there. yeah. hitler bought that but it never got there. that was his happy day. he road that one horse. bradley came, bradley came and got me and brought me back. i went back to germany and he stayed there and i today get him -- i had to get all his stuff ready because out of his van and get his papers, maps and everything, rolled up and put away. because he was going to leave. so the war was over in may. i stayed there until november to get him squared away. and okay, so i got all his things squared away and he said i should take a rest because other things had to be done. so i went back it a little german camp and stayed there for about three weeks. and in november, i got him

squared away and he had two guard. he had two bodyguard. every place we went. always two bodyguard. either ahead of me or behind me. and he was in france and his bodyguard weren't with him, but i know if they were with him, he would have been alive for a while and enjoyed his victory. but there's a big story, assassination, they got some books and i got my name in some books, and the assassination, but i didn't know nothing about it. he liked to good hunting. they were taking him hunting. so well you didn't see the picture. you got to see the picture. the cadillac had a gi truck and it hit the front end and there wasn't a piece of glass broken. he got hit in the head, we don't know. two guys rode in the back, and

they were trying to figure it out but it won't come up, i guess not. they assassinated him. so now he is buried in luxemburg. they buried him right in the center of the cemetery. i i got a picture they sent me. they dug him up and put him in the front on the left-hand side, if you ever good to the cemetery in luxemburg, he is on the left-hand side with a big monument there. every time people see him, they say, where is george patton buried. now it is there, you can see it. okay, now, one i'm going to tell you about the red cross. now the red cross, they tried. they were over there and sometimes, if you get what you want or something, you have donation or they charge ten frank notes or something like this.

so one day we were looking for an area to move all of the organizations up north to get ready for the bastone. here is a good place over there. there was a red cross truck there. a bunch of soldiers, an they didn't call them doughnuts, they called them crawlers. two little crawlers and cup of coffee for ten franks or something like that. so they all wave and say, where you going george? going to berlin to get that paper hanger. okay. so you want to have a cup of coffee? yes, sir. so i drove up to the truck and i -- she gave me two krujers and a cup of coffee. she said ten franks. so we have american money, war time money, so i gave her ten franks and i came back. he said, did you pay for that?

i said yeah, ten frank notes. okay, so stay here. so i stayed there. just sat there. and he went over there and he said, i would like to have a cruthers and cup of coffee. and the two sisters from el paso, texas were in this truck. and she said, general, you don't have to pay for yours. he said, why? did my boys pay for it? she said yes. ten franks for two doughnuts and a cup of coffee. so he says, why don't you keep the money. in the back was an orange crate. you people don't remember orange crates. there were two compartments. and she had all this paper money in the compartment. she opened the back door, pulled out the box and all this money was in the box and he carried a cigarette lighter. he used to smoke a cigar with. a little tiny cigarette lighter. he picked up one of them note

and he lit it. and he threw it down with all the money. he burned it all up. them girls turned white. so the jeep, you know, the jeep and he dug a hole. he buried all the ash. we stayed there to burn out, burned it all up nice. he said, when you go back, you tell your commander that you run into george s patton and that is taken care of. she didn't know what to say. so he sat in the jeep and i said, general, you should have gave me that money. i said, i could use it. he said, i'll make you a check right now, he says. he was one of us, you know. oh, we had this meeting at 3:00 in the morning. and we had a rainstorm. and working in the mud.

so general patton and general eisenhower didn't work together. but everybody is in the services and school. so every time we had a meeting with eisenhower and patton, bradley had to go along. bradley was the speaker. if you saw the movie or some place, always find bradley in the middle, eisenhower on one side and patton on the other. and patton didn't care too much for him on the account of the general from england, montgomery, general montgomery. montgomery and eisenhower were pretty good buddies. every time patton would come, eisenhower would come see us and george, did you see eisenhower? yeah, he is back there drinking tea, he says. you see him back there. he pushed his way and they wouldn't talk it each other.

he came out, we had that meeting at 3:00 in the morning. we went there. and hodges and marshall and bradley was there. we got there and eisenhower wasn't there yet. early in the morning, 3:00, 3:00 in the morning. and here comes eisenhower with the big cadillac. big brush cadillac, you know. and where is the garrison hat? and patton says, where is your helmet? you come to the front lines, you know, and he said yeah. but i don't have to wear it. >> okay. turn the jeep around so we went back. we left it there. never heard nothing no more from him, nobody, never heard. so that was a -- that's the way he worked, you know. then he would get, eisenhower would tell him to shut up, he is taking this town.

