TASK FORCE BAUM: PATTON'S FAILURE IN LEADERSHIP

General George Patton was no stranger to controversy. Perhaps the best battlefield commander the US Army had during World War ll, Patton always seemed to hold opinions he needed to share with others that few of them appreciated, especially his commanders. While the two incidents of him slapping soldiers in Army field hospitals in Sicily are well known, his ill-conceived raid on a POW camp in Himmelberg Germany in March 1945 is not well known and should have gotten Patton fired on the spot by General Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander in Europe. The raid cost the lives of at least 30 soldiers and was a total failure.

To understand Task Force Baum, one must return to North Africa in 1943 where Lieutenant Colonel John Waters was captured by the Germans and in 1945 was being held in the Himmelberg camp.  Patton wanted Walters rescued because Waters was Patton’s son-in-law and this rescue raid had to be planned in almost total secrecy so that Patton’s battlefield superior, General Omar Bradley, or Eisenhower would not learn of the plan and veto it.

To get the soldiers and equipment needed for the raid, Patton turned to one of his best tank officers, Lieutenant Colonel Creighton Abrams for assistance. Abrams was commander of Combat Command B of the 4^th Armored Division with two tank battalions and supporting artillery at his disposal. Abrams’s request to use one entire battalion in the raid was overruled by Patton, so Abrams had to settle on a kluge of units and vehicles. To command the task force Abrams wanted to use one of his battalion commanders but he was ill. In turn, the sick officer recommended his S-3 (operations) officer, Captain Abraham Baum. Thus, Task Force Baum was formed with the following order of battle- 11 officers, 303 enlisted men, 16 tanks, 28 half-tracks, and 13 other vehicles. In addition, Baum had a superior officer from Patton’s staff assigned to the task force as an observer; in reality, the officer’s mission was to identify Waters and “manage” him throughout the rescue.

On the evening of March 26, the task force began its planned 50-mile march to Himmelberg from south of the German-held city of Aschaffenburg just inside the German state of Bavaria. The Americans ran into immediate trouble due to a lack of intelligence- inadequate maps and the intensity of German resistance. Several tanks were lost, and a German reconnaissance aircraft flew above the task force during daylight the following day, March 27 to alert the regular German army and the paramilitary civilian defense forces to Baum’s location.

Their poor intelligence became readily apparent when Task Force Baum reached Himmelberg POW camp late in the day. Reduced to barely half of his original vehicles, Baum only had enough of them to carry back 300 US soldiers. Unbeknownst to the allies, the number of POWs in the camp was in the thousands due to relocation of allied POWs from the east and from the Battle of the Bulge several months earlier. Upon arrival, task force soldiers were fired upon by German guards and in the ensuing skirmish, several allied POWs were injured by gunfire because their gray uniforms resembled the Germans. Fearing he could be blamed for further injuries the German camp commander asked Waters to negotiate a ceasefire with the task force. Upon exiting his assigned barracks Waters was shot and severely injured. Nevertheless, a truce was arranged.

Baum then found himself in an almost impossible situation. Camp conditions had become dire to the preceding harsh European winter. Each POW only had enough food for 1100-1700 calories daily (a minimum of 2000 calories daily was necessary) and many had lost 50-60 pounds. Heating the many barracks was nearly impossible, with only 20 degrees heat throughout the cold winter and spring days. Therefore, too many POWs were too ill to be moved. And that now included Waters.

Baum’s decision was that only field grade (majors and above) US officers could be transported back to the Aschaffenburg area. Any other POWs could follow the task force vehicles on foot if they so desired. Task Force Baum begin its return journey during the evening hours of March 27. The US force encountered stiff German attacks more destruction of vehicles, and almost complete encirclement.

Finally, Baum ordered his troops to abandon the convoy, and everyone was for himself. About 6-32 soldiers returned to the US lines (reports vary). 32 were killed, and all the others were either missing or captured- many of the captured had also been wounded or injured.  Baum himself was shot in the groin while attempting to escape and was placed in the same POW camp hospital as Waters. His last act before being captured was to hide his dog tags because they identified his religion- Jewish.

The responsibility for the failure of Task Force Baum lies totally with General Patton. His poor leadership and disregard for the lives and welfare of men under his command during this incident should have led Patton to be relieved of his command of the Third Army. Consider the following factors:

1.     Eisenhower and Patton were old friends. Patton romanticized war and if anyone should have realized this raid was part of Patton’s attempt for further glory, that person would be Eisenhower.

2.     Both Eisenhower and Patton had served under General Douglas MacArthur at various times in their careers. Jealousies and rivalries ensued, especially on Patton’s part. In January 1945 MacArthur as theater commander in the Philippines had authorized a POW rescue mission that saved 500 Americans from probable execution by the Japanese. Army Rangers and Filipino Scouts carried out their assignment with good maps, intelligence, and coordination. Patton was jealous of MacArthur’s achievement and wanted to order something similar. But Patton was not the theater commander in Europe, Eisenhower was.

