“A third landing was completed on August 16, and by 22:00 that day Messina fell to his forces. By the end of the battle, the 200,000-man Seventh Army had suffered 7,500 casualties, and killed or captured 113,000 Axis troops and destroyed 3,500 vehicles. Still, 40,000 German and 70,000 Italian troops escaped to Italy with 10,000 vehicles.” (Patton: A Biography) An example of Patton’s aggressiveness could be seen in an interesting event that occurred in the Sicily campaign, “In an incident on July 22, while a U.S. armored column was under attack from German aircraft, he shot and killed a pair of mules that had stopped while pulling a cart across a bridge. The cart was blocking the 4 | P a g e way of the column. When their Sicilian owner protested, Patton attacked him with a walking stick and had his troops push the two mule carcasses off the bridge.” (Patton: A Biography) When under attack and his soldiers were not being decisive enough, he took the matter into his own hands in a way that would solve the problem