Patton, General George S. (1885–1945),the US Army's most controversial officer whose inspired, and inspiring, leadership won him as many devotees as he lost because of his volatile temperament.
Patton was commissioned into the cavalry in 1909, represented his country at the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games, took part in the 1916 punitive raid into Mexico, and in 1917 went to France as a captain on the staff of General John Pershing (1860–1948) where he later rose to command a tank brigade. By April 1941 he was a two-star general and the following January he was given command of 1st Armoured Corps. As commander of the Western Task Force—the equivalent of two divisions—he directed the amphibious operations near Casablanca during the
North African campaign landings in November 1942 and quickly became known as a hard-driving, aggressive combat officer whose offensive spirit was summed up in his method of attack: ‘Hold them by the nose and kick them in the rear.’ In March 1943, after the disaster at
Kasserine Pass, he took command of the 2nd US Corps which had been defeated there. He always maintained that an army commander did whatever was necessary to accomplish his mission, ‘and nearly 80% of his mission is to arouse morale in his men’. In this he succeeded with 2nd Corps, though he later commented he thought it the most difficult job he had ever undertaken. He relinquished his command to
Bradley in April 1943 to plan the
Sicilian campaign in which he commanded Seventh US Army with the rank of lt-general.
In Sicily the Americans came of age as a fighting force and Patton's army, though initially assigned a subsidiary role, took Palermo with a daring armoured thrust and then wound the campaign up by arriving in Messina before the British. However, an inflammatory speech he delivered before the landings was later cited as a contributory factor to the
Biscari massacre and on two occasions he verbally abused and slapped soldiers suffering from combat exhaustion (see
medicine). He later claimed he had done it deliberately to jolt the men out of their shocked state, but it became public knowledge and nearly ended his career. However,
Eisenhower, then Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean, declared him too valuable to lose and refused to send him home. He remained for a time in Sicily without a posting before being sent to the UK to command and train the Third US Army for its role in the
Normandy campaign. He also took part in the
deception plan FORTITUDE SOUTH, as commander of the non-existent First US Army Group (FUSAG).
The Third US Army, comprising four corps, was officially activated in France on 1 August 1944. Patton launched a series of spectacular armoured thrusts but the Germans retreated to his primary objectives, the major seaports such as Brest, and prevented their immediate capture. Meanwhile, the break-out of the Allied armies began and on 19 August Patton's forces, helped by emergency airlifts of fuel, put a division across the Seine south-east of Paris and twelve days later they were on the Meuse.
logistics soon slowed the Allied advance but by November Patton had reached the
West Wall which guarded the German border and on 13 December he captured Metz. Three days later the Germans launched their
Ardennes campaign during which Patton's army executed what has been called one of the most remarkable movements in military history. He turned it northwards and with incredible speed moved it to attack the southern edge of the German counter-offensive, relieving
Bastogne and disrupting the German advance. In March 1945 his army crossed the Rhine at Mainz and Oppenheim, drove into the heart of Germany, and ended the war in Czechoslovakia and Austria. He was promoted four-star general in April 1945 and was hailed as the outstanding American general of the war. But in September 1945, while military governor of Bavaria, he publicly recommended that members of the Nazi Party should be employed in administrative jobs, and he was relieved of his command.
Patton projected toughness, flamboyance, and extrovert aggression, the qualities, he believed, of a successful general. His highly polished boots and the ivory-handled revolvers strapped to his hips were all part of this posturing, as was the profanity of his language. But he was actually a deeply religious, sensitive, and cultured man who wrote poetry, was widely read, and who had many interests. He was audacious and fearless—‘old blood and guts’ was one of his nicknames—but a thoughtful, meticulous planner as well, a perfectionist. Most remarkable of all, he achieved his well-merited fame, as has been pointed out ( R. Nye, in
Parameters, Winter 1991–2), in just thirteen months of combat command during the Second World War (less than a week at Casablanca, less than 30 days in Tunisia, 38 days in Sicily, 318 days in north-west Europe). He was mortally injured in a car accident in December 1945.
Bibliography
Blumenson, M. (ed.), The Patton Papers, 2 vols. (Boston, 1972–4).
Essame, H. , Patton the Commander (London, 1974).
Patton, G. , War as I Knew it (Boston, 1947).
