United States General George Patton was a notorious World War II Officer who had a very unique way of doing things. For one, he had a rivalry with ally Great Britain's prestigious General Bernard Law Montgomery. He also pushed his soldiers MUCH HARDER than any other Allied Officer. The book Killing Patton reflects his life during and after World War II, including his death, which is today considered the most pedestrian way for any military officer to die.
The book starts off when Patton's Battalion is invading Fort Driant, a German Military Base in Eastern France/Western Germany. Here, Bill O'Reilly, the author goes into the point-of-view of one of Patton's soldiers, a Private, to be exact. O'Reilly describes his emotional state of which he feels when the Germans fire at him while he takes cover. This I believe, is one of O'Reilly's pros of writing, he is descriptive. Yet sometimes O'Reilly, and his co-author, Martin Dugard, are at times too descriptive. Some examples of the two authors exercising this practice are when German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is going through his "execution" for treason which is self-inflicted, as well as Patton's feelings for the other generals, the authors put Patton in third-person as he reflects on the generals demeanor.
O'Reilly and Dugard's writing style has been considered weird at times, with the overly-long reflections of the characters' emotional state, what they are feeling, what they are doing, why they are doing it, many other authors consider this practice helpful, yet not needed, to make the book more appealing to readers. To me, I think in some cases, this practice is useful, yet when it becomes too much, it is no longer needed. I went into Killing Patton hoping to learn more about World War II, as well as the notorious generals who served in it, such as Patton, Rommel, Montgomery, Eisenhower, etc.
But Killing Patton isn't the only book O'Reilly and Dugard have written that have this writing style, books such as Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, and Killing Jesus, all express the same writing style, and for many readers, they say that the writing style doesn't apply to all of the books, the way it did for Patton, Kennedy and Lincoln (somewhat). I guess you know the odd one out then, Killing Jesus, the standout novel from Bill O'Reilly, which dates back to the time before The Bible was written, which for many readers, is a time too far away for O'Reilly to write about.
Back to Killing Patton. As anticipated, the book goes on to the end of World War II, with the Germans surrendering, as well as the Japanese after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. You may think that the book is done, the war is over, it's totally peaceful. Well, actually it has been said that after WWII, there was no such thing as peace. The two remaining superpowers of the world, the Soviet Union, or now Russia, and the United States of America, didn't start completely butting heads until after General Patton's death.
This isn't a spoiler, if you payed close attention to history. But General George Patton died after fatal wounds from a car accident in Germany. A truck driven by a few drunk American soldiers was driving down a road, as careless as they could be. Meanwhile, General Patton was going hunting, and was driving along a road, nearly perpendicular to the drunken truck's road. At the intersection which the two roads met, the two cars collided. The general broke his neck, along with several back bones either sprained or broken, most of them broken. He died in a German Hospital 12 days following the car crash.
In conclusion, from all of my reading and research, I believe that most historical biographies are accurate, with some such as Killing Jesus, being questionable, with no completely-truthful proof other than The Bible to justify whether its Fact of Fiction.
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