Despite the Americans’ improvement on the battlefield, Alexander and Montgomery remained unimpressed. For their part, Patton and many of his colleagues resented British impertinence, especially on the part of Montgomery. Arrogant, self-centered, and pushy, the 56-year-old general in the natty black beret irked his colleagues with outlandish statements and demands. In many ways he was not unlike Patton. At the age of 58, Patton was deeply religious, swashbuckling, "human dynamo" who strutted around in a polished steel helmet with a pair of ivory-handled revolvers strapped to his waist. "His vigor was always infectious, his wit barbed, his conversation a mixture of obscenity and good humor," Bradley wrote. "He was at once stimulating and overbearing. George was a magnificent soldier."

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By the time he waded ashore on Sicily, Patton’s antipathy toward his British counterparts had also come to affect his relationship with his boss, Eisenhower. Patton’s long-time friend had the difficult job of holding together the young Anglo-American alliance. But Patton felt that American interests and honor too often took a back seat to British demands. "God damn all British and all so-called Americans who have their legs pulled by them," Patton wrote in his diary in Tunisia. "Ike is more British than the British and is putty in their hands . . . ."

For the first invasion of the Axis’ home turf, Patton commanded the new Seventh U.S. Army, including Bradley’s II Corps. Patton welcomed the chance to assert U.S. military might. Initially scheduled to land on the island’s northern coast and capture Sicily’s capital Palermo, American troops expected to go on the offensive in Sicily. But Montgomery favored a less dispersed landing to the south and in the end, his plan won out. Patton still expected Seventh Army to make its mark. But to Alexander, it was clear that "Eighth Army would have the glory of capturing the more obviously attractive objectives of Syracuse, Catania, and Messina . . . ."

From the outset Eighth Army strategy left little room for Patton to operate, and Montgomery essentially imposed his will on Alexander. Montgomery reasoned that if the Americans could simply "hold firm against any action from the west I could then swing hard with my right with an easier mind. If they draw enemy attacks on them my swing north will cut off enemy completely." Two days later, Alexander transferred use of Highway 124 to Montgomery. "They gave us the future plan of operations," Patton wrote bitterly, "which cuts us off from any possibility of taking Messina."

Patton considered himself, with good reason, "the best damn ass-kicker in the U.S. Army," but he accepted this outrageous decision without a protest. This was not the time to raise a fuss. For the moment he saved his invective for his diary. "Ike has never been subjected to air attack or any other form of death. However, he is such a straw man that his future is secure. The British will never let him go."

Yet Patton did not simply give up Highway 124 with a smile. He slyly secured authorization to expand the American perimeter west. Patton had his eyes set on Palermo, and, ultimately, Messina. The next day Patton and Major General Lucien K. Truscott, who headed up the 3rd Infantry Division, discussed a westward reconnaissance in force toward Agrigento and Porto Empedocle. Truscott felt that Alexander would not object to such a move, and Patton, Truscott wrote, "with something of the air of the cat that had swallowed the canary, agreed . . . ." Patton had his foot in the door and he meant to swing it open.

On July 16 Alexander issued another directive that positively infuriated Patton. The order stipulated that Montgomery’s Eighth Army would advance on Messina on three fronts. The Americans were officially left with the distasteful task of protecting Montgomery’s left flank. Alexander lamely authorized Seventh Army "to capture Agrigento and Porto Empedocle"–something Truscott had done that very day. Patton blamed Montgomery. "Monty is trying to steal the show," he wrote to his wife, Beatrice, "and with the assistance of Divine Destiny [Eisenhower] may do so . . . ."

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