The 15th Army at this point consisted only of a small headquarters staff working to compile a history of the war in Europe. He exercised unique leadership by his ability to obtain the utmostsome would say more than the maximumresponse from American combat troops. General Bradley was smarter than Patton. [102], Patton had a personal schooner named When and If. [260] Generaloberst Alfred Jodl, chief of staff of the German Army, stated that Patton "was the American Guderian. An award-winning biographical film released in 1970, Patton, helped popularize his image. [144], Patton's niece Jean Gordon spent some time together with him in London in 1944, and in Bavaria in 1945. As part of a provisional corps under Major General Geoffrey Keyes, the 3rd Infantry Division under Major General Lucian Truscott covered 100 miles (160km) in 72 hours, arriving at Palermo on July 21. He studied fencing and designed the M1913 Cavalry Saber, more commonly known as the "Patton Saber". Although the 35th Division (of which Patton's tank troop was a component) eventually captured Varennes, it did so with heavy losses. Patton followed the growing hostility and conquest aspirations of the militant Japanese leadership. [15][16], At age 24, Patton married Beatrice Banning Ayer, the daughter of Boston industrialist Frederick Ayer, on May 26, 1910, in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. Patton then set his sights on Messina. A General is a four-star general. There were seven 5-star appointments in 1944, another in [109] On January 15, 1942, a few weeks after the American entry into World War II, he succeeded Scott as commander of I Armored Corps, and the next month established the Desert Training Center[110] in the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County in California, to run training exercises. Patton's maternal grandfather was Benjamin Davis Wilson, a merchant who had been the second Mayor of Los Angeles. [53][54] Patton modeled much of his leadership style after Pershing, who favored strong, decisive actions and commanding from the front. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Those who believed that Displaced Persons were human beings were wrong, Patton said: "this applies particularly to the Jews who are lower than animals." [194] Patton later said he felt the correct decision would have been to send a Combat Command, which is a force about three times larger. In peacetime, though, he would remain a colonel to remain eligible to command a regiment. He was a terrible student at West Point. Martin Blumenson, "Patton, George Smith" in John Garraty, ed., Encyclopedia of American Biography (1974) p 839. Patton repeatedly boasted of his sexual success with Gordon, and his wife and family plainly believed that the two were lovers. Patton's father, who graduated from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), became a lawyer and later the district attorney of Los Angeles County. He was reportedly appalled to learn that the Red Army would take Berlin, feeling that the Soviet Union was a threat to the U.S. Army's advance to Pilsen, but was stopped by Eisenhower from reaching Prague, Czechoslovakia, before V-E Day on May 8 and the end of the war in Europe. [107] Patton earned a pilot's license and, during these maneuvers, observed the movements of his vehicles from the air to find ways to deploy them effectively in combat. In October Patton briefly retired to California after being burned by an exploding gas lamp. 1903-1904 Patton attended Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, as Cadet. "[212] According to Anthony Cave Brown in Bodyguard of Lies, "Patton was relieved of command of the 3rd Army by Eisenhower just after the end of the war for stating publicly that America had been fighting the wrong enemyGermany instead of Russia". [84], In addition, he was also awarded the Purple Heart for his combat wounds after the decoration was created in 1932. Was Patton a 5 star general? In addition to his other Asiatic characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and is an all out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk. What we are doing is to utterly destroy the only semi-modern state in Europe so that Russia can swallow the whole. Actually the Germans are the only decent people in Europe. [64], After the Villa Expedition, Patton was detailed to Front Royal, Virginia, to oversee horse procurement for the army, but Pershing intervened on his behalf. [93] In August 1923, Patton saved several children from drowning when they fell off a yacht during a boating trip off Salem, Massachusetts. [120], On March 6, 1943, following the defeat of the U.S. II Corps by the German Afrika Korps, commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, at the Battle of Kasserine Pass, Patton replaced Major General Lloyd Fredendall as Commanding General of the II Corps and was promoted to lieutenant general. Heidelberg, Wrttemberg-Baden [now Baden-Wrttemberg], Germany (undisclosed) Birth name George Smith Patton Jr. Nicknames Old Blood-and-Guts Georgie Height 6 1 (1.87 m) Mini Bio Patton was promoted to major on January 26, 1918. He continuously moved throughout the command talking with men, seeking to shape them into effective soldiers. [238] Many of his directives showed special trouble to care for the enlisted men under his command, and he was well known for arranging extra supplies for battlefield soldiers, including blankets and extra socks, galoshes, and other items normally in short supply at the front.