so okay. by the time montgomery was there, we went through that town already. whatever he knew montgomery would do something, he would go fight it and get him. he had a pattern of his own. and would he catch it. always made a circle. every time he comes, but one time he captured 6,000 japanese, german kids. and it's his idea to make circles, you know. you make a circle. and he could cut testimony all in there and get cut off, and 6,000 kids we had. but montgomery and eisenhower, they clicked pretty good. but patton and eisenhower weren't too good. now, i tell you how many jeeps was made during the war. the willies company made 3

million jeeps. ford company made 2 million jeeps. at the end of the war, a little smaller than the jeeps that they made 285 of them. so you know how many jeeps we got running around this country? i took him, we were hunting, going and getting areas to fight. he wanted to go and find places where we could put trucks that we would be safe for this, to hit in bastone. and i took him up one day. the roads are bad. the roads are very bad. and you would have to hit -- you hit one bounce, you miss. you hit one bounce, you mitt two. you hit two and miss one. you bounce around. so one night i hit the hole. i must have raised him six inches off his seat. i always wore my helmet.

so he didn't say nothing to me. then i straighten up my helmet. he said, can you see better now? i used to take him to the hospitals, you flow. that was bad. every thursday we would go to a hospital. the hospitals were tents. and he would have a box full of purple hearts or medals. so a day he picked, on thursday, going to the hospital. would he dress up nice to go see them all. and i couldn't belief the jeep. i had to stay there. i couldn't go inside the hospitals. i stayed there and waited. if i stayed there a half a day, ways there half a day. just with the jeep. no matter where i went with him. if he walked a half a mile, and he said, if you see me there, he

said, don't you come and get me and come walking. so i would stay there until he comes to the jeep. never did he call me. never who my name was, what i was, all he knew of me was "soldier." i made technician fourth grade, he put it a rank for me. i never got paid for that or heard nothing about it. oh, you know, the jeeps, there was a circle over the hood with a star in the middle. you notice that? that star is so airplanes to spot our automobiles and the circle around the star was painted so if the germans or somebody used mustard gas or something that paint would become red so we knew right away

that we today wear our gas masks. but when we invaded france, we had our gas masks with us, and they figured they wouldn't gas their soldiers at the same time, so we didn't use the gas masks at all. oh, when we were in shatroy, he came down and he painted his truck. he painted his truck an auto draft color. we were there and they were bombing us at the same time. we were coming down off where the truck was and bing crosby and dina shore and we were being bombed there. and bing crosby had a violin.

this is about 10:00 at night. and bing and dina were there with us. and when the bombs were close to where we were and so everybody laid on the ground. even the general. we all laid on the ground. he stayed there and had a microphone and a violin. and while becomes were going, he sang white christmas for us. bing crosby did. and so we had pens, we didn't have the pens we have today. we todhad to fill them with ink. you remember that? and i had notes that dinah shore signed them and bing crosby signed them. and he said, where the hell did you buy these pens?

england? because the pen wouldn't work. and all of the men were given white carnations. and when we got into munich, munich is in germany. they call it munchin. we call it munich in america. so they came down the ocean and johnny took over the band and he said, you know, they got into munich and then munich, there was a radio station. so they fixed it all up and reopened the radio station. so they had to give it a name. so they call it munchin and we call it munich and at 12:00 everyday, they would have luncheon at munchin and it worked out nice for them.

>> i'm trying to find something that i can tell you that -- i had it written down and i don't want to forget them. oh, the bombs. we went into germany and german planes were bombing us pretty close. but when the bomb would hit the ground, they wouldn't go off. they would find out we had -- the german people would send bombs out but they wouldn't put the detonators into the bombs. they would just go down and they would -- they didn't want to be bombing their own towns, you know. so all the bombs that germans dropped were just a waste of time.

when we were coming home, we had 12 bombs i always kept in my jeep, you know. so i was supposed to get rid of them. they told me, he says, i want you to get rid of this. and i don't care what you do with them, go up to the river and throw them in there. so that's what i did, i wept up there, and they were small smoke bombs. i pulled the pin on one and then i saw bubbles going up with smoke. then all of a sudden i saw a lot of fish with the white bellies floating right down. i today get rid -- and i told him about it. he said, well it was better to kill the fish than some kids pick up the bomb and kill them, you know. they were worried about the children. then the germans, they got smart, i guess.

we had no tops on our cars, our truck and jeeps, there was no top on them. they started putting piano wire across the road. i hit one one time. i tell you, boy, you know, right away they got the wire cutters on all the jeeps and weapons carriers. and then they got on to that. but maybe you've seen them, they were on the bar on the bumper and an arrow this way and it was sharp. it would hit it and break it. they got on to that, so they quit doing that. what else can i tell you about. i don't want to forget something, so just hold on a minute.

oh, when we went into munich, i robbed a bank in munich. there was, oh, i think about eight women in there. no men, it was all women wherever you went. so okay, they all, oh, comrade, comrade. comrade hell, i'm here for something here. i went to the vault and i was looking for gold. so they had some little banks there and i said they is a bank at home. there is something in there but i never opened it. a little german bank, for the kids, you know. so i kept the money. so when the war was over, i went for the ship, i was coming home. in the harbor in france.

