General George Patton's Prayer to God

General George Patton, United States Army
World War II, at time of Battle of the Bulge

December 23, 1944, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
The Cathedral Fondation Pescatore

A prayer to God.
"Sir, this is Patton talking. The past fouteen days have been straight hell. Rain, snow, more rain more snow - and I am beginning to wonder what's going on in Your headquarters. Whose side are You on anyways? For three years my chaplains have been telling me that this is a religious war. This, they tell me, is the Crusades all over again, except that we're riding tanks instead of chargers. They insist that we are here to annihilate the Germans and the godless Hitler so that religious freedom may return to Europe. Up until now I have gone along with them, for You have given Your unreserved cooperation. Clear skies and a calm sea in Africa made the landings highly successful and helped us to eliminate Rommel. Sicily was comparitively easy and You supplied excellent weather for the armored dash across France, the greatest military victory that You have thus far allowed me. You have often given me excellent guidance in difficult command situations and You have led German units into traps that made their eliminatiion fairly simple.

"But now You've changed horses midstream. You've given von Rundstedt every break in the book., and frankly, he's beating the hell out of us. My army is neither trained nor equipped for winter warfare. And as You know, this weather is more suitable for Eskimos than for southern cavalrymen.

" But now, Sir, I can't help but feel that I have offended You in some way. That suddenly You have lost all sympathy for our cause. THat You are throwing in with von Rundstedt and his paper-hanging god [Hitler]. You know that without me telling that ourn situation is desperate. Sure, I can tell my staff that evrything is going according to plan, but there's no use telling You that my 101st Airborne is holding out against tremendous odds in Bastogne, and that the continual storm is making it impossible to suppply them even from the air. I've sent Hugh Gaffey, one of my ablest generals, with his 4th Armored Division, north toward that all-important road center to relieve the encircled garrison and he's finding Your weather more difficult then he is the Krauts.

"I don't like to complain unreasonably, but my soldiers from Meuse to Echternach are suffering tortures of the damned. Today I visited several hospitals, all full of frostbite cases, and the wounded are dying in the fieldss because they cannot be brought back for medical care.

The last words of Patton's prayer:
Damn it, Sir, I can't fight a shadow. Without Your cooperation from a weather standpoint, I am deprived of accurate disposition of the German armies and how the hell can I be intelligent in my attacks? All this probably sounds unreasonable to You, but I have lost all patience with Your chaplains who insist that this is typical Ardennes winter, and that I must have faith.

"Faith and patience be damned! You have just got to make up Your mind whose said You are on. You must come to my assistance, so that I may dispatch the entire German Army as a birthday present to your Prince of Peace.

"Sir, I have never been an unreasonable man; I am not going to ask You to do the impossible. I do not even insist upon a miracle, for all I request is four days of clear weather.

""Give me four days so that my planes can fly, so that my fighter bombers can bomb and strafe, so that my reconnaissance may pick out targets for my magnificent artillery. Give me four days of sunshine to dry this blasted mud, so that my tanks roll, so that ammunition and rations may be taken to my hungry, ill-equipped infantry. I need these four days to send von Rundstedt and his godless army to their Valhalla. I am sick of this unnecessary butchering of American yout, and in excahnge for four days of fighting weather, I will deliver you enough Krauts to keep Your bookkeepers months behind in their work.

"Amen."