James Doolittle compared the Eisenhower-Patton relationship to that of a fighting dog and its master à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> when Ike’s unleashes Patton like a fighting dog, it’s hard to hold him back.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 4: Bolshoi Theater; Moscow, Russia; Oct. 14, 1944 7:00 P.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Churchill is in attendance at the ballet – his presence is a mystery to the crowd, but reinforces solidarity among the Allied leaders.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Olga Lepeshinskaya is one of the best ballerinas – her lover Iosif Vissarionovich sits next to Churchill, but he is better known by the name he adopted himself – Joseph Stalin
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Churchill came to befriend Stalin – he wants to negotiate directly with Stalin (knowing that FDR and Stalin making plans to exclude Britain from redrawing of maps)
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Stalin has indicated that he plans to occupy Poland and Hungary after the war and Churchill has no plans to stop him, but wants to regain some lost territory by dividing Europe between England and the USSR.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Churchill degrades the Polish as arrogant after they say they’ll fight for their homeland; FDR already secretly promised influence of Poland to Stalin; Churchill will too.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Basically, the Polish will be oppressed by Communist rule after the war since FDR and Churchill gave it away in the name of world peace.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Churchill came with a piece of paper he calls the “naughty document” proposing to divide the rest of Eastern Europe between the two – like Hungary to be 90% USSR and 10% Britain, Greece be 90% Britain and 10% USSR, etc.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The negotiate, but Stalin has no plans to honor any agreement – Churchill understands a harsh reality à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Britain is an island and can’t be dominant as just an island.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 5: Fenway Park; Boston, Massachusetts; Nov. 4, 1944 9:00 P.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">FDR is giving a speech for his 4th re-election – gives a good speech saying that everyone from every social strata has helped with winning the war.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">While this speech is going on, FDR’s appointed individual, William “Wild Bill” Donovan is doing some dirty work that he does for FDR à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> he is sabotaging America’s relationship with Churchill and Britain, so the USSR and U.S. can achieve a tighter bond.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Orders medical supplies flown into the Balkans at U.S. expense to aid Soviets going into Yugoslavia à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> there is a sideshow to the war – the undercover war to have Eastern Europe go to the Soviets, not the British.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">FDR views Stalin as a friend and ally and better to let the Soviets have control in a part of the world where the U.S. doesn’t have interests and in the face of the British, Donovan can be portrayed as unstoppable.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Two weeks after his speech, FDR is enjoying having been re-elected to a record 4th term.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Nov. 18, 1944 will be an important day for a memo FDR holds – straight from Donovan’s desk – Donovan is creating an agency for after the war that will spy on friends and enemies à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> approved by FDR, this will be the birth of the Central Intelligence Agency.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 6: War Room; Third Army Headquarters; Nancy, France; Dec. 9, 1944 7:00 A.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Colonel Oscar Koch is Patton’s top intelligence officer and only he believes the Germans are poised to launch a Christmas offensive and until now, no one would listen to him.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">In 10 days, Patton looks to launch Operation Tink, a bold offensive that will go into the heart of Nazi Germany (Metz has finally fallen and Fort Driant surrendered Dec. 8, 1944).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Unlike other generals, Patton consults his G-2 (intelligence officer) – relies on Koch.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Koch’s intelligence is showing that there isn’t much opposition to the operation, except to the north à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Koch is wary of an enormous German troop buildup.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Koch is correct – under the cover of darkness the Germans have maneuvered 200,000 Wehrmacht soldiers to the Ardennes Forest where the Allied lines are the thinnest.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton sees Koch as the best – most other Allied intelligence analysts believe the Germans are too beaten down to launch a major offensive.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The First Army’s G-2 Col. Benjamin Dickson isn’t concerned (later he’ll claim he foresaw an attack) saying German troop, tank, and plane movements were regular rotations; Montgomery isn’t concerned either.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The highest levels of Allied command aren’t worried – Koch is the only man who believes that the Germans are ready to attack.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">There is an explanation though to not take Koch’s warnings – the Germans have been pushed into their own country and their citizens are patriots and unwilling to share information on their own soldiers – when the Germans were in France, the French Resistance operated effectively to provide information; also radio silence could be explained if the Germans were using the telephones in Germany instead.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Operation Tink will go forward, but if the Germans attack, Patton will rescue the First Army à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Patton relays Koch’s concern to Eisenhower who relays it to his own G-2 who relays it to the First Army, which is where it gets ignored.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">German Front Lines; Dec. 16, 1944; 5:29 A.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Operation Watch on the Rhine is the German plan (Battle of the Bulge) to divide the British and American lines, push and retake the important port city of Antwerp; Hitler will then sue for peace with the west and keep from being invaded; then launch second attack on USSR and win.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">At 5:30 the order is given and up and down the 80-mile German line artillery opens fire with the deafening sound of “Screaming Meemie” rockets and 88 mm guns that hit targets 10 miles away.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">This opening offensive is called “Operation Greif” – Otto Skorzeny is beginning his mission by finding English speaking Germans to put in American uniforms to get behind the American lines and cause chaos and confusion.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The problem for Skorzeny is the Americans know all about the plan – evidently a German who was at the Wolf’s Lair circulated a notice up and down the Western Front asking for English-speaking soldiers.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Skorzeny went to Hitler directly to have the notice withdrawn but the damage was done – the paper had fallen into Allied hands – Hitler still wanted the operation to go on.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Skorzeny is nervous for his men – what they are doing is against the Geneva Convention and if caught they’d be executed as spies (unlike regular POW in uniform).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The operation did cause some chaos – Americans were paranoid – required answers to questions that only an American GI would know;