[239]. He believed that he might have been a military leader killed in action in Napoleon's army or a Roman legionary in a previous life. He was originally intended to return to the 15th Cavalry,[47] which was bound for the Philippines. The German commanders believed this was because their counterattack had been successful. [243], In spite of his views, Patton called heavily on the black troops under his command. [52][226] He was usually seen wearing a highly polished helmet, riding pants, and high cavalry boots. [240] Privately he wrote of black soldiers: 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.[241]. September 1 Patton re-entered as Cadet, U.S. Military Academy. Was Patton ever a 5 star general? "There is a very Semitic influence in the press," he wrote. r / EYE-zn-how-r; born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 - March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During maneuvers the Third Army conducted in 1940, Patton served as an umpire, where he met Adna R. Chaffee Jr. and the two formulated recommendations to develop an armored force. This code phrase initiated a prearranged operational order with Patton's staff, mobilizing three divisionsthe 4th Armored Division, the 80th Infantry Division, and the 26th Infantry Divisionfrom the Third Army and moving them north toward Bastogne. The jeep because we have so many God-awful drivers. His sending the doomed Task Force Baum to liberate his son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel John K. Waters, from a prisoner-of-war camp further damaged his standing with his superiors. [108], General Patton led the division during the Tennessee Maneuvers in June 1941, and was lauded for his leadership, executing 48 hours' worth of planned objectives in only nine. [213], On September 28, 1945, after a heated exchange with Eisenhower over the denazification controversy, Patton was relieved of his military governorship. [157] Because of this, Patton was made a prominent figure in the deception scheme Operation Fortitude during the first half of 1944. [128] He sought an amphibious assault, but it was delayed by lack of landing craft, and his troops did not land at Santo Stefano until August 8, by which time the Germans and Italians had already evacuated the bulk of their troops to mainland Italy. [173] In late September, a large German Panzer counterattack sent expressly to stop the advance of Patton's Third Army was defeated by the U.S. 4th Armored Division at the Battle of Arracourt. Most of all, your race is looking forward to you. From November 8 to December 15, his army advanced no more than 40 miles (64km). Guessing the intent of the Allied command meeting, Patton ordered his staff to make three separate operational contingency orders to disengage elements of the Third Army from its present position and begin offensive operations toward several objectives in the area of the bulge occupied by German forces. Answer (1 of 27): He was killed in an automobile accident December, 1945, only 8 months after getting his 4th star. Patton spent time in Boston before visiting and speaking in Denver and visiting Los Angeles, where he spoke to a crowd of 100,000 at the Memorial Coliseum. [146][147] The views of the general public remained mixed on the matter,[148] and eventually Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson stated that Patton must be retained as a commander because of the need for his "aggressive, winning leadership in the bitter battles which are to come before final victory. His instinctive preference for offensive movement was typified by an answer Patton gave to war correspondents in a 1944 press conference. [36] Patton was the only American among the 42 pentathletes, who were all officers. Patton chose a 10,000-acre (40km2) expanse of desert area about 50 miles (80km) southeast of Palm Springs. The Third Army simultaneously attacked west into Brittany, south, east toward the Seine, and north, assisting in trapping several hundred thousand German soldiers in the Falaise Pocket between Falaise and Argentan. Patton began his military career . General Henri Giraud was incredulous when he heard of Patton's dismissal by Eisenhower in late 1945, and invited him to Paris to be decorated by French President, Charles de Gaulle, at a state banquet. Erwin Rommel credited Patton with executing "the most astonishing achievement in mobile warfare". He was an admirer of Admiral Horatio Nelson for his actions in leading the Battle of Trafalgar in a full dress uniform. After his presidency, John Adams promoted him to lieutenant generalthree stars. F. As a 26-year-old Army cavalry officer, Patton was selected to compete in the first-ever Olympic modern pentathlon at the 1912 Summer Games in Stockholm. The cart was blocking the way of the column. Unable to advance further, Colonel Patton continued to direct the operations of his unit until all arrangements for turning over the command were completed.[84]. [198], Patton asked for a command in the Pacific Theater of Operations, begging Marshall to bring him to that war in any way possible. He carried an ivory-gripped, engraved, silver-plated Colt Single Action Army .45 caliber revolver on his right hip, and frequently wore an ivory-gripped Smith & Wesson Model 27 .357 Magnum on his left hip. Some of his biographers are skeptical. The pedigree page also contains links to the dogs siblings and progeny (if any exist). German losses in the fighting against the Third Army totaled 20,100 killed, 47,700 wounded, and 653,140 captured. Historical Society Dedicated to the Life, Career, and Achievements of General George S. Patton, Jr. George S. Patton Papers: Diaries, 19101945, Newspaper clippings about George S. Patton, Five Famous Locals Who Were Veterans: Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. (18851945) at Pasadena now.