shown in Morocco, where in1941 he was the commander of the 2nd Armored Division. He was assigned to seizeCassablanca, which he did. He went to the headquarters of Admiral Michelier with pearlhandled pistols and a tommy gun and impressed the Sultan of Morocco. One of thebeginning scenes inthe movie shows Patton being presented with the order of OuissanAlaouite. The citation actually says the memorable line in the movie, "The lions in theirdens tremble at his approach." The changes in North Africa began on August 31, 1942,when Rommel attacked through the southern flank of the British line west ofEl-'Alamein. General Bernard Law Montgomery fought with Patton, and forced Rommelinto a retreat. Throughout the movie, Rommel and Patton are seen as major adversaries. Three American, three British, and one Canadian divisions landed on Sicily on July 10,1943. One of these divisions was General Patton's army. They pushed across the islandand overcame the last Axis opposition on August 17. The movie does not mention,however, that Mussolini had been stripped of power on July 25, and the Italiangovernment had entered into negotiations that ended in an armistice on September 8.The movie does deal with the famous slapping incident. The movie does notmention that the soldier later became an abusive alcoholic. Even though Pattoneventually gives in and offers a public apology, the incident keeps him out of action. Because of the negative public reaction, he ended up being a decoy during theNormandy invasion. The movie does not give an understandable background for D-Day.The tanks used in the major battle scenes in the movie were post war tanks and they werenot the same type of tanks that were actually used. Ironically, the tanks used on theGerman side in the movie are called Patton 1s. When the Germans had reached theMeuse and lower Rhine rivers and the Americans were coming up against the west wall.The Allies' most serious problem was that th...
