Patton at 22 years old, a cadet
at the Virginia Military Institute.
Read Patton's famous "Speech to the Third Army" on June 5th, 1944, from www.pattonhq.com
Family
George Smith Patton, Jr. was born in San Gabriel, California to George Smith Patton, Sr. (September 30, 1856 – June, 1927) and Ruth Wilson, daughter of Benjamin Wilson, a prominent Pasadena land owner and politician. The Pattons were an affluent family. As a boy, Patton was introduced to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Bible, and the works of William Shakespeare. Patton's father was a friend of John Singleton Mosby, a cavalry hero of the Confederate States of America, serving first under J.E.B. Stuart and then as a guerrilla fighter. The younger Patton grew up hearing Mosby's stories of military glory. From an early age the young Patton sought to become a general and hero in his own right.
Patton came from a long line of soldiers who fought and some who died in many conflicts, including General Hugh Mercer of the American Revolution. Patton's paternal grandparents were Brigadier General George Smith Patton (June 26, 1833 – September 19, 1864) and Susan Thornton Glassell. Patton's grandfather in Fredericksburg, graduated from Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Class of 1852, standing 2nd in a class of 24. After graduation George Smith Patton had studied law and practiced in Charleston. When the American Civil War broke out, he served in the 22nd Virginia Infantry of the Confederate States of America.
Dying among the casualties of the Battle of Opequon (the Third Battle of Winchester), Patton's grandfather left behind a namesake son, born in Charleston, West Virginia when that state was still part of Virginia. The second George Smith Patton was only a child during the American Civil War. Graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 1877 before taking up a career as an attorney, Patton's father served as the first city level District Attorney of Pasadena, California and the first mayor of San Marino, California.
It is rumored that Patton's mother kept paintings of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in their living room; Patton admired them as she read to him from her rocking chair. Patton is quoted as saying, " Until I was old enough to know better, I thought those were portraits of God the Father, and God the Son."
Education
Patton attended Virginia Military Institute for one year, then transferred to West Point. He flunked out after plebe year with Courtney Hodges (both "found deficient" in mathematics), but reentered to graduate in 1909.
Patton was an intelligent child, intensively studying classical literature and military history from a young age, but likely suffered from an undiagnosed case of dyslexia, the consequences of which would haunt him throughout his schooling. He learned to read at a very late age as a child, and never learned basic skills such as proper spelling. Because of these difficulties, it took him five years to graduate from West Point, although he did rise to become Adjutant of the Corps of Cadets.
While at West Point, Patton renewed his acquaintance with childhood friend Beatrice Ayer, the daughter of a wealthy textile baron. The two were married shortly after Patton's graduation.
After graduating from West Point, Patton participated in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, representing the United States in the first-ever Modern Pentathlon. Patton finished fifth in the event. He was leading prior to the shooting competition, in which he decided to use a .38 revolver instead of the .22 caliber the rest of the athletes used. Patton was penalized for missing the target with one of his shots. He claimed that the 'miss' actually passed through the holes put in the target by his previous bullets (the heavier .38 rounds tearing a much larger series of holes in his target than the lighter rounds of his competitors). Based on his exceptional performance in the earlier qualifying rounds, events may have transpired as he claimed. His performance in the event is also notable in that he was the only competitor to defeat the French Epee champion in the fencing portion of the event.
After the Olympics, Lt. Patton was made the Army's youngest-ever Master of the Sword. While Master of the Sword, Patton improved and modernized the Army's Cavalry Saber fencing techniques and designed the M1913 Cavalry Saber.
Patton, along with many other members of his family, often claimed to have seen vivid, lifelike visions of his ancestors. He was a staunch believer in reincarnation, and much anecdotal evidence indicates that he held himself to be the reincarnation of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, a Roman legionnaire, a Napoleonic field marshal, and various other historical military figures.
