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During the last days of the campaign in Sicily in 1943, General George S. Patton, Jr., slapped a hospitalized soldier. The incident drew national attention and to some extent overshadowed Patton's fine leadership. General Eisenhower reprimanded General Patton and ordered him to apologize to the 7th Army troops.
The slapping incident and General Patton's apology constitute a major scene in the movie Patton. The movie depicts a contrite senior general choking out an apology to a large formation of troops seemingly eager to see him humiliated. A quite different view of the incident has been described by General Ted Conway, then a major with the 60th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Division:
We were assembled in a large . . . olive orchard. . . . General Patton arrived in that famous...