General Patton was being glorified by the press for his successes commanding the US Third Army. His favorite armor division, the 4th Armored Division, had blazed at amazing speed into Germany and was known as “The Point.” Their advance had earned them a Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation1. General Patton’s confidence in the 4th Armored Division and his own selfish motives would lead him to commit the greatest folly of his military career. Indeed General Patton stated regarding his campaign in Europe, “I know of no error I made except that of failing to send a …show more content…
However, Lieutenant Colonel Cohen had a bad case of hemorrhoids and was unable to lead the mission. Lieutenant Colonel Cohen’s operations officer, Captain Baum was appointed to lead the mission in his stead.5 Baum’s forces consisted of ten medium Sherman tanks, six recon light tanks, three self-propelled one-hundred five millimeter guns, …show more content…
The column met very little resistance until they reached the town of Lohr. However, they fired at several small unsuspecting groups of German soldiers, dispersing the token resistance rapidly before arriving at Lohr. Baum lost his first Sherman in Lohr where a barricade and panzerfaust were waiting.14 The second Sherman overcame the German resistance and the column continued. Along the way they were able to disable a truck with tank tracks on it, two tugboats and barges, and a train with anti-aircraft