Historical Context: December, 1945

A re-release of a classic film, The Call of the Wild (1935), was the  weekend feature as November turned to December, 1945, at the Arcade Theatre in Newell, South. Dakota.

World War II had officially ended Sept. 2, 1945, with the formal surrender of Japan, and the troops would soon be coming home. As with all wars, not all of the troops. On Dec. 21, a Friday, General George S. Patton, Jr., one of the most heralded generals of the war, died in his sleep. He had been paralyzed since Dec. 9, but not from enemy aggression. His neck had been broken as the limousene he was riding in collided with an Army truck. After combat duty in both World War I and II, the tank commander would die of a blood clot lodged in his heart as he slept.

The 60-year-old general — only recently promoted to his fourth star — had led  the U.S. 3rd Army at the Battle of the Bulge one year earlier. That battle, which essentially concluded  the War in Europe, ended Dec. 16, 1944. Patton died on December 21, 1945, and was buried in a cemetery in Luxembourg for Americans who died in the Bulge, six thousand of them from his beloved Third Army.