{"id":182271,"date":"2024-05-20T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=182271"},"modified":"2026-09-07T07:02:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:02:40","slug":"podcast-992-patton-and-the-bulge-blood-guts-and-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-992-patton-and-the-bulge-blood-guts-and-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #992: Patton and the Bulge: Blood, Guts, and Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

General George S. Patton is known for his aggressive, action-oriented tactical brilliance.<\/p>\n

His character was also marked by a lesser-known but equally fundamental mystic piety.<\/p>\n

Those two qualities would come together in the lead up to and execution of Patton’s greatest achievement during WWII: the relief of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.<\/p>\n

Alex Kershaw tells this story in his new book Patton’s Prayer: A True Story of Courage, Faith, and Victory in World War II<\/em><\/a>. Today on the show, Alex shares how, when the Third Army’s advance into Germany was stalled by plane-grounding clouds and road-muddying rain, Patton commissioned a prayer for better weather that was distributed to a quarter million of his men, and how that prayer became even more urgent after the commencement of the Battle of the Bulge. We also talk about Patton’s qualities as a leader and a man, including his reading habits, how he combined a profane assertiveness with a pious faith and a belief in reincarnation, and what happened to him as the war came to a close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General George S. Patton is known for his aggressive, action-oriented tactical brilliance. His character was also marked by a lesser-known but equally fundamental mystic piety. Those two qualities would come together in the lead up to and execution of Patton’s greatest achievement during WWII: the relief of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Alex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42376,42385,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-history","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/992-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/992-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/992-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/992-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/992-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast #992: Patton and the Bulge: Blood, Guts, and Prayer | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-992-patton-and-the-bulge-blood-guts-and-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #992: Patton and the Bulge: Blood, Guts, and Prayer | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"General George S. Patton is known for his aggressive, action-oriented tactical brilliance. His character was also marked by a lesser-known but equally fundamental mystic piety. Those two qualities would come together in the lead up to and execution of Patton’s greatest achievement during WWII: the relief of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. 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