Patton killed in the San Miguelito Ranch Raid in 1916

On May 14th 1916 2LT George S Patton led a raid on the San Miguelito Ranch in Chihuahua when he came across one of Pancho Villa's allies Julio Cardenas and a firefight ensued. During the fight Patton was engaged by a Mexican insurgent armed with a shotgun. The shotgun misfired, thus sparing Patton. What if the shotgun functioned properly and Patton was killed in the fight? Without Patton, how does this effect events given Patton's central role in World War II?
 
Patton was not central to US doctrine for mechanized warfare. A lot of others contributed to that, so no significant change there. Second, he was one of many capable men in the pool for divsion, corps, & Army command. By the end of 1941 the US Army had a fairly large pool of officers & even at its peak there was no shortage. Patch, Eichelberger, Krueger, Simpson, to name a few, were al as capable. There were a dozen others.
 
If you had someone else commanding the U.S. Seventh Army during the first few months of the Italian Campaign, and they do just as well, if not better than Patton, and they keep from doing anything controversial (like slapping a shell shocked soldier) could you have someone else in the running for the commander of American forces on D-Day? Bradley wasn't necessarily a shoe in for the position, was he?
 
If you had someone else commanding the U.S. Seventh Army ... Bradley wasn't necessarily a shoe in for the position, was he?

Nope. He had done ok as a corps commander in the last months of the Tunisian campaign, and had a rep as a trouble shooter when he got the 28th ID out of its ditch in 1942. Did well training the 82d ID before it converted to airborne. But, without the Sicillian campaign to build his rep he's not yet getting a Army command. I expect whoever gets the I Armored Corps for the Morrocan invasion is on the short list for 7th Army command. Both corps commanders for Op Torch, Fredenhall & Patton were on the short list for Army command. I expect it would have been the same for anyone entrusted to I AC role in Op Torch.
 
Without Patton in command of the 3rd Army, do they advance across France as rapidly? Maybe the Germans are able to save more of their troops, no change in the outcome of the war of course, but maybe more potential Allied casualties.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
On May 14th 1916 2LT George S Patton led a raid on the San Miguelito Ranch in Chihuahua when he came across one of Pancho Villa's allies Julio Cardenas and a firefight ensued. During the fight Patton was engaged by a Mexican insurgent armed with a shotgun. The shotgun misfired, thus sparing Patton. What if the shotgun functioned properly and Patton was killed in the fight? Without Patton, how does this effect events given Patton's central role in World War II?

In terms of the 2nd Armored Division, I Armored Corps/Western Task Force, 7th Army, FUSAG, and 3rd Army, potential replacements are Harmon/Keyes (2nd AD), Keyes/Devers (I AC/WTF), 7th Army (Devers/Clark/Keyes/Crittenberger), FUSAG (Devers/McNair), 3rd Army (Devers)...

Best,
 
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Without Patton in command of the 3rd Army, do they advance across France as rapidly? Maybe the Germans are able to save more of their troops, no change in the outcome of the war of course, but maybe more potential Allied casualties.

Hodges 1st Army and Patchs 7th Army advanced equally rapidly. The differences between the 3, or with the Brit 2d Army are not large enough to matter. Patch was probablly the more capable in handling the September - February frontier battles.

3rd Army (Devers)...
Simpson might be advanced to army command a few months earlier.
 

Wendigo

Banned
On May 14th 1916 2LT George S Patton led a raid on the San Miguelito Ranch in Chihuahua when he came across one of Pancho Villa's allies Julio Cardenas and a firefight ensued. During the fight Patton was engaged by a Mexican insurgent armed with a shotgun. The shotgun misfired, thus sparing Patton. What if the shotgun functioned properly and Patton was killed in the fight? Without Patton, how does this effect events given Patton's central role in World War II?

I don't know if there were any other WAllied generals in WW2 who were as aggressive and stubborn and willing to take risks as much as Patton was.
 
Sure there were. Op Watchtower in the Pacific was higher risk from the start & remained at risk for four months, ahead of anything Patton had to deal with. MacAurthur demanded a long series of underinsured ops in the S Pacific in 1943-44. Alexander ordered Clark to go ahead and execute Op Shingle despite Clark saying it was impractical and Patton judged it a "suicide mission".

Patton did some things others thought risky, or 'dashing' but in fact he heavily insured them thru thorough staff work and shrewd judgement on how to use his forces. He also knew how to use publicity.
 
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