Early military career
During the Mexican Expedition of 1916, Patton, while assigned to the 13th Cavalry Regiment in Fort Bliss, Texas, accompanied then-Brigadier General John J. Pershing as his aide during the Mexican Expedition in his pursuit of Pancho Villa. During his service, Patton, accompanied by ten soldiers of the 6th Infantry Regiment, killed "General" Julio Cardenas, commander of Villa's personal bodyguard. For this action, as well as Patton's affinity for the Colt Peacemaker, Pershing titled Patton his "Bandito". Patton's success in this regard gained him a level of notoriety back in the United States.
The Patton sabre
The US Army Model 1913 sabre had a large, basket-shaped hilt mounting a straight, double-edged, thrusting blade designed for use by heavy cavalry. Generally known as the “Patton” sabre because of its development by then-Lieutenant George S. Patton, it was heavily influenced by the 1908 and 1912 Pattern British Army Cavalry Swords.
World War I
At the onset of the USA's entry into World War I, General Pershing promoted Patton to the rank of captain. While in France under the Third Republic, Patton requested that he be given a combat command and Pershing assigned him command within the newly formed U.S. Tank Corps. Depending on the source, he either led the U.S. Tank Corps, led the British, or was an observer at the Battle of Cambrai, the first battle where tanks were used as a significant force. As the U.S. Tank Corps did not take part in this battle and it is extremely unlikely that a U.S. officer would have commanded British troops, the role of observer is the most likely. From his successes (and his organization of a training school for American tankers in Langres, France), Patton was promoted twice to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was placed in charge of the U.S. Tank Corps, which was part of the American Expeditionary Force and then the First U.S. Army. He took part in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, September 1918, and was wounded by machine gun fire as he sought assistance for tanks that were mired in the mud. The bullet had passed through his upper thigh and for years afterwards, when Patton was tipsy at social events, he would drop his pants to show his wound and called himself a "half-assed general." While Patton was recuperating from his wounds, hostilities ended.
For his service in the Meuse-Argonne Operations, Patton received a Distinguished Service Cross, and was given a battlefield promotion to a full colonel. For his combat wounds, he was presented the Purple Heart.
The interwar years
While on duty in Washington, D.C. in 1919, Patton met and became close friends with Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would play an enormous role in Patton's future career. In the early 1920s, Patton petitioned the U.S. Congress to appropriate funding for an armored force, but had little luck doing so. Patton also wrote professional articles on tank and armored car tactics, suggesting new methods to use these weapons. He also continued working on improvements to tanks, coming up with innovations in radio communication and tank mounts. However, with little money in the peacetime military for innovation, Patton eventually transferred back to the cavalry—still a horse-borne force—for career advancement.
In July 1932, Patton served under Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur, as a major leading the cavalry {See 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment}, in an action to disperse the veteran protesters known as the "Bonus Army" in Washington, DC.
Patton served in Hawaii before returning to Washington to once again ask Congress to allocate funding for armored units. In the late 1930s, Patton was assigned command of Fort Myer, Virginia. Shortly after Germany's blitzkrieg attacks in Europe, Patton was finally able to convince Congress of the need for armored divisions. Shortly after its approval, Patton was promoted to Brigadier General and put in command of the armored brigade. The brigade eventually grew into the US 2nd Armored Division and Patton was promoted to major general.
World War II
During the buildup of the U.S. Army prior to its entry into World War II, Patton established the Desert Training Center in Indio, California. He also commanded one of the two wargaming armies in the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941. Fort Benning, Georgia, is well known for General Patton's presence.
North African campaign
In 1942, Major General Patton commanded the Western Task Force of the U.S. Army, which landed on the coast of Morocco in Operation Torch. Patton and his staff arrived in Morocco aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta, which came under fire from the French battleship Jean Bart while entering the harbor of Casablanca.
