A rejuvenated German Army was slicing its way through inexperienced and weak American lines. Patton’s Third Army was well to the south heading east. Patton was mired in persistent “immoderate” rains and unable to move north to meet the attack in the manner to which he was accustomed. He asked for a “weather prayer”. Here is the story of that prayer.
theimaginativeconservative.org
Patton was religious and spiritual individual. Here is what he thought about the power of prayer.
The True Story of "The Patton Prayer"
The incident of the now famous Patton Prayer commenced with a telephone call to the Third Army Chaplain on the morning of December 8, 1944, when the army's headquarters were located in Nancy, France: "This is General Patton; do you have a good prayer for weather?" As I myself wrote the prayer, I...
theimaginativeconservative.org
Patton was religious and spiritual individual. Here is what he thought about the power of prayer.
Chaplain, I am a strong believer in Prayer. There are three ways that men get what they want; by planning, by working, and by Praying. Any great military operation takes careful planning, or thinking. Then you must have well-trained troops to carry it out: that’s working. But between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes. Some people call that getting the breaks; I call it God. God has His part, or margin in everything, That’s where prayer comes in. Up to now, in the Third Army, God has been very good to us. We have never retreated; we have suffered no defeats, no famine, no epidemics. This is because a lot of people back home are praying for us. We were lucky in Africa, in Sicily, and in Italy. Simply because people prayed. But we have to pray for ourselves, too. A good soldier is not made merely by making him think and work. There is something in every soldier that goes deeper than thinking or working–it’s his “guts.” It is something that he has built in there: it is a world of truth and power that is higher than himself. Great living is not all output of thought and work. A man has to have intake as well. I don’t know what you call it, but I call it Religion, Prayer, or God.