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The operation didn’t, however, turn the tide of battle.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">American leaders are unprepared for attack – General Omar Bradley sees the Ardennes Forest as impossible to launch a major attack through à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Bradley is superior to Patton and only under Eisenhower (Patton was higher than Bradley, but Bradley was given the promotion because as Ike wrote to others, Bradley is predictable, easily controlled and safe).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton sees Bradley as inferior to him and Bradley is caught off guard – he allowed pro baseball players to tour the area the Germans are attacking.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The American 99th Infantry Division has to hold Losheim Gap in the Elsenborn Ridge – if the Nazis get this passage, they can get their Panzers through the Ardennes Forest and stand a good chance of taking Antwerp.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The 99th is comprised of mostly inexperienced and is outnumbered 5:1 – they are scared and frozen.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Waffen SS is the lead German fighting force – they are the best of the best; Jochim Peiper leads at this time (very ruthless; admires Himmler – stood at Himmler’s side in the early days of mass executions; he brings ruthless talent.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Peiper and his soldiers are ruthless and murderous to captured Americans; they shoot the defenseless prisoners and any still alive are shot in the head.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Germans are pushing and overcast skies keep the Allies from using bombers
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 8: 12th Army Group Headquarters (Bradley commander); Verdun, France; Dec. 19, 1944 10:30 A.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Bradley looks like a fool since he had said the German offensive didn’t concern him; First Army Commander Courtney Hodges locked himself in his office (his staff uses flu as his excuse) à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> as predicted (by Patton) the First Army needs rescued – and it’ll be by Patton’s Third Army.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Eisenhower says the Meuse River is the line in the sand – Peiper and his SS Panzers cannot reach the Meuse River – if they do, they could take the advantage.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ike tells Patton he’ll command a counterattack move under Bradley’s supervision (Bradley is tense since he was fooled and the German advance could be seen as his fault).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">When asked when he can attack, Patton says Dec. 21 – this seems ludicrous to everyone else who sits silently thinking Patton is embarrassing himself à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> moving three divisions (100,000 men and supplies 100 miles in 2 days in the winter conditions is impossible)…Patton’s chief of staff nods…Patton says they can do it.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Reserve troops under General Anthony McAuliffe is already racing to the front lines in a desperate effort to halt the German advance with reserves à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> he’ll be leading the 101st Airborne Division.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The 101st will stop at a place called Bastogne – a very tiny hamlet, barely a speck on a map, but has seven access roads from its center (Germans call it a “road octopus”).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Germans desperately want to capture Bastogne – nearly have the 101st surrounded.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">In the meantime, the 99th Infantry holds off three German assaults as the Germans come out of the woods Elsenborn Ridge – they were charging uphill, but in fresh snow so got bogged down – easy for the 99th to machine gun them down – held off three German charges.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Panzer tanks and halftracks are waiting till the 99th fails to hold (still outnumbered 5:1) so they can obtain the vital roads through the Ardennes – if that happens, they’ll take Bastogne too…how long can the 99th hold is the question.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">On the way to Bastogne, the Germans took the small town of Noville defended by Major William Desobry and his very small group of soldiers and tanks.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The SS will shoot the village priest for given comfort to the Americans and for good measure six other residents; Desobry is nearly killed when his superior in the airborne is killed as their command post is hit by a German 88 mm.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Desobry is not shot (most like the Germans thought he’d soon be dead) – he’s taken to a prisoner camp in Germany – he did his job à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> delayed the Germans getting to Bastogne.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The 101st tighten their perimeter as the Germans have them surrounded – they await an attack.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Luftwaffe is dropping bombs on Bastogne (Hitler ordered flights under all circumstances) whereas American planes were grounded due to weather – which upset Patton.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Germans overran a field hospital taking the wounded and doctors prisoner and seizing the medicine and very vital pencillin
