What are the exact dates of Patton's relief from duty?  i.e., when
exactly was he relieved of his command of the Seventh Army in Italy,
and when exactly did he assume command of the Third Army in Europe?

I believe that the incident in which he slapped the shell-shocked
soldier occurred around 10 Aug, 1943, so leaving the Seventh Army
must've happened after that.  And I believe that he started commanding
the Third Army in combat sometime in July 1944 (shortly after D-Day,
during the Normandy breakout).

Dear chris_rohlfs,

General Patton was relieved of his command of the 7th Army on 31
December 1943, more than four months after the "slapping incident".
This long time span between the incident and the consequences may seem
odd at first sight; but the "slapping incident" did not become a
public scandal before late November 1944. On 1 January 1944, General
Mark W. Clark became acting commander of the 7th Army, until General
Alexander M. Patch took command on 2 March 1944.

Later, General Patton was commander of the 3rd Army from 26 January
1944 to 7 October 1945. That means, his time without a command was
considerably short, only 26 days in January 1944.

Regards,
Scriptor



Sources:

Third U.S. Army: Third Army Milestones
http://www.arcent.army.mil/history/milestones.asp

Third U.S. Army: General George S. Patton, Jr.
http://www.arcent.army.mil/history/com_bios/cg_gspatton.html

The Patton Society: The Third Army in World War II
http://www.pattonhq.com/textfiles/thirdhst.html

The Patton Society: The Slapping Incidents
http://www.pattonhq.com/unknown/chap08.html

World War II Units Histories: Seventh U.S. Army
http://www.unithistories.com/units/7th%20US%20Army.htm

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 05 Apr 2006 12:10 PDT

I meant: "...the "slapping incident" did not become a public scandal
before late November 1943", of course. I apologize for the irritating
typo.

Scriptor

Thanks!  Very useful info!