What Patton Did When a Black Soldier Was Excluded From a Memorial Ceremony

it is March 1945 a cold wind sweeps through a wet field near Kaiser Slaughtern Germany rows of white wooden crosses stand in the damp soil soldiers stand in quiet formations heads are bowed a chaplain steps to a wooden pulpit he prepares to read the names of the dead but one platoon is missing they stand outside the gate they are told they do not belong here they are told their dead must be honored somewhere else the men who bled the most are forced to watch from the MUD this is the moment a commander chose division over honor

it is the moment George S Patton decided that those who died under the same flag would never be cast into the shadows this is the story of what Patton did when black soldiers who gave the most were listed as and 14 others before we continue make sure you subscribe we tell the World War 2 stories that show what happens when the truth is more dangerous than the enemy 1st lieutenant Nathaniel Greer 26 years old came from the red brick row houses of Baltimore Maryland he LED the 3rd Platoon of the 900 and 2nd Quartermaster Truck Company

a segregated unit pushed into the teeth of the German winter back home Greer had studied classical literature at Morgan State College before the draft board called his name he was a quiet man who believed that quiet competence would eventually force the nation to see his humanity on the cold hillsides outside Kaiserslautern his platoon did not just haul ammunition they fought off German counterattacks cleared minefields under fire and dragged wounded men from burning trucks in 30 days of brutal freezing combat

Greer saw 14 of his 35 men blown to pieces or torn by shrapnel he carried the weight of those 14 empty bunks every single night he was the man who had to write the letters to 14 mothers in Baltimore and Chicago trying to explain how their sons died for a country that did not even let them sit at the front of a bus colonel Harmon Cade 47 years old commanded the Regimental Combat Team from his headquarters in Tucson Arizona he was a regular army officer who wore a tailored wool uniform highly polished riding boots and a spotless service cap

Kade grew up in a wealthy family of landowners believing firmly in the natural order of things which meant a strict separation of the races to him the war was a ladder to a general’s star and his regiment’s record was his personal property when the fighting ended in his sector he wanted a grand clean memorial service to showcase his victory to the press and the high command he viewed the black soldiers attached to his unit as mere laborers utilities to be used and discarded rather than men who bled the same red blood as his infantrymen

his ideology was simple ancient and unyielding some men were born to lead and be remembered while others were born to serve in silence by March 1945 the Allied war machine was tearing through the western borderlands of Germany the Rhine River had been crossed the Siegfried Line was breached and the German army was collapsing into chaotic pockets of desperate resistance Allied supply lines were stretched to the absolute breaking point thousands of tons of fuel rations and ammunition had to move forward every single hour

to keep the armored spearheads rolling under this immense pressure segregated logistics units were thrown directly into combat situations performing infantry duties without the proper training or equipment amidst this chaotic advance military bureaucracy and deep seated prejudices remained fiercely intact many white regimental commanders treated these attached black units with open hostility accepting their labor and their lives but refusing to grant them the dignity of equal military status these commanders operated in a vacuum of theater

wide distraction assuming the Supreme Headquarters was too busy winning the war to police the daily indignities of racial segregation they believed they could run their regiments as private fiefdoms enforcing the social codes of the American South deep inside occupied Germany without consequence but the dust on the roads near Kaiserslautern was about to settle and the quiet landscape was prepared for a reckoning 1st lieutenant Nathaniel Greer walked into the regimental headquarters holding the printed memorial program in his hand

he found colonel Harmon Cade standing over a map table adjusting a set of brass dividers lieutenant Cade said without looking up you should be with your men preparing for your own service Sir Greer said his voice flat and steady I have the program for the regimental memorial this afternoon my platoon is not listed your platoon is an attached element Lieutenant Cade said turning slowly this ceremony is for the organic units of this regiment my men died in the same MUD as your infantry Colonel Greer replied fourteen of them are dead

forty percent of my platoon Cade rested his hands on the edge of the map table I am well aware of the casualties Lieutenant but a mixed ceremony would distract from the solemnity of the occasion it simply not appropriate a separate but equal service is the correct path here Greer looked down at the paper sir you listed every single white casualty by name my 14 men are listed at the bottom as in 14 others attached elements they have names Colonel they died under your command Cade stepped closer his boots clicking on the stone floor

do not lecture me on command lieutenant I have run this regiment through three campaigns your men will hold their own service separately behind the motor pool at 14 hours that is an order but Greer did not back down my men deserve to have their names read alongside the rest sir they earned that right with their lives your men are truck drivers Cade said his voice hardening into a cold sneer they did their duty yes but they do not belong in the main roll call we have traditions in this army lieutenant and I will not have them disrupted

for the sake of your sensibilities go back to your sector Greer stood at attention saluted and walked out he did not go to the motor pool instead he walked straight to the divisional chaplain holding the program the chaplain a captain who had watched Greer’s men pull bodies from the wreckage of the convoy three days prior took the paper he looked at the line that read and 14 others and his face went pale this is wrong the chaplain said can you get this to the general Sir Greer asked the chaplain looked at the program