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">German General Heinrich Luttwitz sent four German soldiers under the white flag of truce to the American lines offering them a chance to surrender, a gesture both gallant and arrogant, feeling there was no need for Americans to be slaughtered – otherwise, there will be no prisoners.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">When word first got to McAuliffe, he was woken up and muttered “nuts.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">McAuliffe wasn’t sure how to respond – his staff said his first remark “nuts” is hard to beat so that was what was typed out.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Germans didn’t know what it meant; Col Paul Harper had to deliver the note with the Germans to the no-man’s land between the lines – when they got there he told them it meant go to h---.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 9: Fondation Pescatore; Luxembourg City, Luxembourg; Dec. 23, 1944 9:00 A.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Bulge is 60 miles deep and 30 miles wide with Bastogne as an island in the Bulge.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton goes into the Catholic Chapel (even though he’s Episcopalian) to pray – he told McAuliffe he’d be in Bastogne by Christmas but the ice and snow is slowing him.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Many, including Montgomery, don’t think Patton is going to be successful as he is outnumbered, doesn’t have much air cover, and has to attack on icy roads in thick snow.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton prays about the weather – that he’s wondering why God seems to be favoring the Germans having aided the Americans with good weather in Africa, Sicily, and D-Day; Patton says through prayer that he can’t help but thinking that he offended God.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Still praying, Patton says he’s run out of patience and is asking God to decide whose side He is on à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> he says he’s not asking for a miracle, just four days of clear weather and sun so the mud dries and the planes can fly.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton’s soldiers are bolstered by his constant presence braving the freezing weather – he even helped push a jeep out of a snowdrift – they know he wouldn’t order them to do something he wouldn’t be willing to do too.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 10: Ziegenberg, Germany; Dec. 24, 1944 1:00 P.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler wants good news but is hearing that Bastogne hasn’t yet fallen, that the Second Panzer Division is 3 miles from the Meuse River but is out of fuel.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The most crushing blow is the news of Joachim Peiper and the elite First Panzer Division.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He’s trapped in the small village of La Gleize – almost out of gasoline, medicine, and ammunition; not wanting his men to die, he hatches a daring plan.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He asks permission to destroy his tanks and he and his remaining 800 men can escape on foot through the woods – he’s denied twice when he argues for it.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">If he stays and fights they will all die, but if he surrenders he’ll be put on trial for allowing the murder of American POWs as well as civilians.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He decides to break orders and have his division attempt to escape à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> their walk will have to be during darkness and stay concealed during the day and will be about 12 miles and 2 river crossings to get to German lines à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> they do get to German lines.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 11: Moscow, Russia; Dec. 25, 1944 5:00 P.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Stalin is working at his desk in the Kremlin – he doesn’t celebrate Christmas in the godless Communist Soviet Union.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Stalin-backed Greek Communists are looking to secure Greece even though Churchill is expecting the control there (obviously Stalin is not a man of his word).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">On the eastern front, the Soviets are hitting the Germans in Czechoslovakia and Hungary – Stalin plans to push into Berlin after these nations à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Stalin isn’t liberating Eastern Europe from the Nazis, but instead is enslaving them --- the race is on in Stalin’s mind to expand his empire.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 12: Third Army Headquarters; Luxembourg City, Luxembourg; Dec. 26, 1944 2:00 P.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton is clearly exhausted and gets a message from Eisenhower saying he’s anxious for Patton to secure Bastogne – Patton writes in his journal “what the h--- does he think I’ve been doing?”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">After his troubles in the past, he’s careful not to criticize his boss in front of his staff, but writes in his journal criticisms of Eisenhower’s decisions.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">German lines are holding, Patton and the Third Army are stuck, and McAuliffe is enduring another violent day held up in Bastogne.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton’s tanks are moving closer to Bastogne but taking very heavy casualties and worse is Montgomery is not attacking Bastogne from the north saying they’re not ready à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> he is deepening their rivalry predicting that Patton and the Third Army will fail.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">General Hugh Gaffey (commander of the Fourth Armored Division) requests to attack Bastogne – Patton gives the go ahead.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Lt. Col. Creighton “Abe” Abrams commands the 37th Tank Battalion that will lead (Abrams will eventually rise in the ranks, become chief of staff, and have a tank named after him), but right now is about to disobey a direct order.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Abrams has to capture the heavily fortified town of Sibret, just 3 miles northwest of Bastogne, but he doesn’t like the scenario and he has a sense of urgency as he watches resupply planes shot down dropping supplies into Bastogne.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Abrams requests to move right toward Bastogne by taking Clochimont and Assenois – Gaffey passes the request on to Patton who orders the attack.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Lt. Col. Abrams’s tank division is able to get a split in the German lines about 400 yards wide; it’s narrow and the Germans are poised to counterattack, but it’s enough to get into Bastogne where McAuliffe tells Abrams he’s glad to see him; Patton praises Abrams as America’s top tank commander.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The next morning (Dec. 27) Patton again entered a chapel and prayed – he thanked God for his wisdom in the weather – which halted the Germans and allowed Patton to attack.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">By January 25, 1945 the Germans were pushed back to the positions they had before the Battle of the Bulge; the relief of Bastogne was significant in the Allies regaining momentum.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 13: White House; Washington D.C.; Jan. 20, 1945 11:55 A.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">FDR inaugurated to his 4th term – Harry Truman is the new Vice President.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Meanwhile, in Europe, Patton is again passed over by Eisenhower as Montgomery is picked to lead the Allied push into Germany à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Montgomery cleverly planned for this having held back most British troops during the Battle of the Bulge, while Patton was saving the Allied war effort.