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_S._Patton&oldid=1162196195. [193], By April, resistance against the Third Army was tapering off, and the forces' main efforts turned to managing some 400,000 German prisoners of war. A Major General is a two-star general. Fleet Adm. William D. Leahy. George Patton was a highly successful and well-respected general during World War II, but he was never promoted to the rank of five-star general. (The rank is just called a plain old General.) [258], Referring to the escape of the Afrika Korps after the Battle of El Alamein, Fritz Bayerlein opined that "I do not think that General Patton would let us get away so easily. Despite the victory, the Third Army stayed in place as a result of Eisenhower's order. This page was last edited on 27 June 2023, at 15:46. However, in December of 1945 he was in a car accident and was paralyzed . "[133] Bradley refused Patton's suggestions. He was the first Army officer to be designated "Master of the Sword",[43][44] a title denoting the school's top instructor in swordsmanship. There he was embroiled in controversy after he slapped two shell-shocked soldiers, and was temporarily removed from battlefield command. [109] Patton had a preoccupation with bravery,[8] wearing his rank insignia conspicuously in combat, and at one point during World War II, he rode atop a tank into a German-controlled village seeking to inspire courage in his men. While recuperating from his wound, Patton was brevetted to colonel in the Tank Corps of the U.S. National Army on October 17. The son of an American Civil War veteran, he attended the US Naval Academy . Once located, the armored infantry would attack using tanks as infantry support. At the start of the Western Allied invasion of France, Patton was given command of the Third Army, which conducted a highly successful rapid armored drive across France. Several actors have portrayed Patton on screen, the most famous being George C. Scott in the 1970 film Patton, for which he won (and refused) the Academy Award for Best Actor. [113] He was known to oversee training maneuvers from atop a tank painted red, white and blue. George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. [135] James J. Weingartner argues that Patton's innocence in inciting violence against prisoners of war is uncertain, stating that "The testimony of multiple witnesses indicated beyond a reasonable doubt that Patton had urged the killing of enemy troops who continued to resist at close quarters, even if they offered to surrender. Under the watchful eye and skilled training of Mike Lardy, Patton has finished in the top 15 for four straight years now. Rows 57 are foreign medals and noted where required. [183], Patton left the conference room, phoned his command, and uttered two words: "Play ball." A Five Star General, (only nine in American history) Eisenhower was known for his leadership and decision making. For his leadership of the tank brigade and tank school, he was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the citation for which reads: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Colonel (Tank Corps) George Smith Patton, Jr. (ASN: 0-2605), United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. He died in his sleep of pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure at about 6:00pm on December 21, 1945, at the age of 60. The General George S. Patton, Jr. [77][78] His orderly, Private First Class Joe Angelo, saved Patton, for which he was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC). [165] The U.S. armor advanced using reconnaissance by fire, and the .50 caliber M2 Browning heavy machine gun proved effective in this role, often flushing out and killing German panzerfaust teams waiting in ambush as well as breaking up German infantry assaults against the armored infantry. . [61] The incident garnered Patton both Pershing's good favor and widespread media attention as a "bandit killer". In 1937 he wrote a paper with the title "Surprise" which predicted, with what D'Este termed "chilling accuracy", a surprise attack by the Japanese on Hawaii. [172] Patton believed his forces were close enough to the Siegfried Line that he remarked to Bradley that with 400,000gallons of gasoline he could be in Germany within two days. [160], Sailing to Normandy throughout July, Patton's Third Army formed on the extreme right (west) of the Allied land forces,[160][b] and became operational at noon on August 1, 1944, under Bradley's Twelfth United States Army Group. While he was at VMI, Senator Thomas R. Bard nominated him for West Point. [192], On March 26, 1945, Patton sent Task Force Baum, consisting of 314 men, 16 tanks, and assorted other vehicles, 50 miles (80km) behind German lines to liberate the prisoner of war camp OFLAG XIII-B, near Hammelburg. There wasn't a doubt about it. Patton then returned to Saumur to learn advanced techniques before bringing his skills to the Mounted Service School at Fort Riley, Kansas, where he would be both a student and a fencing instructor. [114], Under Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, Patton was assigned to help plan the Allied invasion