Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General

PLOT: the circumstances surrounding the death of the General George Patton.

General George Patton "old Blood and guts" ...the general who used every bit of his skills and pushed him men to the brink many times. His victories are legendary this larger than life general. He pushed his way into the Rhine and the heart of Germany and helped save BASTOGNE by pushing against very heavy odds to help win the Battle of the Bulge. His distrusted the Russians openly and often offended them in interviews and comments to the point where the KGB....(RUSSIAN secret police) had him on their HIT list. Patton often made many mistakes including "slapping' a soldier and wanting to push ahead of the Russians into Berlin. He suffered from "foot in his mouth".... He knew many secrets of Allies. He was a "loose cannon" in the eyes of many people including 2 American Presidents both FDR and Truman. Some near misses including an attack by a British Spitfire on Patton's plane add to the intrigue. Being sent home and given a "bogus" army to lead.....to save face....Patton is days away from returning to the USA when he is "accidentally" hit by stolen American military truck with 3 DRUNK American soldiers in the truck. Suffering a serious spinal injury but he is expected to live but suddenly dies. Leading yet more mystery surrounding his death. There are NO reports about a stolen truck or investigations of the soldiers involved in the accident. CREDIBLE witnesses including fellow passengers in the same car as Patton.....a General NO less.... and Patton's Driver.....who all said told the same story about the DRUNK soldiers. Did someone "silence" the outspoken Patton so he could not tell HIS story when returning to the US? O'Reilly and Dugard the authors both do admit they do not believe in any kind of "conspiracy" theories on this event. But give plenty information about Military files come up missing or were never investigated. This bio is very entertaining since they give us a close up look from both the American, German and Russian sides of the War and add some very clear pictures of history and of the fascinating and odd.. demise of Patton..... VERY good.....4 stars all the way.

Killing Patton is Bill O's latest 'fast food style' book in the Killing series. Preceded by Killing Lincoln, Kennedy and Jesus, Patton has some tall expectations to live up to.

Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard release a historical book every year and Patton is 2014's edition. All books are written in the same format so if you enjoyed the previous three installments, you will enjoy this book. It is an easy book to listen to. Add on top of that the fact that I'm a WW2 history buff made this book a must purchase for me.

THIS BOOK IS NOT WITHOUT ITS FAULTS

The first chapter of this book deals with Patton's automobile accident and subsequent death. You already know the ending before the second chapter begins. For me, it is anticlimactic

The rest of the book ping pongs back and forth through the final year of WW2. This book is not a thesis on the late General as the title suggests but more a weak melodrama. There are MANY MANY MANY incidents included in this book that have nothing to do with Patton or his immediate world around him. Examples are the chapters included about Auchwitz concentration camp The General and 3rd army never entered Poland or Auchwitz and therefor its reasons for inclusion in this book questioned. Additionally, the story of Anne Frank and her subsequent death are chronicled. Again, Anne Frank and George Patton have nothing in common. Why it is included is again a question.

All of the facts presented in this book are already widely known and readily available. One gets the impression that this book is meant for entertainment and quick sales and not as a historical thesis. Keeping that in mind, this book is recommended for its entertainment value.

If you enjoyed Bill's other Killing books, you will enjoy this book May I suggest to Bill a title for next years book, Killing Hoffa. Id preorder that copy right now.

There is a brutality to war explored in this book that perhaps is worthy of remembering. The history related is spot on, but only a very little of the content is actually devoted to the death of George Patton and that is in the last few minutes. Mostly in the epilogue. I already knew quite a lot of the history and wanted to know more about a possible conspiracy to murder Patton. I walked away feeling a little beat up and really still uninformed about the Killing of Patton. This was almost a waste of a credit to me. A few interesting anecdotes about William “Wild Bill” Donovan was about the only thing which kept me from requesting a refund.

Bill O'Reilly is entertaining on TV but no narrator - AND it sounded like he was unfamiliar with some of the content. Not good.

There are two things about this book that are worth mentioning.

Firstly... The pace is fast and engaging as with the other three "killing" books. A good formula to engage those without a penchant for history. And on that alone I would recommend this book.

Secondly... For those who study history it offers very little in the way of new facts. There is also the problem that the story meanders around the title "Killing Patton" making one think it is full of filler material to bulk up the story. I trust this book is a one off and not a precursor of things to come. I say this because the other three books seem to stick with the premise "Killing..."
As to making one think there is a conspiracy I think it fails to bring the reader to that...

I enjoy the O'Reilly Factor on TV, but, Bill your narration style is not pleasant. Jerky, sloppy pronunciation can make it a chore for the listener. This in the past has been compensated/overlooked by the fast paced compelling stories, but not this time.

Once again, yes I would highly recommend this book to someone not familiar with the subject matter but on a personal note I'm somewhat disappointed and I'm left asking what may have really died here...

I prefer books but O'Reilly has an easy voice for listening and regardless of his politics, he's fair about history. Likes FDR and Truman even if they were Dems.

O'Reilly makes a compelling case that Patton was murdered, either by the NKVD or the OSS or both. Like all of O'Reilly's "history" books, it reads like a novel and spends much more time on setting the stage and giving historical background than on the incident (which is fascinating). Books like this are fun to read in conjunction with more weighty history tomes. O'Reilly catches some different points. Must have been a good history teacher.

This is a very readable book, if an audible book can be considered readable. I did not want to stop listening once I started.

Gen. Patton of course! There was a very intentional emphasis on the grit of this leader. Old blood and guts is the antithesis of our current peppermint and flowers political leaders today.

Great story and so easy to follow. So much information I never knew.

The fast pace and factual information.

He is a great narrator.

Absolutely!

This is the best book ever in the "Killing" series by O'Reilly. I hope he keeps them coming.

Loved all the history. Touched on a lot of points of WWII. Told in an interesting way.

I've listened to his others and it sounds exactly like them. He is not my favorite narrator. He is tolerable at best. At least his narration doesn't ruin the book like some others I've listened to.

Definitely worth the listen. Interesting, not too in-depth historical details.

familiar Patton history

the various points used to show that Patton had a target on his back due to his loud voice, casuing problems for both the USA and USSR.

Details leading up to the accident and the accident itself were insightful.

Patton: Love him or hate him, he was our hero.

I found the book a light easy to read (listen) history of the end of WWII. Many chapters in the book seemed to be pulled right out of movies on similar topics. Some stories seemed to be included, not so much for moving the story along, but to make connections with the reader and other media they had previously seen. Some of the stories of Hitler's bunker, Rommel, Bastogne and the concentration camps, while interesting, were only mildly connected to the story

Bill O'Reilly is a real pro and reading his own book is a real plus. Learned a lot about Hitler I did not know. Also learned about the politics of war. I did not know that Eisenhower was such a wimp.

Killing Lincoln and Killing Jesus are very comparable. All three books are excellent.

All three audio books are excellent.

The Real Truth !!