Patton slaps another soldier

10th August 1943: In the second of two controversial incidents General Patton accuses another sick soldier of cowardice

Generals Montgomery and Patton discuss the campaign in Sicily.

An American infantry Company enters the town of Enna, Sicily, July, 1943.

The campaign in Sicily was to demonstrate very clearly what could be achieved by a General with determination. George S. Patton had driven his forces on with great speed to take Palermo in the north. Now he was competing with Montgomery in a race to push the Germans to the eastern tip of the island at Messina. Yet for all his achievements Patton was to suffer as a consequence of two relatively small incidents.

On the 3rd August Patton had been involved in an incident at a Field Hospital. The initial diagnosis of Private Charles A. Kuhl was that he was suffering from "psychoneurosis anxiety" and when Patton confronted Kuhl as he toured the wards he said " I guess I can't take it". Patton became enraged and slapped him around the head with his folded gloves, calling him a 'coward' and physically threw him out of the tent.

He demanded that the doctors send the soldier, whom he called a "gutless bastard", back to the front. A subsequent medical examination found Kuhl to be suffering from 'malaria, chronic diarrhoea and a fever of 102.2 degrees'.