Customer Reviews

GASOLINE TO PATTON

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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.

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.

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.