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">At the same time, William Donovan is in China (part of his around-the-world tour) and is aiming to have the OSS be the world’s elite organization and is very much willing to deal with the Soviets seeing as they’ll be a power in the postwar world.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He’s upset at the capture of OSS operatives near Patton’s headquarters – the woman OSS agent was taken by the Nazis in Sept. 1944 and told them she was a Red Cross worker, but Donovan fears the Gestapo will break her.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He’s upset with how she got caught – her an a Naval commander who doubled as a Donovan spy took a joyride together and accidently went into Germany à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> there is no forgiveness if they return alive – Donovan is one who believes in retribution and punishment.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton had nothing to do with the capture, but Donovan keeps an eye on him as there is a growing sentiment in Washington that Patton’s soaring popularity has to be brought back down.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 14: Auschwitz-Birkenau; Oswiecim, Poland; January 26, 1945 1:00 A.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Prisoners are taken out and ordered to march – they don’t know why and where to.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Kerma V was exploded by the Nazis – this is the building where numerous Holocaust victims were led inside and killed as a cyanide-based pesticide called Zyklon B was dropped through the ventilation system; death came slowly as prisoners struggled to breath – scratch marks on walls.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Bodies burned – ashes fell into the forests – smell of death through Poland.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler ordered that the murders be stopped and all proof of his atrocities be destroyed while the Russians are racing through Poland looking to occupy Berlin before the Americans.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Auschwitz was divided into three sections – Birkenau was the extermination camp part – prisoners are being marched to another section.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Any who can’t walk are shot dead; any who bend down to scoop snow to quench their thirst are shot dead.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The elderly and women with children were immediately exterminated while anyone under 14 were sent directly to the gas chambers – any who were able to work would go into slave labor (those prisoners working would gradually grow weaker to do very little to eat and once one was too weak to work, the prisoner is put in the gas chambers.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Prisoners who were being marched on this day are just left in the middle of Auschwitz as the SS hurriedly leave since the Soviets are closing in.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">By January 30, 1945, Hitler is his Berlin bunker and the situations is hopeless yet he and Eva Braun carry out the charade that the war can still be won.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Luftwaffe is destroyed, the Western Front is in complete Allied control and the Soviets outnumber the Germans 11:1.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Minister of Armaments Albert Speer sends Hitler a memo that the war is lost – that Germany doesn’t have the manpower or industrial capacity to produce war goods, but Hitler has no plans to surrender and is hoping his scientists complete an atomic bomb.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 15: A Rural Road in Poland; Spring 1945; Night **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Numerous rapes conducted by Soviet soldiers – still to this day the Russian government denies this, but the eyewitness accounts are overwhelming; one such instance took place in a barn with Jewish women who had left Auschwitz after the SS soldiers left.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Survivors find that their homes are no longer around or have been taken over by Russians as the Soviets took advantage of the Nazi deportations of Jews.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 16: Trier, Germany; March 13, 1945; Morning **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Like Caesar in 57 BC, Patton has taken Trier – shortly after he took it, he received a message from hq saying to bypass Trier, it’ll take 4 divisions to capture it…Patton responded after having taken it with two divisions “What should I do, give it back?”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton is on the move and as he rides in his open-air jeep through Luxembourg to Germany he makes mental notes of all the Sherman tanks sitting idle and plans to find out what enemy weapons stopped each one to better help the army rebuild for the next inevitable war.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He figures the next war will happen soon since the Russians are looking to spread communism in Europe, but for now he’s looking to press the Wehrmacht.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">It’s been about a month since Eisenhower had Patton go on defense while Montgomery got to cross the Rhine River, a political move since Montgomery had the British thinking he was Eisenhower’s equal; Eisenhower caved to pressure from Churchill.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Montgomery has taken credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge and there has been little to no mention of Bastogne.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton convinces Eisenhower to allow him to attack while Montgomery is 10 days away from launching Operation Plunder, the name of the Rhine offensive; attacking the Seigfried Line (p197).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Not all of Patton’s goals are tactical – the war is personal (he’s endured slights and setbacks – some by his own fault but just as many not) à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Patton wants to be judged by his accomplishments, not his words.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He’s looking to cross the Rhine River into Remagen – Hitler executed the four officers he considered responsible for leaving bridges intact à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> also replaced Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt with Albert Kesselring.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton feels that Eisenhower and Bradley both sabotage his success – Patton knows this is his last war and wants to end it on his terms – by attacking; he even suggests to Marshall that he fight in the Pacific after Germany is defeated.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He favors a “broad front” assault into Germany