F
ollowing the defeat of the U.S. II Corps as part of British 1st Army, by the German Afrika Korps at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in 1943, Patton was made Lieutenant General and placed in command of II Corps. Tough in his training, he was generally unpopular with his troops. Both British and US officers had noted the 'softness' and lack of discipline in the II Corps under Fredendall. Patton required all personnel to wear steel helmets, even physicians in the operating wards, and required his troops to wear the unpopular lace-up leggings and neckties. A system of fines was introduced to ensure all personnel shaved daily and observed other uniform requirements. While these measures did not make Patton popular, they did tend to restore a sense of discipline and unit pride that may have been missing earlier. In a play on his nickname, troops joked that it was "our blood and his guts". The discipline paid off as, by March, the counteroffensive was pushing the Germans east, along with the rest of British 1st Army, while the British Eighth Army commanded by General Bernard Law Montgomery in Tunisia was simultaneously pushing them west, effectively squeezing the Germans out of North Africa.
Italian campaign
As a result of his accomplishments in North Africa, Patton was given command of the Seventh Army in preparation for the 1943 invasion of Sicily.
He was charged with liberating the western half of the island, while Gen. Montgomery's British Eighth Army was to liberate the east.
Never one to allow his rival Montgomery to get the glory, Patton quickly pushed through western Sicily, liberating Palermo and then swiftly driving on east to Messina ahead of Montgomery.
Patton's bloodthirsty speeches resulted in controversy when it was claimed one inspired the Biscari Massacre in which American troops killed seventy-six prisoners of war. Patton's career nearly ended in August of 1943. While visiting hospitals and commending wounded soldiers, he slapped and verbally abused Privates Paul G. Bennet and Charles H. Kuhl, whom he thought were exhibiting cowardly behavior. The soldiers were suffering from various forms of "shell-shock," now known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and had no visible wounds (though one was subsequently found to have malaria). Because of this action, Patton was kept out of public view for some time and secretly ordered to apologize to the soldiers. Ironically, many modern day psychiatrists who have examined these incidents have professed that at the time Patton himself might have been suffering from battle fatigue. When news of Patton's acts was made public, there were calls from some that he should either resign or be fired from his position.
However, while Patton was temporarily relieved of his duty, his prolonged stay in Sicily was interpreted by the Germans to be indicative of an upcoming invasion of southern France and later, a stay in Cairo was interpreted as an upcoming invasion through the Balkans. The fear of General Patton helped to tie up many German troops and would be an important factor in the months to come.
Normandy
In the period leading to the Normandy invasion, Patton gave public talks as commander of the fictional First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG), which was supposedly intending to invade France by way of Calais. This was part of a sophisticated Allied campaign of military deception, Operation Fortitude.
Following the Normandy invasion, Patton was placed in command of the U.S. Third Army, which was on the extreme right (west) of the Allied land forces. Beginning at noon on August 1, 1944, he led this army during the late stages of Operation Cobra, the breakout from earlier slow fighting in the Norman system of planted hedgerows. The Third Army simultaneously attacked west (into Brittany), south, east towards the Seine, and north, assisting in trapping several hundred thousand German soldiers in the Chambois pocket, near Falaise. Patton used Germany's own blitzkrieg tactics against them, covering 600 miles in just two weeks. Patton's forces were part of the Allied forces that freed northern France, bypassing Paris. The city of Paris itself was liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division under French Marshal Philippe de Hauteclocque ("Leclerc"), insurgents who were fighting in the city, and a US Infantry Division. These early Third Army offensives showed the characteristic high mobility and aggressiveness of Patton's units. Rather than engage in set-piece slugging matches, Patton preferred to bypass centers of resistance and use the mobility of US units to the fullest, crumbling German defensive positions through maneuver rather than head-on fighting whenever possible.
Lorraine
General Patton's offensive, however, came to a screeching halt on August 31, 1944, as the Third Army literally ran out of gas near the Moselle River, just outside of Metz, France. The time needed to resupply was just enough to give the Germans the time they needed to further fortify the fortress of Metz. In October and November, the Third Army was mired in a near-stalemate with the Germans, inflicting heavy casualties on one another. By November 23, however, Metz had finally fallen to the Americans, the first time the city had fallen since the Franco-Prussian War.
