Horace L. Woodring, 77; Driver of Limo Whose Crash Killed Gen. Patton
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Horace L. Woodring, 77, the driver of Gen. George S. Patton’s limousine when the car crashed in 1945, causing injuries that ultimately killed the four-star general, died Sunday of heart failure in White Lake Township, Mich.
Woodring, a 19-year-old Army private first class at the time of the accident, was taking Patton on a hunting trip in Germany when another vehicle turned in front of their Cadillac limousine.
Patton’s neck was broken in the crash, and he died 12 days later.
Woodring, who made his living as an auto broker after the war, said that Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War II, said that Woodring had not been responsible for the accident.
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