In December 1944 the enemy Patton could not beat was the weather. Low cloud over the Ardennes grounded the Allied air forces just when the drive to relieve Bastogne needed them most. Never a patient man, Patton ordered his Third Army chaplain to compose a prayer for fair weather, had a quarter-million copies printed and handed out to the troops, and told him to make it work. When the skies broke clear on 23 December and the fighter-bombers finally roared over the German columns, Patton was delighted — he reportedly had the chaplain decorated on the spot. It was pure Patton: audacity, showmanship, and a conviction that Providence favored the attack.

The figure shows him bundled for the Ardennes in a shearling B-3 winter flight jacket and three-star helmet, the ivory-gripped Colt revolvers on his hip. Set him in a relief-of-Bastogne diorama beside the man he came to save, General McAuliffe, the paratroopers of "Welcome to Bastogne", and the armor that held the town, the 10th Armored Sherman.

W. Britain model 10118. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.