Ardennes offensive
By late 1944, the German army made a last-ditch offensive across Belgium, Luxembourg, and northeastern France. The Ardennes Offensive (better known as the Battle of the Bulge), was planned by German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. On December 16, 1944, the German army threw 29 divisions (totaling some 250,000 men) at a weak point in the Allied lines and made massive headway towards the Meuse River during one of the worst winters in Europe in years.
Walter Cronkite (who was present as a war correspondent) tells the story of the staff meeting held the next morning to deal with Rundstedt's breakthrough. Patton was a few minutes late. When he entered, conversation stopped. Realizing that he should say something, Patton asked "What do you do when you catch a monkey hanging by its tail?" Answering his own question, he replied "You cut off its balls, and that is what I am going to do with von Rundstedt."
Patton was as good as his word, abruptly turning the Third Army north (a notable tactical and logistical achievement), disengaging from the front line to relieve the surrounded and besieged 101st Airborne Division trapped in Bastogne. By February, the Germans were once again in full retreat and Patton moved into the Saar Basin of Germany. The bulk of Third Army completed their crossing of the Rhine at Oppenheim on March 22, 1945.
Patton was planning to take Prague, Czechoslovakia, when the forward movement of American forces was halted. His troops liberated Pilsen (May 6, 1945) and most of western Bohemia.
Patton's problems with humor, his image, and the press
Patton was not known for his sense of humor, and his reckless words often made him his own worst enemy. Unlike Eisenhower, who was popular with troops partly for his self-deprecating humor, Patton disliked humor aimed at himself. The cartoonist Bill Mauldin ridiculed Patton several times in his comics, prompting Patton to summon Sergeant Mauldin to his headquarters for a dressing-down. On the other hand, he was himself capable of the occasional blunt witticism: "The two most dangerous weapons the Germans have are our own armored halftrack and jeep. The halftrack because the boys in it go all heroic, thinking they are in a tank. The jeep because we have so many God-awful drivers." During the Battle of the Bulge, he famously remarked that the Allies should "let the sons-of-bitches [Germans] go all the way to Paris, then we'll cut 'em off and round 'em up!" He also suggested that the German forces could attack towards the British and create "another Dunkirk". His remarks frequently ridiculed General Montgomery and at times the Soviet Red Army, contributing to inter-Allied discord. In the context of coalition warfare, these remarks were occasionally harmful. Eisenhower wisely used Patton's high profile with the press to contribute to Operation Fortitude; he knew the press would report on his appearances in Britain and that the Germans would pick up these reports.
Patton deliberately cultivated a flashy, distinctive image in the belief that this would motivate his troops. He was usually seen wearing a highly polished helmet, riding pants, and high cavalry boots. He carried flashy guns. A nickle-plated Colt Single action with Ivory stocks and an Ivory stocked Smith & Wesson .357 magnum (later given the model number 27). His vehicles carried oversized rank insignia and loud horns. His speech was riddled with profanities. American soldiers respected Patton as a general and as a soldier because he inspired patriotic feeling, and because the coarse toughness of his image and character appeared well-suited to the conditions of battle. His theatrics were admired by many, so much so that upon his death upwards of 20,000 soldiers volunteered to be pall bearers at his funeral. This came as a surprise to the American populace, as the media had often portrayed Patton's armies as disliking him.