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Montgomery prefers a single thrust through the industrial Ruhr region with himself in charge and Patton watching – Eisenhower mocks this idea, but eventually appeases Monty placing him in charge of the Rhine offensive.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton sees an underlying motive and even says “Before long, Ike will be running for President. You think I’m joking? Just wait and see.” This proved to be true in 1952.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Again Eisenhower making the popular choice, not the right choice (the British people believed it was unjust that after all of their suffering an American was in charge of all forces in Europe – Montgomery being in charge was appeasing to the British).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Eisenhower knows he needs Patton to be ready since Montgomery’s plan involves heavy fighting and a lot of casualties with Monty being notoriously cautious.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">It looks like Montgomery will win the race across the Rhine and take the glory, while Patton is South destroying the Seigfried Line.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton attacks in his Palatinate campaign (one of the greatest strategies of the war) while Montgomery waits and assembles more and more for his assault.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton took Koblenz at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers – he just needs a place to cross.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Two hours after midnight March 22, 1945 Patton sneaks a small force across; he messages Bradley putting his ego aside this time saying that he’s across but should keep it a secret, which will be tough to do the next day when thousands are marching across very quickly built and unstable pontoon bridges.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">A few German planes try to harass the Third Army, but they’re shot down – nothing is stopping Patton’s Third Army; they don’t even need radio silence – he phones Bradley telling him to tell the world that he’s across before Montgomery even got started.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton is driven to the front and is on the Rhine River – he’s thought hard about how he wants to mark this occasion – he pees on the river.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 17: Berlin, Germany; April 1, 1945 Night **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler enters his conference room looking at maps with soldiers and tanks in places where they don’t actually exist envisioning victory; others in the room still are having private conversations as if he’s not in there.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">It’s now very informal in the bunker as everyone (except Hitler) is terrified and knows the end is near – Hitler feels the war can still be won.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Berlin is being bombed daily, yet routine still goes on with the mail, shops opening, and bars being filled with Nazi bigwigs as the talk is who died, who got bombed, and who’s out of work due to business being bombed.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Germans from the east are coming into Berlin reported Soviet atrocities (rape and murder).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler’s two favorites Joachim Peiper and Otto Skorzeny will have be awarded medals in March, but will soon be done fighting.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Peiper and his SS Panzer division were defeated and disgraced in Vienna against the Russians – Hitler ordered them to remove their uniforms and armbands – Peiper fleed west and was captured by the Americans.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Skorzeny, who is from Vienna, goes there and finds it about to be taken by the Russians; he orders his men to hide themselves as he flees into the Alps; he’ll surrender to the Allies.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler orders a scorched earth policy and is kept in good spirits reading about Frederick the Great and Prussia emerging as a world power after the Seven Years War when all seemed hopeless.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler believes in signs – Goebbels is reading a book to Hitler on Frederick the Great who is about to give up and take poison seeing that his about to be defeated, then reads the quote “Brave king, wait but a little while. The days of your suffering will be over. Behind the clouds the sun of your good fortune is already rising and soon will show itself to you.” This is all Hitler needs to hear believing Frederick is giving him advice – Hitler weeps.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Days later, Hitler gets another sign that Germany can still win – FDR has died – the bunker erupts in cheers as Hitler shows them all the news.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 18: The Little White House; Warm Springs, Georgia; April 12, 1945 1:00 P.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">An artist is attempting o paint a frail FDR as his mistress Lucy Mercer Rutherford watches; what they don’t know is that FDR is in the early stages of a cerebral hemorrhage – chronic hypertension brought on by years of smoking and lack of physical exercise has burst an artery in his brain.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Harry Truman had just stepped into Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn’s private office when he was summoned to the White House; he was led to Eleanor Roosevelt’s study – she broke the news to him.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He asked her if there was anything he could do for her – she replied “Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton hears the news listening to the BBC which is an end to a nerve wracking day – he thought highly of FDR and didn’t think Truman would make much of a president.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He, Eisenhower, and Patton entered a massive cave and were lowered 2,000 feet into a salt mine – the Merkers mine the Third Army accidentally discovered.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The bombing of Berlin forced the Nazis to smuggle their financial reserves here à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> the majority of the gold had been looted from various nations conquered by Nazi German; much of this was returned after the war; the remainder was channeled into the Nazi Persecutee Relief Fund, which aided Holocaust survivors (it was exhausted in 1998).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Later in the day, the generals went to a concentration camp – Ohrdruf; the saw firsthand the atrocities of the Holocaust.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 19: Houses of Parliament; London, England; April 17, 1945 4:08 P.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Churchill is about to deliver an address to remember his friend FDR.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">In the weeks before his death, FDR was ineffective in dealing with Stalin at Yalta allowing the Soviets to dictate postwar Europe at the expense of Britain.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Churchill early in the war sought to build what he called a “Grand Alliance” between the three, but as time passed he looked to get out.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Churchill gives a rousing speech about his friend FDR who helped save England early in the war, but it was the same FDR who gave Berlin to the Russians.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Churchill now sees the Russians as the world’s greatest threat – he’ll later give the “iron curtain” speech.


