The Patton that people know best vs. the real Patton.
President Barack Obama this morning woke up in the Grand Hotel in Stockholm. Swedish media have missed a historic aspect of this. The last time the Swedish capital had such a grand American visit the guest stayed in the same hotel, perhaps even in the same suite?
That time was 1945 and the guest was General George S. Patton and his room door in the Grand Hotel was guarded by a black soldier. President Obama has on several occasions mentioned that his grandfather "marched with Patton". The guard by the door was not Obama's grandfather though, I have checked this. Still, a rather nice irony that Patton and Obama stayed in the same hotel, perhaps even the same VIP-suite?
I have interviewed one of the Swedish officers that Patton met in Stockholm, and collected a number of articles about the visit and all of the best stuff is in my book Germans And Allies In Sweden which also deals with the forgotten US military bases in Sweden 1944-45 and many other previously secret and still largely unknown aspects of Swedish WWII history.
BTW I am fully aware that one serving US president has visited Sweden inbetween Patton's 1945 visit and Obama's ongoing visit. This was George W. Bush. But Bush visited Gothenburg, not Stockholm.
It cannot have been his grandfather on his fathers side since his father was from Kenya. It has got to be his White grandfather on his mothers side.
ReplyDeleteRoger Klang
Yes, it was his maternal grandfather, whose second name was Armour. No kidding!
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