Existing comment:
The Patton Accident:
On Sunday, 9 December 1945, General Patton planned a visit to some ruins and a hunting trip before returning to the US the next day. With him in the sedan were MG Hobert Gay, his 3rd Army Chief of Staff, and PFC Horace Woodring, his driver. The sedan had just passed two Military Police Lieutenants, Peter K. Babalas and John Metzker. At 11:30, the sedan struck a 2-1/2 ton truck driven by T/5 Robert L. Thompson. The two Military Police Lieutenants arrived on the scene "before the dust had settled."
Lieutenant Babalas assumed command of the accident investigation. He saw that only Patton was injured. Patton had been sitting on the edge of the back seat and thrown forward. He suffered bloody but superficial lacerations to the scalp when his head hit the clock mounted in the rear of the front seat. Lieutenant Babalas was concerned about the position of Patton's head, and he ordered him sent directly to the hospital at Heidelberg. There it was determined that Patton had suffered a broken neck.
Babalas' initial report of the accident was that the damage to both vehicles was minor. Babalas had decided that he would report negligence on the part of both drivers. He believed Woodring was speeding and Thompson turned in front of an oncoming vehicle. He stated that it was "a lack of judgment on both their parts." When he visited Patton in the hospital, Patton requested that he find neither driver at fault. An accident was an accident and that was all there was to it. Both drivers were relieved of any responsibility.
On 21 December 1945, General Patton died of a pulmonary embolism. He had been paralyzed from the neck down since the accident. He was buried in the Military Cemetery at Hamm, Luxembourg. |