 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 20: Third Army Headquarters; Hersfeld, Germany; April 17, 1945 Morning **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Like Churchill, Patton believes the Soviet Union is now the biggest threat to the world and to democracy – he’s convinced Churchill is the only one in power who knows what the world is “walking into.” --- Patton keeps his comments to himself (for now).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He’s feeling that he needs a command in the Pacific or his military career is over; his Third Army at this time is poised to turn north to Berlin.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton tells Eisenhower it’s foolish to give Berlin to the Russians and that America should not only take Berlin but keep pushing east – in time the world will realize he was right.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">It’s too late though – the Russians will take Berlin and keep a stranglehold on it for 50 yrs.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Germans fear the Russians and flee their homes – many German soldiers surrender to the Americans rather than fight the Russians.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton had appeared on Time Magazine and is finally getting the publicity he craves – should he enter politics, he’d be a formidable force.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Back in March he had planned and ordered Task Force Baum or the Hammelburg mission to rescue POWs (that included his son-in-law) à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> he knew MacArthur made big news in the Pacific liberating POWs and wanted to have the same.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">It wasn’t easy though – German opposition was heavy and half of the task force was killed, but was eventually successful.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Problem was they were only prepared to take 300 POWs, but had to take over 1,000; many walked behind the convoy – a German counterattack took more prisoners – nine days later the Fourteenth Armored Division completely liberated the POWs.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton’s order just to save one man (his son-in-law) cost a lot of lives – his son-in-law, Col. John Waters asked (when Patton went to see him in a hospital) if Patton knew he was there, Patton lied saying no à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Eisenhower will reprimand Patton, but that’s it.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Having breakfast with West Point friend Gen. Everett Hughes, Patton learns from a newspaper (Stars and Stripes) that Truman has nominated him for four-star general.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">On his way back, Patton’s L-5 plane is attacked by an RAF Spitfire (either on purpose or the RAF pilot mistook the L-5 for a German Fi-156 Storch which has a resemblance) – Patton’s pilot is very good and is able to evade
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The name of the attacker has never been verified, nor has the nationality of the pilot – the plane had Polish markings, but there were no Polish Spitfires in that part of Germany on April 20.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 21: Berlin, Germany; April 20, 1945 Midnight **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler is celebrating his 56th birthday – meanwhile the Soviets are getting into Berlin.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Top Nazis (Himmler, Goering, Jodl) celebrate and then run for their lives; Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary, is one of the few loyal who stick with Hitler.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Hitler still has opportunity to leave Berlin (made plans and sent staff to a retreat in the mountains of southern Germany), but decided to stay taking solace in Frederick the Great having come back from a devastating defeat.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Earlier in the day, Hitler went upstairs and spoke to some distinguished Hitler Youth members…at this point he’s shaking all over from his palsy (even sent his doctor away who had been giving him cocaine eye drops saying drugs won’t help anymore – basically admitting defeat) à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> this is the last that Hitler will see the light of day.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Three days later General Walther Wenck, commander of the German 12th Army gets a call that Hitler’s arrogant chief of staff General Wilhelm Keitel will be coming to visit.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He recently decided to feed half a million war refugees – rather than drawing up battle plans, he’s checking in on the children and sick – he hasn’t told his superiors; he’s preparing to surrender to the Allies rather than the Russians take them over.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Keitel shows up and tells him he’s the only chance to save Berlin and to turn away from the Americans (he’s west of Berlin) and go to Berlin à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> if he disobeys he’ll be relieved of command and shot but if he obeys the Russians will be destroyed by the Russians and his refugees at the mercy of the Red Army.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He tells Keitel he’ll do as ordered – but he’s lying.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Russians are ready to pound the city and brutalize its citizens as Berlin is defended by teenage Hitler Youth, the Volkssturm people’s militia, and elderly Home Guardsmen all of who aren’t battle tested – Berliners no longer pretend that life is normal.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Refugees travel west (only a fool would go east).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Nazi thugs and SS units go from house to house looking for Wehrmacht deserters and when they find any they hang them from lampposts with “traitor” pinned to their chests.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Many of the Russian invaders are barbarous and see the women there as their reward for years of fighting – Stalin agrees.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">German leaflets are dropped from one of the few remaining Luftwaffe planes that urge them to persevere that Wenck is on his way – but Wenck is merely opening a corridor for Germans to escape west to American lines.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">It’s horror for the German people as women are raped and suicides increase due to the Russian brutality.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">April 30, shortly before 2:00 p.m. Hitler is saying farewell – he allowed the others in the bunker to leave and flee; Eva Braun and Hitler married the day before and planned to commit suicide together.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He gives strict instructions to SS major Otto Gunsche, his military adjutant, to wait 10 minutes – the bodies are then taken aboveground and burned (Hitler didn’t want his body to become an exhibit).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 22: Flint Kaserne; Bad Tolz, Bavaria, Germany; May 25, 1945 Midday **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton is now military governor of Bavaria transitioning men and supplies back to the U.S. as he spends his days lobbying to fight in the Pacific
