Patton, George S., Jr

Patton, George S., Jr. (1885–1945), U.S. Army general.Born in San Gabriel, California, Patton graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1909 and entered the cavalry. He accompanied General John J. Pershing into Mexico in 1916–1917, and then to France. In November 1917, as the first U.S. officer assigned to tanks, Patton commanded his brigade of light tanks and fought at Saint‐Mihiel and in the Argonne until wounded. A colonel, he received the Distinguished Service Cross.

During World War II, Patton headed the Desert Training Center around Indio in southern California in early 1942 and then commanded the I Armored Corps, landing in French Morocco in November 1942. After General Erwin Rommel's February 1943 breakthrough at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, Patton took command of the II Corps, quickly rehabilitated the American troops, and led them to capture El Guettar.

At the head of the Seventh U.S. Army, Patton invaded Sicily in July 1943, taking Palermo and Messina. His Third U.S. Army, which became operational on 1 August 1944, liberated France from Brest to the Meuse River. In December, he turned north; relieved the U.S. forces surrounded in Bastogne, Belgium; and helped drive German forces back in the Battle of the Bulge. Crossing the Rhine in March 1945, Patton took Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, in early May.

Patton was controversial, particularly after he slapped and berated two shell‐shocked U.S. soldiers in a military hospital on Sicily in August 1943. Nevertheless, his professional skill, audacity, and personal inspiration shortened the war. Of all the Allied commanders in Europe, Patton was the most feared by the Germans.

Heading the occupation of eastern Bavaria, but insisting that the United States should be more aggressively anticommunist, Patton was reassigned in October 1945 to write historical studies. He suffered fatal injuries in an automobile accident on 9 December near Mannheim, Germany, and is interred in the American Military Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg. A legendary cultural figure (played by George C. Scott in a celebrated 1970 film), Patton symbolizes American military genius.
See also Military, The.

Bibliography

Martin Blumenson , Patton: The Man behind the Legend, 1985.
Carlo D'Este , Patton: A Genius for War, 1995.

Martin Blumenson