Task Force Baum Controversy
On March 24th, shortly after completing his crossing of the Rhine, Patton ordered US XII Corps Commander MG Manton Eddy to undertake an immediate operation to liberate the OFLAG XIII-B prison camp at Hammelburg, some 80km behind enemy lines. Eddy strongly argued against the necessity and prudence of the raid, reportedly going so far as to refuse to pass the order to the US 4th Armored Division until General Eisenhower could be contacted for approval. Patton, having no desire to involve Eisenhower (who was already well aquainted with Patton's headstrong tendencies and would likely have cancelled the operation), flew to the XII Corps command post at Undenheim, waited until Eddy left for dinner, and personally delivered the operation order to BG Hoge of US 4th AD. Noting that intelligence indicated a strong Wehrmacht and possible SS Panzer presence in the area of the camp (as well as its relative distance from the line), Hoge and "Combat Command B" Commander LTC Creighton Abrams relayed to Patton that no less than a full Combat Command would be required. Patton rejected this request, insisting instead that only a limited task force be sent. He also mandated that his aide-de-camp and personal friend, MAJ Alexander Stiller would accompany the force merely "to gain experience".
The task force, led by CPT Abraham Baum, fought valiantly through significant resistance to successfully liberate the camp, but was too exhausted and reduced in size from 52 hours of continuous fighting to successfully penetrate the noose of Wermacht reinforcements that were rapidly swarming into the area to surround them. The bulk of the remaining force was hacked to pieces and routed in the woods around Hammelburg, with the survivors being captured. A few managed to evade the Germans and return to American lines.
After the news of the operation became public, it was revealed that Patton's motivation for ordering the operation against apparent common sense and the strident objections of his contemporaries was most probably personal: he had been informed on February 9th by General Eisenhower that his son-in-law, LTC John K. Waters, captured in North Africa in 1943, was being held at Hammelburg. Until this information came out, Patton had always insisted he had no knowledge of Waters' whereabouts. Upon further review, Patton's explanation for insisting that MAJ Stiller should accompany the force also didn't hold water; as a decorated WWI officer, Stiller had already seen significantly more combat than most men in Task Force Baum, and (most importantly) as a personal friend of Patton's family, he had met LTC Waters and would be able to identify his face. Furthermore, Patton had always insisted that the operation to liberate the camp at Hammelburg was motivated by a deep concern for the welfare and safety of captured US servicemen, yet in an ironic twist, after MAJ Stiller was captured following the destruction of the task force, Patton refused to undertake an operation to liberate the camp at which he and other survivors were held, even though it was much closer to the 3rd Army line of advance than Hammelburg had been, and contained nearly twice as many troops. Patton's superior, General Omar Bradley, later famously characterized the raid as "a wild goose-chase that ended in a tragedy."
After the German surrender
After the surrender of May 7, 1945 extinguished the common threat of Nazi Germany, Patton was quick to assert the Soviet Union would cease to be an ally of the United States. In fact, believing the USSR would become an enemy, he urged his superiors to evict the Soviets from central and eastern Europe. Patton thought that the Red Army was weak, under-supplied, and vulnerable, and the United States should act on these weaknesses before the Soviets consolidated their position. In this regard, he told then-Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson [1] that the "point system" being used to de-mobilize Third Army troops was destroying it and creating a vacuum that the Soviets would exploit. "Mr. Secretary, for God’s sake, when you go home, stop this point system; stop breaking up these armies," pleaded the general. "Let’s keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to these people the Soviets. This is the only language they understand." Asked by Patterson — who would become Secretary of War a few months later — what he would do, Patton replied: "I would have you tell the Red Army where their border is, and give them a limited time to get back across. Warn them that if they fail to do so, we will push them back across it."
On a personal level, Patton was disappointed by the Army's refusal to give him combat command in the Pacific. Unhappy in his role as the military governor of Bavaria and depressed by his belief that he would never fight in another war, Patton's behavior and statements became increasingly erratic. He also made many anti-Russian and anti-Semitic statements in letters home. Various explanations beyond his disappointments have been proposed for Patton's erratic behaviour. Carlo D'Este, in Patton: A Genius for War, writes that "it seems virtually inevitable ... that Patton experienced some type of brain damage from too many head injuries" from a lifetime of numerous auto- and horse-related accidents, especially one suffered while playing polo in 1936. It should be noted, however, that many of the controversial opinions he expressed were common (if not exactly popular) at the time and his outspoken opposition to post-surrender denazification is still a widely debated viewpoint today. Many still laud his proudly generous treatment of his German former enemies and his early recognition of the Soviet threat, while detractors say his protests reflect the views of a bigoted and obnoxious elitist. Whatever the cause, Patton found himself once again in trouble with his superiors and the American people. While speaking to a group of reporters, he compared the Nazis to losers in American political elections. Patton was soon relieved of his Third Army command and transferred to the Fifteenth Army, a paper command preparing a history of the war. One thing that must be remembered is that Patton was a historian at heart. He lived, breathed and slept history. It was this personal sense of historical existence that prompted his spectacular military and personal accomplishments during his lifetime. As such, to be granted the privilege of helping to write the history of the greatest military conflict he had been a part of was not something that he was opposed to, even under the circumstances.