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He’s still fuming from Eisenhower’s orders to allow the Russians to go into Prague in Czechoslovakia and like Berlin, they went in brutally.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He sees the Russians as enemies too – he’s met with Russian generals after the war and they try to get him drunk hoping he would embarrass himself – he was onto what they were trying to do and added water to his whiskey and drank them under the table.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">With Eisenhower timid, the Russians are seizing more land and more people are coming under their occupation – Patton is very upset and says to journalists “You cannot lay down with a diseased jackal.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton pushes to keep at least 30% of American forces in Europe and ready to fight – Montgomery even agrees with Patton that the British should be ready to fight a Russian advance.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton openly lobbies his idea to the Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson who visited the Third Army; Patterson thinks Patton is delusional and advises Eisenhower, Marshall, and Truman to view the Russians as friendly.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">In time, Patton’s predictions will come true and the world will have to live with the consequences of America being gullible.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton is also troubled by a series of strange near death “coincidences.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">There was the attack by the Spitfire than no one knows who was responsible.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Two weeks later, Patton was riding in his jeep when a German peasant’s ox cart nearly smashed into his vehicle – a long pole tipped with a sharpened farming blade went through the front of the car – it would’ve killed him – it missed by inches.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">A Russian general comes to see Patton and demands that boats the Germans used to cross rivers into the American zone rightly belongs to Russia and the general demands that Patton turn them over to him.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton grabs a revolver, slams it on the table, and tell his aid to alert his soldiers to commence an attack east on the Russian lines – the Russian general turns pale and leaves quickly.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton’s aids fear he just started a new war – Patton laughs and says that’s the last we’ll hear from them – he orders his aid to call off the order.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">On June 13, Patton’s career will be officially over – despite the ineffective leadership of General Courtney Hodges in the early days of the Battle of the Bulge, MacArthur has chosen Hodges to join him in the Pacific rather than Patton.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 23: Schloss Cecilienhof; Potsdam, Germany; July 24, 1945 Late afternoon **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Truman, Stalin, and Churchill have been discussing the postwar world and Truman wants a word with Stalin à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Churchill is bitter since American policy has been to accommodate Stalin who has grown in power in Eastern Europe and is even seen as a hero in Europe.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Communist candidates in various European nations are favorites in several elections; Churchill’s party will even lose power in their election which removes him as prime minister.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Truman has a trait that FDR lacked – the poker player’s ability to tell when another person is lying.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Truman is about to give Stalin a clear message that America is the true power broker (Churchill knows what Truman is going to tell him and stands waiting to see his expression) – he tells Stalin the U.S. has a bomb more powerful than any other bomb and plans to use it on Japan if they don’t surrender à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Stalin pretends not to comprehend the full weight of what he’s being told.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Truman uses it as leverage to get the Soviets to join the war against Japan and also to oppose Russian demands that Germany pay for rebuilding postwar Europe with most reparations going to Stalin à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Stalin knows about the A-bomb though by spies (Klaus Fuchs and others will get atomic secrets).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Stalin’s own scientists are working on one too – he’s determined to rule the world.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Truman will realize after Potsdam that Stalin isn’t the friend FDR believed him to be and he will take a hard line against the Soviets.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">German is divided into zones (U.S., Britain, France, Russia) and Berlin itself is divided the same way.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Truman doesn’t like Patton – he doesn’t really know him, he just doesn’t like him basically from a first impression; Truman sees Patton as a braggart who struts around like a peacock in his showy uniform and detests his flashy style.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Truman’s postwar position toward Germany is that no one involved at all in the Nazi government can be part of rebuilding Germany – Stalin agrees à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Patton disagrees saying many weren’t Nazis, they were just in the government.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton also doesn’t like that former Germany soldiers are used as slave labor in Russia, France, and Britain – Patton feels these men should be used to rebuild their own country.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton says basically there’s a choice between Germans or Russians and he chooses Germans – Patton admired the Germans’ discipline and work ethic.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Russians file a complaint with Bradley and will win – while Patton is in America on tour selling war bonds, his headquarters is told they must give account for German soldiers that surrendered to them – also George Marshall orders Patton’s phones tapped.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Marshall likes Patton but wonders has a mental problem after Eisenhower wrote Marshall that Patton is a “mentally unbalanced officer.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">William Donovan also hates Patton – the OSS has been working with Russian spies since 1943 and are even together spying on Patton
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Donovan is aware that there are many communists and Russian sympathizers in the OSS and even knows that Stalin planted Russian spies within the OSS since 1942, but does NOT know that his executive secretary Duncan Lee, who knows all of his secrets, is actually a traitor who is working for the Russian spy agency the NKVD as a double agent.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">In May 1945, Donovan gets shocking information from agent Stephen Skubik who met with Ukrainian national leader Stepan Bandera who said “Soviet High Command has been ordered by Marshal Stalin to kill U.S. Army General George Patton.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Stalin was upset when Patton went into Czechoslovakia in the last days of the war defying Russian authority.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Donovan orders Skubik to arrest Bandera and return him to the Russians as a way of silencing him.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Skubik will hear a few weeks later from Professor Roman Smal-Stocki (former Ukrainian diplomat) that Stalin wants Patton dead and a third Ukrainian, General Pavlo Shandruk, also gives the Americans this information.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Donovan meets with Skubik and tells him it’s “just a provocation.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton wants to speak out against a policy of America leaving American and British soldiers in Russian captivity (Russia is using them as leverage so American officials were leaving the POWs in Russian custody so the Russians couldn’t make demands…it is believed that many American and British soldiers died in Russian captivity)
