GASOLINE TO PATTON [Hardcover]

ALBIN IRZYK (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

- After the breakoutfrom the Normandy hedgerows in late July 1944, Allied groundforces advanced so swiftly across France and Belgium that they soon were outrunning their supply lines. Materiel ofall kinds grew scarce, but no commodity was more coveted than gasoline. At the end ofAugust, George Patton's Third Army, the fastest of all the Allied ou~fits, had to pull up and waitfive days after a requisitionfor four hundred thousand gallons was answered with a shipment of 31,975. "My men can eat their belts, " Patton complained, " but my tanks gotta have gas. " "There was plenty ofgas in liberated France, but Allied supplies were still being unloaded way back where the campaign had begun, in Normandy, three hundred miles behind Third Army's spearhead. In between the French railway system lay in shambles, i . ust as Allied bombing commanders had intended. Some gasoline wasflown to Pattonby pilots like Bill Perkins-but most of it had to be moved by truck. One convoy after another plied French roads, but the truckers could deliver to Third Army and the rest of the A lliedforces only a smallfraction of the million gallons a day they needed to keep moving. "Patton wasn't the only Allied commander clamoringfor more gasoline. At the direction ofSupreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower, the attacking armies were arrayed along a broadfront. To the north and west were the British and Canadianforces of the Twenty-first Army Group, led by Bernard Montgomery. To the south and east was the American Twet(th Army Group, led by Omar Bradley and made up of First Army, commanded by Courtney Hodges, on its leftflank and Patton'sforce on its right. Ike's strategy had as much to do with holding together an alliance as with seizing territory, but the Anglo-American partnership was put to the test by Montgomery and Patton, both of whom repeatedly petitioned Eisenhower to be the anointed leader of a concentrated, fatal stab to Germany's heart, and to be granted the resources to deliver it. Gasoline may have been hard to come by as Eisenhower sought to manage the war, but hefaced no shortage of ego among his talented but vexing subordinates. "No one can know what would have happened had Patton, instead of Montgomery, been armed with the knife to stab Germany's heart But it is known that Montgomery was given the opportunity to end the war in 1944, that he squandered it, and that the war lasted another seven grueling months. "

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Elderberry Press (OR) (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193276206X
• ISBN-13: 978-1932762068
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,872,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another view of the war in Europe, November 22, 2005

By 

Nobodyinparticular (Nowherefamous) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GASOLINE TO PATTON (Hardcover)

This book opened my eyes to an alternative view (compared to the prevailing views as seen in the media) of WW2 in Europe, contrasting Patton, Bradley,and Montgomery. In doing so the author points out the strategic mistakes made by Ike in the race to the Rhine and into Germany by favoring Monty instead of Patton. He plays the "what if" game quite well - and carries it through with extensive details, examples, and history based on the fact that he was there as a battalion commander under Patton. What if Monty was denied the resources for the ill fated and risky Market Garden, and those resources were instead given to Patton's 3rd Armored to continue their rapid advance to the Rhine instead? What if Patton was allowed to close the Falaise Gap and destroy the German army in France before it had a chance to escape?

The author even goes so far as to claim that Ike would not have been elected President had Patton survived long enough to write his book about the blunders Ike made in the war. It makes you think about what Patton could have accomplished if given the chance.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly involving and at times disturbing account, June 8, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GASOLINE TO PATTON (Hardcover)

Written by Brigadier General Albin F. Irzyk (Ret.), who fought in World War II in Europe as a Tank Battalion Commander in the 4th Armored Division, Gasoline To Patton: A Different War is a hard-hitting criticism of a military decision made by General Eisenhower in late 1944. As both a historian and a participant, Irzyk voices his belief that if Eisenhower had chosen differently, the war in Europe would have been over before the end of 1944, with no "Market Garden", no "Battle of the Bulge", and the Russian advance stopped outside of East Germany. Suggesting that politics and the need to appease the English by catering to their allegedly incompetent general outweighed the need for effective strategy in Eisenhower's mind, and claiming that General Patton himself would have chosen to resign from the Army and tell the damning truth had he lived, Irzyk "comes clean" with his point-by-point breakdown of what happened, what went wrong, and what could have been. A truly involving and at times disturbing account, part military memoir, part historical speculation, sparsely illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this first!, March 7, 2009

By 

Hand Surgeon (Nebraska, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GASOLINE TO PATTON (Hardcover)

READ THIS FIRST before you pick up the Patton DVD, Ordeal and Triumph, A Soldiers Story, Crusade in Europe or any of the other cookie cutter histories about WWII 1944. This is a first hand, in the turret account of one officer from the invasion up to the Siegfried Line and his thoughtful, detailed discussion of the eternal Patton vs. Monty question.

His personal account of rolling across France in the vanguard of the 3rd Army is like nothing I have ever read before short of sat. phone reporting during the invasion of Iraq. Most vets won't talk about their experiences. We owe a debt of gratitude to Brig. General (then Major) Albin Irzyk for his service, and an additional debt of gratitude for deciding to write and publish this in the self described twilight of his life.

Thank you, Albin Irzyk.