Four soldiers of the 83rd Division study a group of German road signs on Boulevard Rochebonne in the French town of Poincaré à Paramé, a suburb of Saint- Malo. 
 


Which way?

YANK The Army Weekly was staffed and edited by enlisted men only, except for officers in the payroll and non-editorial administrative functions.  This excerpt demonstrates their freedom to voice the concerns of the GIs.

January 1945.  We were now inside Germany, and the Battle of the Bulge was history. But everybody wondered if the damn thing would ever end. This group from the 99th was resting in a German church, talking it over. "There's hardly anybody left. You look around now and they're all new faces..."
   The high brass summed it up: "It's true the Germans' Ardennes offensive cost us heavy casualties and heavy loss in equipment.  But it also shortened the war's end by at least six months because it chewed away most of the Germans' strategic reserves.  If we break through now, they won't have enough troops left to stop us."
   The doughs up front knew better.  "I don't care if the guy behind the gun is a syphilitic SOB who's a hundred years old -- he's still got enough fingers to press triggers and shoot bullets..."
   The doughs keep looking around and seeing new faces.  There was hardly anybody left.
   

GIs waiting for orders - Jan. 1945

George Smith Patton, Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a United States Army general, best known for his flamboyant character and his command of the Seventh United States Army, and later the Third United States Army, in the European Theater of World War II.

Born in 1885 to a privileged family with an extensive military background, Patton attended the Virginia Military Institute, and later the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He participated in the 1912 Olympic Modern Pentathlon, and was instrumental in designing the M1913 “Patton Saber”. Patton first saw combat during the Pancho Villa Expedition in 1916, taking part in America’s first military action using motor vehicles. He later joined the newly formed United States Tank Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces and saw action in World War I, first commanding the U.S. tank school in France before being wounded near the end of the war. In the interwar period, Patton remained a central figure in the development of armored warfare doctrine in the U.S. Army, serving in numerous staff positions throughout the country. Rising through the ranks, he commanded the U.S. 2nd Armored Division at the time of the U.S. entry into World War II.
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