Attitude on race
The use of African American troops during the push to the Siegfried Line offers some insight into Patton's attitude towards them.
The first African American tank unit, the 761st "Black Panther" Tank Battalion, was assigned to Patton in the fall of 1944 at his reluctant request. As the 761st was about to enter combat, Patton reviewed the battalion and addressed the men:
Men, you're the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American Army. I would never have asked for you if you weren't good. I have nothing but the best in my Army. I don't care what color you are as long as you go up there and kill those Kraut sons of bitches. Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you. Most of all your race is looking forward to you. Don't let them down and damn you, don't let me down!
However, like many military officers of the era, Patton expressed his doubts about using black men in combat. On returning to headquarters following the review, he remarked, "They gave a good first impression, but I have no faith in the inherent fighting ability of the race."He only put this sentiment aside and accepted the 761st when he desperately needed all the ground power he could get. Even after the war, Patton was not inclined to reform his perception of black soldiers. In War As I Knew It, he relates the interaction described above, and comments, "Individually they were good soldiers, but I expressed my belief at the time, and have never found the necessity of changing it, that a colored soldier cannot think fast enough to fight in armor."
D'Este explains that "on the one hand he could and did admire the toughness and courage" of some black soldiers but his writings can also be frequently read as "disdaining them and their officers because they were not part of his social order." Historian Hugh Cole points out that Patton was also the first American military leader to integrate the rifle companies "when manpower got tight." Kareem Abdul Jabar, author of Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes, agrees that although Patton was a bigot the fact remains that he did lend his name to the advancement of blacks in the military at the time and most of the men of the 761st are proud to have served under one of the most brilliant and feared Allied generals of World War II.
Patton's views on African Americans seem mild and even generous compared to remarks he made about Jews, Arabs, Hawaiians, and other different ethnic groups he encountered throughout his military career (even discounting his legendary hatred of the Russians). Like many Americans of his era, he generally considered those who weren't of Northern European ancestry to be dirty and uncivilized. He expressed his feelings about Jews with his writings:
"We entered a synagogue which was packed with the greatest stinking bunch of humanity I have ever seen. Either these Displaced Persons never had any sense of decency or else they lost it all during their period of interment by the Germans...My personal opinion is that no people could have sunk to the level of degradation these have reached in the short space of four years."
Though many of his attitudes were common (if far from universal) in his time, as with all of his controversial opinions he was often exceptionally blunt in his expression of them. He once wrote:
[edit]"The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinese or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other amiable characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and they are all out sons-of-bitches, barbarians, and chronic drunks."
Patton and Eisenhower
The relationship between George S. Patton and Dwight Eisenhower has long been of interest to historians in that the onset of World War II completely reversed the roles of the two men in the space of just under two years. When Patton and Eisenhower met in the mid 1920s, Patton was six years Eisenhower’s senior in the Army and Eisenhower saw Patton as a leading mind in tank warfare.
Between 1935 and 1940, Patton and Eisenhower developed a very close friendship to the level where the Patton and Eisenhower families were spending summer vacations together. In 1938, Patton was promoted to full colonel and Eisenhower, then still a lieutenant colonel, openly admitted that he saw Patton as a friend, superior officer, and mentor.
