Patton's Speech to the Third Army was a speech given by General George S. Patton to troops of the U.S. Third Army on June 5, 1944, the day before D-day. Patton delivered variations of the speech on several different occasions to his troops, although the June 5 date is the most well known. A hard copy of the speech exists. It has since become immortalized in George C. Scott's rendition in the movie Patton, where he delivers it in front of a large American flag. Patton's actual words were so colorful that the movie edited and toned down the language, e.g. substituting "fornicating" for... "fucking". Certain phrases from the speech were also used in Scott's dialogue later on in the film. Patton's speech was largely designed to motivate U.S. troops that were to be under fire. There had been much talk about superior German firepower, and the level of fear and doubt was so great in the armed forces that the U.S. Army even resorted to making propaganda films claiming that the infamous German machinegun, the MG-42, had a bark louder than its bite.
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