There is that moment when a commander must rise above and beyond himself. That’s what happened to these two military commanders before leading their troops to the battlefield. This is a view of World War II and Israel Swords of Iron War.
This view features General George Patton and Israeli military reservist Lt. Col. Maoz Schwartz, Commander of the IDF reservist 7007th infantry battalion.
General George S. Patton
“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”
George Smith Patton Jr. was a general in the United States Army who commanded the United States Third Army, largely composed of inexperienced troops, in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II; after the Allied invasion of Normandy, in June 1944, the Third United States Army in France and Germany.
General George S. Patton’s Speech To The Third Army
Patton’s series of speeches to the Third Army were intended to motivate the inexperienced Third Army for its pending combat duty.
In his profanity-laced speaking, viewed as unprofessional by some other officers, Patton’s speeches resounded well with his men and were looked upon by historians as some of the greatest motivational speeches of all time. The speeches urged Patton’s soldiers to do their duty regardless of personal fear, prevent them from losing their nerve and he exhorted them to aggressiveness and constant offensive action.
June 5, 1944 Speech
Patton delivered the speech without any prepared notes.
Patton’s most famous and recited speech took place on June 5, 1944, the day before D-Day, the Allied invasion through the beaches of Normandy.
Notable Remarks
“Sure, we all want to go home. We want to get this war over with. But you can’t win a war lying down. The quickest way to get it over with is to get the bastards who started it. We want to get the hell over there and clean the goddamn thing up, and then get at those purple-pissing Japs. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. So keep moving. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper-hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler.
“When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a Boche will get him eventually. The hell with that. My men don’t dig foxholes. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. We’ll win this war, but we’ll win it only by fighting and showing the Germans that we’ve got more guts than they have or ever will have. We’re not just going to shoot the bastards, we’re going to rip out their living goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket.
“Then there’s one thing you men will be able to say when this war is over and you get back home. Thirty years from now when you’re sitting by your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks, ‘What did you do in the great World War Two?’ You won’t have to cough and say, ‘Well, your granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.’ No sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say ‘Son, your granddaddy rode with the great Third Army and a son-of-a-goddamned-bitch named George Patton!‘
“All right, you sons of bitches. You know how I feel. I’ll be proud to lead you wonderful guys in battle anytime, anywhere. That’s all.”
IDF Reservist Lt. Col. Maoz Schwartz
Maoz Schwartz is an observant Israeli Jew, an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) reservist, an educator working at Yeshiva Amit in the city of Ashdod, in Southern Israel.
Like so many reservists, Maoz enlisted to join the war efforts Israel declared against the terror band Hamas, the culprit of a mass and most evil massacre that took place in Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Scene That Set Up Maoz Schwartz’s Speech
What sets the stage up for Lt. Col. Maoz Schwartz speech to his soldiers is the following described gruesome scene, among many other horrendous scenes, perpetrated by Hamas terrorists, in Southern Israel, during Shabbat, the Jewish people’s day of rest, on October 7, 2023.
The horrific case was documented on Hamas terrorist’s body cam, confirmed by Israel’s first responders: These bestial man broke into a Jewish house near the Gaza border with Israel. He put a baby in a baking oven, turned it on to maximum heat, and then shot the baby’s father. After shooting the father the terrorists tied him up and one after the other raped the baby’s mother and laughed; laughed while they raped the baby’s mother and the baby was burning to death inside the oven. A scene from the Nazis’ death camp where they burned Jews to ashes.
This is what Israel is up against in this Swords of Iron War.
Lt. Col. Maoz Schwartz Speech October 28, 2023
Lt. Col. Maoz Schwartz is the IDF infantry Battalion 7007 commander.
On Saturday, October 28, 2028, as the Holy rest day of Shabbat ended and before entering Gaza, just as General Patton did, Commander Schwartz addressed his soldiers (in Hebrew), mostly reservists, in an unscripted inspiring and reassuring speech.
Speech Translated From Hebrew:
“Battalion 7007, Shabbat Shalom everyone.
A historic hour for everyone. I don’t know if we can digest this moment. I don’t know if we really understand the magnitude of the hour, but there is a huge togetherness here, the hour that the 7007th battalion goes to war.
Since yesterday, from the early hours of the night, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been fighting the enemy. Division 162 is in contact, in depth, with scores of tens to hundreds of enemy terrorists.
I can only imagine the 200 abductees, abducted into Gaza by this wretched enemy who kidnapped ours, from a six-month-old baby who is in captivity and whose brain is not digesting what has happened to him, to old men and women. We are going out to fight this vile evil.
Swords of Iron
We are not alone. With us here, and this is how I feel, the warriors of King David, the Maccabees are with us, we are with Mordechai Anielewicz and the Warsaw ghetto uprising fighters. There are here with us the freedom fighters of Israel, Etzel, Lehi, Palmach and the Haganah and all the fighters throughout Israel’s history since we became a nation.
I do not see it a cliché that shortly we will wear our bullet proof vests; each company in its own timing to enter the war sooner or later. In the end, all of them, shoulder to shoulder, will fight because it’s going to be a long fight and we need each other. We need to give each other a shoulder and cover each other because we are not in a regimental reserve service exercise.
I feel that there is a historical moment here that few generations can say, we went out to fight for real; really fight for the homeland in order to restore the honor that was a little lost on Simchat Torah* (*Jewish festival celebrating the ancient Jewish scriptures) and we will now return it in a big way.
I try to imagine a few good years from now, as if it is some ancient time event, when the young people here will be fathers to sons and grandsons and the older ones will have grandsons and great-grandsons, sitting on the couch at home and your son or grandson will ask you: ‘Father, several years ago, in 2023, babies, children and adults and mothers and fathers were kidnapped and we heard that 1400 people were slaughtered and burned.’
And you will say, ‘yes, yes, dear son, I was there and you know what I did? I left home, I broke away from work and went to fight.’
And he will ask you: ‘What, father, did you fight this thing?’
And you will tell him: ‘Yes, I fought this thing, I fought this evil.’
‘And dad, what was at the end?’ And you will reply: ‘We were heroes, the lions of the 7007th Battalion and we defeated the enemy.’
As the battalion commander I still don’t digest, don’t conceive that the 7007th Battalion is no less and no more going to war, we are going to war. I rely on you greatly, to really fight the fight against the enemy.
So ‘heida’* (*slang for an urging call; come on); I love and trust each and every one of you; I appreciate each and every one of you for being here, at the forefront of the IDF,
Now it’s really not a cliché, you are the best there is! And believe me, the best there is.
I want that together, loudly and collectively we sing Hatikvah* (*Israel national anthem) and then I want to say a few professional words related to the very act of fighting.”
The Goals
Just as was the goal to destroy ISIS, the state of Israel’s goal is to destroy Hamas to oblivion.
Just as General Patton’s goal was to destroy the German-Nazi war machine, the state of Israel’s goal is to destroy the ISIS-like terror group Hamas to oblivion; just as the West’s goal was to destroy ISIS, as it did, the state of Israel, fighting for its existence, set a goal to clear the existential threat of Hamas from its southern border.
The similarities between General Patton and Lt. Col. Schwartz speeches are astounding. We all pray the results are just the same, vanquishing the enemy.