then at Greer I can the report reached Patton within the hour Patton arrived within the hour his open top Jeep roared into the regimental headquarters courtyard kicking up a thick cloud of grey grit the four silver stars on his helmet gleamed in the cold March sun and the ivory handled revolvers rested heavily on his hips he stepped out of the vehicle before it had even fully stopped his face carved of granite his eyes locked on the entrance of the building officers and clerks froze in place saluting instantly as the general walked in unannounced

where is Colonel Cade Patten asked his voice was quiet but it carried to every corner of the room Cade emerged from his office his tailored uniform immaculate a look of sudden apprehension flashing across his face before he quickly saluted General Patton Sir we did not expect you Patton studied him for a long moment he did not salute back instead he pulled the folded memorial program from his pocket and held it up Colonel did you authorize the printing of this document Patton asked I did Sir Cade replied his chest swelling slightly

it is the official programme for our regimental fallen and who are the 14 men referred to at the bottom of page three Patten asked his voice dropping another octave the ones listed simply as and 14 others those are the attached logistics elements General Cade said the Negro Truck platoon I felt it best they hold a separate service to avoid any discomfort among the men during the main ceremony Patten took a step closer his eyes narrowing into cold slits you felt it best colonel you believe that their sacrifice was somehow

separate from the rest of this command sir it is a matter of maintaining our established military traditions and order Cade said his voice faltering slightly under the general’s intense glare Patton did not raise his voice he did not shout but his words cut through the silence like a scalpel you speak of tradition Colonel but you know nothing of honor those 14 men did not die separately they did not bleed in a separate MUD and they did not face German fire under a separate flag they died in the same frozen ditches

fighting the same enemy to keep your infantry supplied you have insulted their memory you have insulted their living comrades and you have insulted this army Patton paused letting the silence hang heavily in the room you have two options colonel decide in the next 10 seconds you will either personally stand before this entire regiment and read every single one of those 14 names aloud or I will strip you of your command reduce you to the ranks and have you shovel the very dirt they are buried in pick one Cade’s face drained of color

he swallowed hard his eyes darting to the floor I will read the names General you will do more than read them Patton said you will honor them the execution was swift cold and public at 14 hours the entire regiment assembled once more on the muddy parade ground under a gray spitting sky fifteen hundred men stood in rigid silence formed into a massive hollow square at the absolute front and center of the formation stood the remaining 21 men of Greer’s platoon their helmets dented their wool coats stained with the dark soil of the Rhineland

directly opposite them standing alone in the center of the damp earth was Colonel Cade he stood without his sidearm his polished boots sinking slowly into the mire forced to face the men he had tried to render invisible a wooden table stood nearby holding only a single microphone Patton walked to the table his ivory revolvers catching the dim winter light the silence of the assembly was absolute broken only by the idle heavy rumble of Patton’s idling Jeep at the edge of the field a cold wind swept through the ranks

carrying the sharp metallic smell of wet coal and diesel exhaust from the nearby railway no one moved the white officers of the regiment kept their eyes locked straight ahead their faces frozen realizing the full weight of the public humiliation unfolding before them Greer stood tall his jaw set watching the general pull a fresh newly printed program from his pocket in the years after the final guns fell silent Nathaniel Greer returned home to Baltimore he was 26 when the war ended but he carried the invisible weight of the 14 men

he had lost in the German MUD for the rest of his days he became a high school history teacher quiet and methodical rarely speaking of the medals in his drawer or the day the general stood before his platoon he lived a long productive life in Maryland surrounded by children and grandchildren who knew him only as a gentleman of peace until he passed away in the autumn of 1994 colonel Harmon Cade did not find peace in the post war world the formal reprimand from Patton remained a permanent scar on his military record

halting any further advancement he retired from the army in 1948 returning to Tucson Arizona where he lived out his remaining years in bitter obscurity he often complained to local veteran groups about how the old army had changed carrying his resentment until his death in 1971 General Patton himself never spoke publicly of the second memorial service at Kaiserslautern he made no mention of Colonel Cade in his press conferences and the official report of the reprimand was filed away in a dusty drawer at his headquarters

but in a private letter to his wife Beatrice written only three days after the ceremony he penned a single line that revealed his mind he wrote that a soldier who bleeds for his country has paid the entry fee to the Kingdom of honor and no clerk with a printing press has the right to deny him his ticket some historians have argued that Patton’s intervention at Kaiserslautern was driven purely by his obsession with absolute military discipline and the preservation of his army’s morale they suggest that he saw any internal division

including racial segregation as a practical threat to combat efficiency rather than a moral failure that needed correcting others have argued the opposite pointing to his decisive highly public action as proof of a deep underlying belief in the fundamental Equality of sacrifice on the battlefield they maintain that his anger was genuinely sparked by the blatant disrespect shown to men who had paid the ultimate price under his command what is certain is that the second memorial service remained an official matter

of record ensuring that 14 names were spoken aloud in the German air and that those names were preserved in the regiment’s history alongside the men they had died to protect if you had been in Patton’s position would you have done the same or would you have simply issued a private reprimand to avoid a public scene let us know in the comments and if you want more stories about what happens when the truth is more dangerous than the enemy make sure to subscribe

What Patton Did When a Black Soldier Was Excluded From a Memorial Ceremony