Upon the outbreak of World War II, Patton’s genius of tank warfare was recognized by the Army, and he was quickly made a brigadier general and, less than a year later, a major general. In 1940, Lt. Col. Eisenhower petitioned Major General Patton, offering to serve under the tank corps commander. Patton accepted readily, stating that he would like nothing better than for Eisenhower to be placed under his command.
George Marshall, recognizing that the coming conflict would require all available military talent, had other plans for Eisenhower. In 1941, after five years as a relatively unknown lieutenant colonel, Eisenhower was promoted to colonel and then again to brigadier general in just 6 months time. Patton was still senior to Eisenhower in the Regular Army, but this was soon not the case in the growing conscript army (known as the Army of the United States). In 1942, Eisenhower was promoted to major general and, just a few months later, to lieutenant general--overtaking the rank of Patton for the first time. When the Allies announced the invasion of North Africa, Major General Patton suddenly found himself under the command of his former subordinate, now one star his senior.
In 1943, Patton became a lieutenant general one month after Eisenhower was promoted to full (four-star) general. Patton was unusually reserved in his never having commented on Eisenhower's hasty rise. Patton also reassured Eisenhower that the two men’s professional relationship was unaffected. Privately, however, Patton was often quick to remind Eisenhower that his permanent rank in the Regular Army, then still a one-star brigadier general, was lower than Patton’s Regular Army commission as a two-star major general.
When Patton came under criticism for the "Sicily slapping incident" (see above), Eisenhower met privately with Patton and reprimanded his former superior officer but then reassured Patton that he would not be sent home to the United States for his conduct. Many historians have speculated that, had it been any other man than Eisenhower, Patton would have been demoted and court-martialed.
Eisenhower is also credited with giving Patton a command in France, after other powers in the Army had relegated Patton to various unimportant duties in England. It was in France that Patton found himself in the company of another former subordinate, Omar Bradley, who had now become his superior. As with Eisenhower, Patton behaved with professionalism and served under Bradley with distinction.
After the close of World War II, Patton became occupation commander of Bavaria, and made arrangements for saving the world-famous Lipizzaner stallions of Vienna. However, he was relieved of duty after making comments that the Nazis were nothing more than a normal political party, and ordering former SS units to begin drilling in attempt to gain some respectability. His view of the war was that with Hitler gone, the German army could be rebuilt into a daunting ally in a war against the Russian Soviets, whom Patton notoriously despised and considered a greater menace than the Germans. During this period he wrote that the Allied victory had been in vain if it led to a tyrant worse than Hitler and an army of "Mongolian savages" controlling half of Europe. Eisenhower had at last had enough, relieving Patton of all duties and ordering his return to the United States. When Patton openly accused Eisenhower of caring more about a political career than his military duties, the friendship between the two effectively came to an end.
When the biography of George Patton was aired on the A&E network, a single quote perhaps best described the relationship and destinies of George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower:
"[The] course of World War II would lead these two men to very different ends: one to the office of President of the United States and the other to a soldier's grave on a foreign shore."
Near the end of the war (February 1945), Eisenhower ranked the major generals in Europe. Omar Bradley and Carl Spaatz were rated as the best. Bedell Smith was ranked number 2, Patton was ranked 3, followed by Mark Clark, and Lucian Truscott (others were also ranked). Bradley himself had been asked by Eisenhower to rank all the generals in December of 1945 and he ranked them as follows: Bedell Smith #1, Spaatz #2, Courtney Hodges #3, Elwood Quesada #4, Truscott #5, and Patton #6 (others were also ranked)
These rankings probably included factors other than Patton's success as a battle leader. As to that, Alan Axelrod in his book "Patton" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) quotes German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt as stating "Patton was your best" and, surprisingly, Joseph Stalin as stating that the Red Army could neither have planned nor executed Patton's advance across France. D'Este reports that even Hitler begrudgingly respected Patton, once calling him "that crazy cowboy general."