a lady was coming around washing your clothes and she used to wash my clothes. we waited everyday for them to come back, nice clean fresh clothes. so on the way home, i could only cash in $360, they gave me for the money i had. so i had $360. so i had this money. i said, what am i going to do with it. so i gave to this lady, she had two kids. she kissed my hands. like i gave her a million dollars. i gave her all the money i had. oh, we were in france, we stayed there for three months, getting ready for bastone, battle of the bulge. we were there for three months,

we stayed there. we stayed in a place in a wine barrel factory where they made the wooden barrels for wine, wine barrels. and all women, no men. all women working. so they found a place we could stay. we had first platoon system and the officers and two houses and a bungalow. so we slept in the houses and officers slept in the bungalows. we stayed there for three months. okay, so we get everything ready. we're going to get into bastone for battle of the bulge. so after three months, we're moving forward. that's when we were looking for areas to move the organizations to get closer to the front. and patton says to me, stay here, pick a lieutenant and we when we move out tomorrow, we are supposed to move out of there and check the place before we leave. okay. so around 4:00 in the afternoon,

they all pull out. i mess a guy from galveston, texas. they both stayed there. we slept in the officer's bungalow. so we left that morning and we headed out and said, we have to go down to the office down here and we have to check out. i said, okay, so i went there and there was a lady, she must have been about 45, 50 years old. he said take her and go down and read the meters. i said, what meters. he said, electric meters. he said, you know how to read them. yeah. a thousand, whatever it is, he said, read them. i read them, brought them back it him, and then, you had a pink sheet of paper and we had to pay rent for the houses we stayed there for three months. now this was -- this killed us. i mean, we stayed there, we free them, and now we have to pay

them because we used their property. we todhad to pay for gas, light water, rent for the place. so you know where your tax money goes. patton went off for two months. we were in mint for two months. i stayed with our company. i had to carry the mail. i had a private seat in my jeep with a zipper on it for important papers, i put them in the seat so they couldn't find them. okay. so yeah, i today go there. we left there.

and where did we go from there? >> we have just a few minutes left. can we devote those to questions? let's give these gentlemen a round of applause. [ applause ] >> we do have a couple minutes left for questions. any questions from the audience? speak loudly, please. >> holler.

>> use the microphone, there, shawn. >> i would like it know, was there ever a time you felt like giving up? >> the question was, were there times when you just thought about giving up, that things were just too hard? >> i can't hear you. >> the question was, were there times during your service when things got so bad, you thought about giving up. things were just too hard? >> oh, no, no, no. that was a good life for me. >> all right, general titus? >> i can't imagine. i can't imagine. >> all right. another question? >> i went to -- [ inaudible ]

[ inaudible ] [ laughter ] . >> all right. >> i enjoyed being with him. [ inaudible ] i liked it. >> all right. >> sir, i was wondering if you could elaborate, why did you rob the bank? >> what would you rob a bank for? [ applause ]

i was looking for that gold. there was a lot of money floating around. i brought a couple million dollars home with me, you would know it. and i had a son, frank. and said, dad, what are you going to do with this? i said, it's no good. i live in napa. and he went over and said, give me one of them. so he came home and he had $2,000 in an envelope. and he said, i put $45,000 in the bank for myself. i said, thanks. the money's no good. he said, yes it is. so two days later here comes a lady from the bank to my house. so okay, so and she said, is frank here? i said, no. and then i knew who she was and what she was with. i should have told her he went to germany, but i didn't tell her that.

so an she said, i said, what the matter. well, we cashed money for him from germany and they called in san francisco and they told him the money was good but it wasn't good. it expired in 1975 or something like that. and she said, you know, i gave him $2,000 cash. i said, geez, i don't know where he's at, you know. but she said, i'm responsible for that. so i went in the house, are you looking for this? oh, her heart, yes, she says. so the german money was dead after 1975. they today make new money. but i did rob -- i did a lot of things. i stole a lot -- i stole -- the jeep, i modified his jeep. it was getting ready to get burned so i spotted a mercedes benz. there was a mercedes benz, that

damn car, it was there everyday. so i opened the door, the door opened and they had a nice bucket seat. the mercedes. >> all right, we have to wrap things up here. >> i'm sorry. >> old it a minute. hold it a minute. >> a round of applause. >> i put that jeep out of there and i put patton's jeep and boy he was in paradise. a ma mercedes seat. i did a lot of stuff. i stole a lot of stuff. i was not -- i was a good boy. >> thank you, sir. two great examples of living history at its best. thank you for being with us. >> tommy, 14 years!

>> thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. >> next weekend, booktv and american history tv explore the history and literary culture of beaumont where the texas oil industry gotity start. saturday beginning at noon eastern on c spn 2. bookstore owner on beaumont's literary culture and the challenges of running an independent bookstore. also teddy roos volt's year-long post presidential expedition to europe and africa. january 11, 1901, the lucas gusher at spindle top hill changed economy of texas and helped usher in the petroleum age. with the oil came the rough necks. with the rough necks, vice. ur