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DEATH OF GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON
Mystery of WWII’s Most Fateful Car Accident
In one of military
history’s great twists of irony, General George
S. Patton, arguably America’s greatest tactical battle command
general was ignominiously killed by an accident of fate. Bored with little
left to do before returning to his home in California days before Christmas
in 1945, ready to retire or perhaps go on to politics, his extraordinary
life ended when his chauffeured Cadillac personal staff car crashed into
a supply truck in a freak accident. The accident occurred on December
9 the day before Patton's scheduled December 10 flight from his headquarters
at Bad Nauheim, north of Frankfurt, back to the states. He wouldn’t
die until the 21st of December, 1945.
How Patton Died
Patton
and his Chief of Staff
Major
General Hobart Gay decided to go pheasant hunting and
sight seeing for a day. With his driver PFC Horace Woodring at the wheel,
Patton and Gay in the back seat, the car was driving on a country road
just
east of Mannheim. The car was driving relatively slowly as the road was
rough where railroad tracks crossed. A truck suddenly pulled from a supply
yard and Patton’s car struck it on the right front. Patton was
thrown forward and hit his head. No one else in the accident was injured
but Patton was transported to the 130th Station Army hospital at Heidelberg.
He had broken his nose and two vertebrae in his neck. After the accident,
he joked in typically Patton style "Relax Gentlemen, I'm in no condition
to be a terror, now.", but had trouble breathing. A tear in his
scalp was sutured and his neck put in traction. He lingered in the hospital
for several days as his wife Beatrice traveled to Germany to be with
him. A Neurosurgeon was brought in, but he died after 12 days, officially
recorded from "pulmonary
edema and heart failure", probably from quadraplegic paralysis,
or which could mean he caught a pneumonia-like infection in the hospital,
something
the Army
might
want
to cover-up,
but not uncommon. Some accounts have suggested an embolism.
Patton Death Conspiracy
For
a great and controversial miltary figure like Patton to die in
such
a mundane fashion has caused years of speculation and conspiracy
theories
surrounding
his death.
Was he murdered by the Russians, or by those worried about his criticizing
the running of the war? Was Eisenhower worried about his presidential
political ambitions? There is one theory that Patton possessed
the mythical
"Spear of Destiny" relic
of the Holy Roman Emperors that Hitler had taken from
the Habsburgs (see Habsburg
Crypt Vienna), with reputed power to control the world and
was killed to get it. Patton did have the museum piece authenticated
and returned to Vienna. Some conspiracy theories arise from the reports
that
the car
was not going
very
fast, so
perhaps
he was in
a second wreck of a jeep on the way to the hospital. Some of the stories
may arise because the series of events are not so
clear.
The records
taken at the scene were limited because at the time, the accident seemed
so minor. The surviving picture of the wrecked car certainly shows enough
damage to cause the general to be thrown with force. But even the car
was repaired and put back in service. It's now at the Patton Museum at
Fort Knox.
Finding the Patton Car Wreck Site
There is
even some mystery about where the Patton accident happened. When great
generals
meet their fate, they have their markers, Wellington
has his tower at Waterloo (see Waterloo
Battlefield Belgium), Napoleon his
great tomb (see Invalides
Napoleon Tomb). There is no marker where General
Patton met his destiny. He’s buried in the American Cemetery in
Luxemburg (see Patton’s
Grave Luxemburg), but there is no marker
where the accident happened. Mannheim was heavily bombed during the war.
The accident reports are less than entirely clear and area has changed
a great deal since 1945. The reports indicate Mannheimer Strasse to Neckarstadt
in the suburbs of Mannheim. 
Mannheimer Strasse turns from Neustadter
Strasse in a T-bone intersection, passing apartments on one side and
the industrial complex headquarters of a German tech company, ABB, on
the other from Neustadter to Kallstadter where an army depot was located.
A railroad spur once ran down the middle of the street, but is now gone.
This is generally regarded as the accident location, though some locals
claim that it was farther south on Neustadter Strasse, where it turns
across the rail spur from the Spinelli Barracks Army Base, past the Bombardier
office and Enterprise Rental Car lot. Perhaps this is where the theory
of a second accident arises.
You
can investigate for yourself if visiting Heidelberg or Mannheim. By
train, the Mannheim-Kafertal
station is on Neustadter Strasse within
walking distance of both sites. By car, the location is just northwest
of the Mannheim City Airport. From the A6 Autobahn take the 656 to Mannheim
from the Mannheim Kreuz, then take the 38a north in the direction of
Neckerau-Feudenheim, keep strait on Am Aubuckel until it curves past
the Spinelli Barracks Army Base then turns into Neustadter
Strasse. From Mannheim you
can take Friedrich Ebert Strasse to Kallstadter Strasse south a block
to
Mannheimer
Strasse. There's not a lot to do in the area, but just south of the curve
on Neustadter where the tracks cross is a green park area, the Alt Au,
with a beer garden and a restaurant. If renting a car in Mannheim, a
small Hertz location is at the ABB yard, but is closed on weekends.
Patton Barracks Hospital Heidelberg
The Nachrichten
Kaserne military hospital in Heidelberg, on the former Grenadier
army base now
known
simply as the "Patton Barracks" is still
in use today including the room where Patton died. The general public
is not allowed on the base in the current high-security era, but for
military members or families with U.S. military I.D., the hospital can
be visited. The Heidelberg base is on the list of base closures and the
U.S. Army will be moving out in about two years, when it may be possible
that the hospital and other areas could become a museum, but not for
yet awhile. © Bargain
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See Also:
SINSHEIM AUTO & TECHNIK MUSEUM
TWAIN HOTEL MYSTERY IN HEIDELBERG
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