of French North Africa as part of Operation Torch in the summer of 1942. Patton sent notes and assistance to help Eisenhower graduate from the General Staff College. As a child, Patton had difficulty learning to read and write, but eventually overcame this and was known in his adult life to be an avid reader. He was cadet sergeant major during his junior year, and the cadet adjutant his senior year. The raid was a failure, and only 35 men made it back; the rest were either killed or captured, and all 57 vehicles were lost. Audacious and profane, General George S. Patton Jr. was one of the ablest and most controversial U.S. commanders in World War II. After sailing back to Los Angeles for extended leave in 1937, he was kicked by a horse and fractured his leg. [73] Personally overseeing the logistics of the tanks in their first combat use by U.S. forces, and reconnoitering the target area for their first attack himself, Patton ordered that no U.S. tank be surrendered. [119] Patton oversaw the conversion of Casablanca into a military port and hosted the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. [235], On a visit home after the war he again made headlines when he attempted to honor several wounded veterans in a speech by calling them "the real heroes" of the war, unintentionally offending the families of soldiers who had been killed in action. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinaman 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. The violence in Columbus killed several Americans. [188] To obtain these, Third Army ordnance units passed themselves off as First Army personnel and in one incident they secured thousands of gallons of gasoline from a First Army dump. Patton later changed his mind. With the war over, there was no need to promote him that soon to the next rank. [52], In March 1916, Mexican forces loyal to Pancho Villa crossed into New Mexico and raided the border town of Columbus. His firearm discharged accidentally one night in a saloon, so he swapped it for an ivory-handled Colt Single Action Army revolver, a weapon that would later become an icon of Patton's image. In 1951, he . Observing derelict cars along the side of the road, Patton said, "How awful war is. He worked with a tutor for the rest of his time there, graduating . Patton achieved four-star rank for his battlefield exploits as one of the best commanders of mechanized forces on either side during the War. General of the Army Omar N. Bradley, a World War II hero who was the last of the nation's five-star generals, died yesterday in Manhattan. [237] Patton reportedly had the utmost respect for the men serving in his command, particularly the wounded. [186] He later wrote that the relief of Bastogne was "the most brilliant operation we have thus far performed, and it is in my opinion the outstanding achievement of the war. The schooner was designed by famous naval architect John G. Alden and built in 1939. [254], One possible exception was Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery who appears to have admired Patton's ability to command troops in the field, if not his strategic judgment. Patton's I Armored Corps was officially redesignated the Seventh Army just before his force of 90,000 landed before dawn on D-Day, July 10, 1943, on beaches near the town of Licata. "[258] In an interview conducted for Stars and Stripes just after his capture, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt stated simply of Patton, "He is your best. Chaffee was named commander of this force,[104] and created the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions as well as the first combined arms doctrine. Speaking later of the German pilots who had struck, Patton remarked, "if I could find the sons of bitches who flew those planes, I'd mail each of them a medal. His emphasis on rapid and aggressive offensive action proved effective, and he was regarded highly by his opponents in the German High Command. "[206], Patton, in his new role, oversaw the displaced persons camps in Bavaria, which contained a majority of Jews who had survived Germany's concentration camps in the Holocaust. "[204] Whether or not Gordon was sexually involved with Patton, she also loved a young married captain, who returned to his wife in September 1945, leaving Gordon despondent. Patton's rapid drive to Lorraine demonstrated his keen appreciation for the technological advantages of the U.S. Army. [90] Maj. Patton led the rescue effort after a January 1922 blizzard destroyed the Knickerbocker Theatre in D.C.[91][92] From 1922 to mid-1923 he attended the Field Officer's Course at the Cavalry School at Fort Riley, then he attended the Command and General Staff College from mid-1923 to mid-1924,[88] graduating 25th out of 248. General Bradley and the Army Air Forces General Carl Spaatz shared the number one position, Walter Bedell Smith was ranked number three, and Patton number four. He was a four star general. In response, the U.S. launched the Pancho Villa Expedition into Mexico. General George Patton, 1943. [257], While Allied leaders expressed mixed feelings on Patton's capabilities, the German High Command was noted to have more respect for him than for any other Allied commander after 1943. He commenced these exercises in late 1941 and continued them into the summer of 1942. The Third Army claimed to have killed, wounded, or captured 1,811,388 German soldiers, six times its strength in personnel.
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