Patton s Breakout from Normandy 1944

During the Normandy Breakout in France in August 1944, General George S. Patton relied heavily on decentralized decision making to push the German front 150 miles inland from the Normandy coast , south to the Loire River, west into Brittany, and east to Argentan in a mere two weeks, ultimately encircling the German 7th Army.

In the two months following the June 6th D-day invasion, the American-led Allies successfully established a strong foothold on the beachhead at Normandy but stalled in their efforts to move farther inland. By August 1, Patton unleashed his recently formed 3rd Army on a multidirectional attack across the French countryside with one general order to his army: Seek out the enemy, trap him, and destroy him. ^[3]

This initial communication was the first of many brief orders ”often verbal and rarely exceeding a few sentences when written ”that Patton would issue. In stark contrast to his peers, who normally communicated tactical plans to their large forces through lengthy documents, Patton opted to lead his 3rd Army with short mission orders that stated what needed to be done and left the how to subordinate unit commanders.

Believing that in-person visits afforded commanders ideal opportunities to communicate intent directly and inform their troops of the larger context into which their actions fit, Patton also reduced the number of cumbersome written reports that flowed upward. And when it came to supervising his subordinates , he never hesitated to ask tough questions or provide more explicit direction when necessary. At one point he went so far as to personally direct snarled traffic.

Patton split his four-corps-strong Army into three main prongs ”one corps sped west to seize the Brittany Peninsula, two corps drove south to Angers and Le Mans to liberate a series of German-held towns, and another corps traversed east to trap the German 7th Army. Patton s reliance on decentralized decision making unlocked the energy and ingenuity of his men, who made decisions based on their understanding of unfolding events at the point of action and eagerly exercised initiative. Subordinate commanders ranged as much as a hundred miles from his command post, enabling his army to cover a remarkably expansive geographic area and causing Hitler to think he was facing an enemy twice its actual size . The attack caused chaos within the German Army, which had grown accustomed to strategic fighting in the previous two months of static fighting.

In two weeks, Patton s Army encircled one hundred thousand Germans in a giant loop from Caen to the Falaise Gap and recaptured nearly ten thousand square miles of the French countryside. ^[4]

Leadership Lessons

Some historians jokingly contend that Patton issued brief orders because he suffered from dyslexia. Indeed, after his untimely death in 1945, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, his alma mater, positioned his memorial statue on the campus grounds to face the library. To this day, West Point Cadets joke that Patton faces the library because he never cracked a book there.

No historian denies, however, that Patton s willingness to push decision making to the lowest possible levels was a key determinant of his success during the Normandy Breakout. Knowing that each battlefield situation presented a unique set of challenges, he wisely delegated to the commanders facing those challenges in the field and trusted them to do their jobs. He also surmised correctly that he could accelerate the pace of his attack by issuing brief orders that oriented his forces on objectives and freed his subordinate leaders to proceed as rapidly as unfolding events allowed. Finally, by minimizing the amount of written correspondence between field units and higher headquarters and by pushing his commanders to visit frontline units in person, Patton dramatically improved the flow of communication within his organization.

^[3] Province, Charles M., The Third Army in WWII, The Patton Society Research Library, 1994.

^[4] www.geocities.com/Pentagon/ Quarters /5433/breakout.html.