From General Patton’s diary: The Russians wanted to sing us into silence while celebrating the victory

The war diary of the American general George S. Patton contains a lot of notes about military decisions, about the procedures of the troops and, of course, also mentions about the liberation of part of Czechoslovakia (especially Pilsen). Historically important information has already been processed many times, as well as the history of the liberation of Pilsen and why the American troops were not allowed to help the Prague Uprising, even though Patton was very much in favor of it.

But in addition to these important data, Patton’s diary also contains a number of ordinary experiences, funny observations and highly ironic glosses. In this text, we present an example of several of them. They are from the period just after the end of the war, i.e. from the spring and summer of 1945.

12/05/1945: Russians drank whiskey without water, the consequences were bad

That day, General Patton and other officers flew to Linz, where the Americans invited several high-ranking officers of the Soviet Army and honored them. Patton didn’t like it too much, in his opinion, the Americans shouldn’t have invited the Russians, but it should have been the other way around. He commented on the meeting:

“After the ceremony was over we went to the officers’ club of the 65th Division and had lunch, which consisted mainly of whiskey. The Russians tried drinking American whiskey without water with very bad results. I certainly left under steam, but the Russian commander ended up under the table. On the 14th we are going to repay the Russians for their visit, before which date I shall drink quite a lot of mineral oil, as they will no doubt try to get us drunk.”

14/05/1945: The road was lined with attractive military policewomen

The same group of officers who took part in the celebrations on May 12 went to the headquarters of the 4th Russian Guards Army.

“We were received by Marshal Tolbuchin, the commander of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. They certainly put on a tremendous show. The whole way from the bridge where we met them to the castle which formerly belonged to the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph—about 15 miles long, I believe—was every hundred meters along the road there were soldiers with weapons and also extremely plump female members of the military police.

When we got to the castle, they had soldiers there with some sort of boot cleaning device. There were also a lot of maids who did everything except maybe wipe your face. They went so far as to spray your head with perfume.

After lunch they had prepared a very wonderful performance, which had undoubtedly flown in from Moscow. They tried to get us drunk, but we drank two ounces of mineral oil as a precaution before starting the expedition. We were also very careful about what we drank. The medal I received is numbered 58, indicating that it is quite highly prized.

I have never seen in any army at any time, including the Imperial German Army in 1912, such strict discipline as that of Russia. The officers, with few exceptions, give the impression of recently civilized Mongolian bandits. It strikes me as something to be worried about in the future world political reorganization.

8/8/1945: Polish priest describes Russian torture methods

“Lieutenant General Bishop Gawlina (Józef Feliks Gawlina 1892-1964 – editor’s note) from the Polish army came to see me and stayed for lunch. He is a very bright man, speaks perfect English and hates the Russians for good reason. He told me about some of their methods,” General Patton noted, going on to describe how, according to Gawlin’s account, the Russians forced one of the Polish priests to sign a false statement.

“They did nothing to him but brought a young girl into his cell and began methodically beating her to death to get him to sign. The girl urged him not to, but naturally he could not stand the sight of such brutality and signed. To profit from the whole thing as much as possible, they had the Russians place a tape recorder in the room and record the girl’s screams, which they then played back so that the other men they were going to work on in the future could hear it.

Another method of securing testimony is to hang a person by the wrists, but with bandages around them so that it does not cut and leave marks – then they make two incisions in the lower abdomen and leave part of the intestines hanging out of the body. Then they let the person suffer until the moment they are in danger of death. They then take him down, stitch him up, and heal him with the promise that if he doesn’t do or sign what they tell him, the operation will be repeated. In almost all cases, the fear of a second torture will make men behave as they wish.

According to the bishop, more than two million Poles were taken to Russia for slave labor. In any case, they divide families in the process. Moreover, they always lie about which part of Siberia the Poles were sent to. The bishop states that if they tell you that they have gone to northern Siberia, they must be sought in southern Siberia.”

18 September 1945: Russian zone in the Czech Republic – where did the chickens and goats go?

“Ike (General and later US President Dwight D. Eisenhower – editor’s note) and I went to the airport, where we arrived at 8:30. He flew in an Army C-47 to visit the Seventh Army and I flew in a new Army C-45 to Plzeň to fulfill General Harmon’s invitation to go hunting. Harmon met me at the Pilsen airport and we immediately drove to Prince Schwarzenberg’s family castle in front of him.

The journey, which lasted two and a half hours, first led along the border between the Russian and American zones in Czechoslovakia. Then we crossed into the Russian zone and drove another 45 minutes. Interestingly, normal numbers of ducks, chickens, sheep, cows and horses are evident in the American zone. After crossing into the Russian zone, these animals either disappear or become rare. The Russians take everything they need – despite the fact that Czechoslovakia is not an occupied but a liberated country.

The castle, which is extremely spacious, has 140 rooms, was built around 1700 and is therefore not a defensible building, but a luxurious residence. When we arrived, there was an honor guard consisting of roughly a platoon of Czech soldiers in various uniforms.

As usual in Europe, the first thing on the agenda was food. It consisted of salad, soup, three kinds of meat, four or five kinds of wine, and unlimited beer. Afterwards we walked around the castle which reminded me a lot of Bannerman’s Castle.

I have never seen so much armor and weapons gathered in one place with complete disregard for historical sequence. That means you’d find a weapon from the late 1400s crossed with a weapon from the early 1800s.”

The text was created on the basis of a digital copy of General GS Patton’s diaries, publicly available in the American Library of Congress (Library of Congress).