Brief June 1945 visit to California
Largely overlooked in history is the warm reception he received on June 9, 1945, when he and Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle were honored with a parade through Los Angeles and a reception at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before over 100,000 people that evening. The next day, Patton and Doolittle toured the metropolitan Los Angeles area. Patton spoke in front of the Burbank City Hall and at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. He wore his helmet with a straight line of stars, chest full of medals, and two ivory handle trademark pistols. He punctuated his speech with some of the same profanity he had used with the troops. He spoke about conditions in Europe and the Russian allies to the adoring crowds. This may be the only time in America when the civilian people, en masse, heard and saw the famous warrior on the podium. This was also the time when he turned over key Nazi historical documents that he had unilaterally gathered, (such as the original 1935 Nuremberg Blood laws) to the Huntington Library. This a world-class repository of historical original papers, books, and maps, near Pasadena. The existence of this trove of historical papers was kept secret for about 55 years, and only publicized generally in April 2006, in a Los Angeles Times in-depth story. The papers are now on permanent loan to the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. He wouldn't live to speak again to the public in his native country, or to follow up on the conservation of the important documents he had collected.
Accident and death
On December 9th, a day before he was due to return to the United States, Patton was severely injured in a road accident. He and his chief of staff, Major General Hobart R. 'Hap' Gay, were on a daytrip to hunt pheasants in the country, outside Mannheim. It was a cold, wet, hazy December morning. Their 1939 Cadillac Model 75 was driven by PFC Horace Woodring (1926 - 2003). Patton sat in the back seat, on the right with General Gay on his left, as per custom. At 11:45 near Neckarstadt, (Käfertal) a 2 1/2 ton truck driven by T/5 Robert L. Thompson appeared out of the haze and made a left-hand turn towards a side road. The Cadillac smashed into the truck. General Patton was thrown forward and his head struck a metal part of the partition between the front and back seats. Gay and Woodring were uninjured. Paralyzed from the neck down, George Patton died of an embolism on 21st December 1945 at the military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany with his wife present.
Patton was buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial in Hamm, Luxembourg along with other members of the Third Army. A cenotaph was placed at the Wilson-Patton family plot at the San Gabriel Cemetery in San Gabriel, California. Patton's car was repaired and used by other officers. The car is now on display, with other Patton artifacts, at the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
"Patton", the movie
Patton was the focus of the epic film, (very widely shown in 70mm) 1970 Academy Award-winning movie Patton, with the title role played by George C. Scott. As a result of the movie and its now-famous opening monologue in front of a gigantic American flag, (based on a real speech he often made to Third Army troops before the Normandy invasion), in popular culture Patton has come to symbolize a warrior's ferocity and aggressiveness. Although the movie is based upon Ladislas Farago's "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph" and Omar Bradley's "A Soldier's Story," historians have stated the movie's accuracy could be tinged with some bias, noting the heavy influence of Omar Bradley as senior military advisor and writer. Bradley, played in the movie by Karl Malden, had a tumultuous relationship with Patton and the movie's treatment of him could be seen as hagiographic. Still, many Patton contemporaries, including many who knew him personally or served with him, applauded Scott's portrayal as being extremely accurate in capturing the essence of the man. Other historians have praised the film for its generally accurate and balanced portrayal of Patton as a complex, capable, and flawed leader. Another source used by these and other authors is the "Button Box" manuscript written by Patton's wife, Beatrice Ayer Patton.
The image of Patton in the movie is somewhat misleading since the opening monologue is delivered from a stage in front of what sounds like a very large audience. The real George Patton was not known as a good public speaker. He was very self-conscious and knew that his high-pitched voice risked making him sound like an old grandmother, unlike the gravelly voice of George C. Scott, who confidently delivered a finely tuned and concise speech. The movie writers of Patton's famous speech, however, changed the wording here and there, often for the sake of toning it down and removing the general's obscenities.
The movie was a favorite of President Richard M. Nixon, who watched it shortly before ordering the invasion of Cambodia.
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