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton feels the only way he can speak freely is to leave the military.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 24: IG Farben Building; Frankfurt am Main, Germany; September 28, 1945 4:30 P.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton has been summoned to meet Eisenhower – Ike is heard yelling at Patton about his speaking out; Patton will lose his Third Army, but Eisenhower offers him the Fifteenth Army so he doesn’t have to return to America in disgrace.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 25: Joseph Stalin’s Private Villa; Sochi, Russia; October 17, 1945 Afternoon **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Stalin is vacationing to relax – he had two mild heart attacks at Potsdam, but kept them concealed; he’s not one who likes to be away from working, but is right now – he gets dozens of reports from Moscow each day à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> these reports trouble him.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">There are rumors that Stalin is going to quit and Georgy Zhukov or Vyacheslav Molotov will take over à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> Stalin considers it a desecration to his reputation and also the power he clings to.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 26: Palace of Justice; Nuremberg, Germany; November 20, 1945 10:00 A.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Trials of Nazi war criminals have begun – William Donovan is there – he still has scores to settle as the Nazis were responsible for deaths of many of his spies
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He is relentlessly anti-Nazi and began laying the groundwork for these trials in 1943.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">An untrue rumor that he is having an affair got to Truman who is most displeased and rivals of Donovan put together a report about mismanagement and incompetence in the OSS..Donovan clings to what authority he has left.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">His OSS was shut down as of Oct. 1, 1945 and at the trials he’s going to leave rather than be a subordinate to Robert Jackson, the chief prosecutor.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Donovan maintains a close relationship with the leaders of the Russian NKVD and British spymaster William Stephenson (many say he’s the model for James Bond).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Donovan had previously met with Douglas Bazata, a former marine and did work for Donovan behind enemy lines; Donovan told him how upset he was with Patton’s disregard for orders; Bazata asked if Donovan wanted him to kill Patton; Donovan said yes.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 27: Patton’s Headquarters; Bad Nauheim, Germany; Dec. 9, 1945 6:00 A.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton will be heading back to America for Christmas then plans to leave the military.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton is looking to go hunting (along with his chief of staff General Hap Gay) – PFC Horace Woodring is Patton’s new driver who grew up racing cars – more of a daredevil than the overly cautious John Mims who was Patton’s driver for most of the war.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">First, he wants to go to the ruins of the 1st century Roman fort near Saalburg – after a half hour he gets into the front passenger seat so the heater can warm his feet (he was climbing through snow and frozen mud).
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He’ll go back to the back seat so the hunting dog riding in the truck can ride in the warmth of the car.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton’s car waits for a train to pass…after it does they go on…ahead of them are two army trucks parked on the shoulder; as Patton’s car approaches, the trucks pull onto the highway.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Tech Sgt. Robert L. Thompson is a little drunk and there’s evidence that he had stolen he army truck (big money on the black market); there is no good reason – no side road – that Thompson pulled into the path of Patton’s car.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton’s head hits the steel partition in front of him, breaks his nose, and instantly paralyzes him.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton’s ambulance arrives and he’s taken to the U.S. Army hospital.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Ch. 28: Morgue; U.S. Army 130th Station Hospital; Heidelberg, Germany; Dec. 21, 1945 7:00 P.M. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Patton would die 12 days later – he is buried in the American Military Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Afterward **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Sgt. Robert Thompson and his two friends with him – Thompson claims he was flown to England by army intelligence for his own safety since many loved Patton; mysteriously, four days later Thompson is back in Germany and in an interview with journalist Howard K. Smith he says Patton’s driver was speeding and was at fault
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Thompson claims he was alone, but Horace Woodring and Hap Gay both swear that there were two others in the truck à <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;"> but any report, like other documents of the accident have disappeared.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">He is not arrested or detained for anything having to do with the accident; he soon vanishes from historical record and only resurfaces when he dies in 1994 in NJ.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Military police treat the accident as nothing more than a fender bender and wrote a standard accident report – despite Woodring’s report that all three were drunk, there was no test of alcohol or anything and Thompson’s having the truck was also not questioned despite being 60 miles away from where he was suppose to be and no real reason to be in Mannheim.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">At the time, Thompson said he was pulling into a quartermaster’s depot to return the truck – this is false because the depot was still sever hundred yards down the road.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The case was declared closed.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Official reports on the accident went missing; Patton’s good friend General Geoffrey Keyes launched his own probe, but his report also went missing
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">In 1979, Douglas Bazata of the OSS made the astounding assertion that he was part of a hit team that lay in wait for Patton’s car and that he fired a low-velocity projectile into Patton’s neck in the car and when he didn’t immediately die, he was poisoned by the NKVD; Gay and Woodring saw no projectile and this can’t be collaborated, but Bazata stuck to his story till his death.

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