My dad’s unit was in 3rd Army briefly during the Bulge then moved to 9th Army. He was quite relieved when they were. Wasn’t a fan of the “I’ll get to Berlin first even if it takes a boxcar load of dog tags to do it.” comment.
Patton understood the strategic importance of Berlin, unlike our politicians, who have decided already that they will gift half of Europe to Stalin and his security forces. To put it in perspective here are approximate casualties from WWII.:
Massive Russian casualties were result of an absolute disregard for human lives exhibited by the Soviet leadership. Patton knew better, than our overly optimistic politicians, what Soviets can do. He considered them as an absolute evil and he would be fighting them after the war, if it would be up to him.
While his comments could be more sensitive, his desire to get to Berlin is understood more today than back then.
Take a look at the casualties list. Hungary, for example, lost more people than the United States. Yugoslavia, which was fighting Italians and Nazis during the entire war and had strong partisans lost 1.7M, Poland 4.3M.....Yet, all of these countries were given to Stalin! Stalin made sure the casualties went into astronomical numbers right after the war when his secret police (NKVD) liquidated millions in all of those countries. Patton talked about it during the war. He was not listened to and our politicians wanted him to be silent.
Our history does not speak about concentration camps in Europe built by Stalin. We talk about gulags, but concentration camps were working in Europe from 1945 under the direct command of NKVD which also utilized former Nazi prison guards in some areas. Patton listened to Russian refugees who escaped from communists in 1918 and were living since then in European cities. They were begging him to liberate those cities because if they would be liberated by Soviets they will be all killed or deported to Siberia. Our politicians did not care and gave such refugees back to Stalin as a gift. Only very few of them survived.
I served in both military pacts, NATO and Warsaw Pact, and I can tell you that NATO was always about making sure no soldier is left behind. In Warsaw Pact, which was under the control of the Red Army, you were expected to die. That was just one of many main differences.