By Kevin Seabrooke

This third, and final, volume detailing World War II from the point of view of the man whose name became synonymous with victory, portrays Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, not as a mythological god of war, but a fallible human being. Hymel has based this seminal work on Patton’s original diaries and his personal letters to tell the story of the best general America had in the war in Europe—unlike countless other authors and historians who have used a version of the diaries that had been transcribed and embellished.

This narrative begins on the first day of the final year of the war, January 1, 1945, and ends with the general’s death in his sleep in an Army hospital in Heidelberg, Germany, 12 days after he suffered a broken neck and spinal cord paralysis from a car accident in Mannheim.

Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership Volume 3: January 1-December 21, 1945 (Kevin M. Hymel, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 600pp., 50 images, 12 maps, July 1, 2026 $44.95 HC)