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Eisenhower and Patton:
Soundly Rebuked by High Command

Many people are aware of the fact that the importance of the army tank in World War II was foreseen by George S. Patton. But it was also foreseen and emphasized by Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Ike had served in the independent Tank Corps of World War I. In the aftermath of that war, however, this particular unit was at risk. General John J. Pershing argued in 1919 that the tank corps “ought to be placed under the Chief of Infantry as an adjunct of that arm.” This was very bad news for the advocates of tanks, since the Chief of Infantry at that time — Major General Charles S. Farnsworth — took a dim view of tanks, as did many others. After all, the tanks of the 1910s had been clumsy, slow, and inefficient.

Among the young officers who saw the great potential of tanks in the future were George Patton and Ike, who were serving together at Camp Meade, Maryland in 1919 and 1920. As Eisenhower later recalled, he and Patton were part of a “group of young officers who thought . . . that tanks could have a more valuable and spectacular role. We believed . . . that they should attack by surprise and mass . . . . We wanted speed, reliability and firepower.” Patton and Ike spent considerable time conducting tactical experiments and tinkering on tanks at Camp Meade during 1919.

In 1920, each of them wrote a significant article on the subject of tanks for the periodical Infantry Journal. Ike’s article, entitled “A Tank Discussion,” recommended a bold redesign of the tank to increase its combat capabilities. “In the future,” Ike wrote, “tanks will be called upon to use their ability of swift movement and great firepower . . . against the flanks of attacking forces.”

The articles of Ike and Patton represented a serious dissent from prevailing military doctrines. Accordingly, the duo were summoned to Washington and given sharp personal rebukes by General Farnsworth. As Ike recalled the episode, Farnsworth told him his opinions were “not only wrong but dangerous and that henceforth I would keep them to myself. Particularly I was not to publish anything incompatible with solid infantry doctrine. If I did, I would be hauled before a court-martial.” Ike also recalled that Patton was “given the same message.”

Ike and Patton were careful to maintain a very low public profile regarding the subject of tanks after Farnsworth’s warning. Yet both of them continued in a quiet but determined manner to anticipate the strategy and tactics that America would need to win the next world war, which they were certain would erupt within the lifetime of their generation. As Ike put it, “George had become convinced — as I had — that the Treaty of Versailles had practically guaranteed the outbreak of another great war within something like a quarter century.” That being the case, they would carefully prepare for what their instincts correctly perceived.