3.     Task Force Baum did not have good maps, intelligence, or coordination. The soldiers in the task force fought gallantly but were not trained for rescues. Planning was limited to 24 hours from conception to execution. In contrast, the Philippine rescue was well-planned and even had air support. However, no air or artillery support for the Himmelberg raiders.

Patton did receive an oral reprimand from Eisenhower. If you would have been Patton’s commander in March 1945 what would you have done?

 

George Patton died in December 1945 from complications from an auto wreck. The controversy even surrounds this incident- was it an accident or an assassination?

Creighton Abrams stayed in the Army, was promoted to general, and eventually commanded all US forces in Vietnam in the last years of the war.

Abraham Baum left the Army after the war and died at the age of 91 in California.

John Waters was told by Patton that he did not know that Waters was in the camp. Waters survived, remained in the Army, and was eventually promoted to general. Until their deaths, Waters and Baum were friends.

FOOTBALL & THE 80-YARD RUN

Autumn is my favorite season of the year. Autumn brings cooler air and football. As an alum of the University of Oklahoma I am an avid Sooners fan. Not much winning this season for my Sooner gridiron heroes. The team last Saturday suffered their worst loss ever to those hated Longhorns from the University of Texas. The score 49-0 says it all- or perhaps nothing at all. It all depends upon one’s perspective.

The same Saturday as my Sooners lost to Texas my grandson’s high school team defeated a team from a very small town in Kansas 42-0. It would have been 49-0, I am sure, if the officials had not used a running clock in the final quarter. Are football scores indicative of the character of the players, the quality of their academic education they are receiving, or the overall success of the schools they attend. Of course, not. But our culture acts like it does.

The Sooners, like all other Division 1 (or whatever they call themselves today) football powers measure success very simply- 1) have a winning record, 2) go to bowl game, 3) win the conference championship, 4) be eligible for the national championship, and/or be ranked in the top ten at season’s end. To accomplish these ends, Dl powers hire coaches, pay them millions of dollars, and expect instant results through their nation-wide recruiting efforts and their technical expertise of the game that they can transmit to their players. Thousands of fans pack stadiums and millions more fans tune in to their televisions to watch their teams play. It is as the continuance of Western Civilization as we know it will cease if our team loses. But it doesn’t. Life continues despite the outcome of the Red River Rivalry between the Sooners or Longhorns, or any other college football game.

Please understand I am not denouncing football- it’s a great game. I played high school football as a substitute lineman, both offense and defense. Football can teach teamwork, discipline, and how to handle both winning and losing. But football, like all other sports. does not teach character. As I used to tell the soccer and basketball players I coached in high school- diversity does not build character; diversity reveals character.

Roland Ortmayer was a college football coach who died in 2008 at the age of 91 years. “Ort” as he was known became the athletic director and football coach at the University of La Verne in southern California in 1948 and finished his coaching career with 182 wins, 193 losses, and 8 ties- hardly a record to boast. Yet Ort was known for his winning personality, gentle ways, and compassionate ideals who many former athletes considered the most influential person in their lives.

Ortmayer did not use a playbook, did not require attendance at practices nor game film sessions, did not believe in weight training, rarely recruited players, never cut a player, and set no curfews. His was no “new age” hippy philosopher but rather was a “throwback” to a bygone era of sport where all contests, like football. Are meant to be fun, not a life and death issue. Ort understood himself primarily an educator.

The legacy of Coach Ortmayer represents the other end of the spectrum from the culture of DI college football powers. If Ort had coached at Oklahoma, Michigan, or Ohio State, chaos would have ensued. And while that many football fans may be drawn to the simplicity of the vison Ortmayer had for college football, that vison is unrealistic for most college. Perhaps there is a middle ground. But I will let better minds in the sport discuss and debate that. In the meantime, we obsessive fans can do three things-

1.     Keep cheering on your favorite teams(s). I just know that my Sooners will get their revenge next year!

2.     Don’t suffer from clinical depression if your has a rebuilding (aka “bad”) year.

3.     To help keep a proper perspective, adopt and cheer on a team from a small college. I think for me that will be Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas. My high school is located in Ottawa County Oklahoma which is home to the Ottawa Tribal Nation. The university sits on land originally reserved for the Ottawa Tribe, so it offers academic scholarships to Ottawas who are high school graduates.

 

Now, about that 80-year run, Which was the title and focus of a short story published in 1941 and written by Irwin Shaw. Long ago, I read this story in either high school or college, and it has struck with me since. Christian Darling is a football player at a midwestern college who one day in a football scrimmage runs 80 yards for a touchdown. He becomes the team’s hero and wins over his girlfriend to become his wife. Christian’s identity is so wrapped around this 80-yard run that when he suffers twin crises in his personal and professional lives 15 years later, he returns to the field to relive that run that made him so important. But that 80-yard run, the reader discovers, was during a football practice, not a game! Christian realizes that he had practiced for the wrong thing (football) instead of practicing for life. Ort would have loved that story.