Home

» People

» George Patton





George Patton

Surname Patton Given Name George Born 11 Nov 1885 Died 21 Dec 1945 Country United States Category Military-Ground Gender Male

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseGeorge Smith Patton, Jr. was born in San Gabriel, California, United States to the affluent George Smith Patton and Ruth Wilson; although he was the third George Smith Patton, he was given the suffix of junior as if he was the second. Of his paternal lineage, his grandfather was Brigadier General George Smith Patton of the Confederate States of America, his father was a lawyer and politician who graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in Virginia, United States in 1877, and three of his great uncles were also military officers; on his mother's side, he descended from several businessmen with varying degrees of success. Patton, who cared little about business, chose to follow the footsteps of the military commanders. Part of the influence also came from John Singleton Mosby, a former Confederate cavalry officer, who was a family friend. Although he was commonly believed to be suffering from undiagnosed dyslexia, he loved reading, particularly military history. His love of reading was said to be cultivated by his parents, who not only encouraged it as a daily habit but also read to him well beyond the age when parents typically stopped doing so. He attended Virginia Military Institute for one year, and then through his father's connections secured a transfer to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, United States. He was a gifted athlete and played sports for both schools. He was well versed in sword fighting, fencing, and horseback riding. Academically, he performed well in all subjects except for mathematics. In fact, he had to repeat his first year at West Point because his mathematics grade was unsatisfactory; a proud man, he studied even harder than he did, and completed his second try of his first year with honors. He graduated from West Point in 1909. Initially, he debated whether he would join the infantry or the cavalry upon graduation; the former was the core of the United States Army, while the latter tended to be considered an elite branch. He chose the latter.

ww2dbasePatton married Beatrice Banning Ayer on 26 May 1910; she was the daughter of a very wealth textile merchant; the couple would later have three children, Beatrice, Ruth Ellen, and George III.

ww2dbasePatton competed in the Olympic Summer Games of 1912 at Stockholm, Sweden, competing in the first modern pentathlon, finishing at the fifth place overall (7th of 37 in 300-meter freestyle swimming, 4th of 29 in fencing, 6th in equestrian cross-country steeplechase, 3rd of 15 in 4-kilometer cross-crountry running, and 20th out of 32 in pistol shooting); he believed that he should have received a higher standing at the pistol shooting event as he had claimed that at least one of his shots passed through the hole made by a previous contestant on the target sheet, but did not lodge any complaints with the judges' decisions against his claim. He made the United States Modern Pentathlon team for the 1916 Olympics, but the games were canceled due to WW1.

ww2dbaseFor the remainder of 1912, Patton studied swordsmanship from experts in Dresden, Berlin, and Nuremberg in Germany, and then he studied under Adjutant M. Clèry, who was considered the best swordsman in Europe, in Saumur in France at the French Army's Cavalry School. His report of this experience was published in the Mar 1913 issue of the Cavalry Journal, an American military publication. In the summer of 1913, he returned to Saumur for a second session under Clèry, and upon his return he was made the US Army's youngest Master of the Sword, and was made a swordsmanship instructor at Fort Riley, Kansas, United States. In the same year, the Ordnance Department of the US Army began producing the Model 1913 Cavalry Saber designed by Patton, which was nicknamed the Patton Saber; the design was made for thrusting, different from the previous standard saber which was used for slashing. In 1914, he published the manual Saber Exercise .

ww2dbaseDuring the Mexican Expedition of 1916 to 1917, American forces crossed into Mexico after paramilitary forces of Mexican insurgent Francisco "Pancho" Villa raided towns in the United States. Fearing his unit would not be sent to Mexico, thus there was a possibility that he might not become a participant, Patton contacted Brigadier General John Pershing, who made him his aide. During the expedition, while serving as a messenger, he engaged a small group of Mexican insurgents, killing several leaders including Julio Cardenas. After strapping some of the killed on the hood of his detachment's three armor cars as if they were trophy stags, he commanded the small column of vehicles to return, speeding past a larger group of insurgents that his small force could not take on. This action was largely considered to be the first American armored vehicle raid. The American public learned of Patton for the first time as this raid was featured on several major newspapers.

ww2dbaseDuring this time, Patton's sister Anne became involved with Pershing, which delighted Patton. In a letter from Patton to his wife, he noted that Anne might soon outrank him. To his disappointment, however, a marriage never materialized. The working relationship and friendship between Pershing and Patton, however, remained close.

ww2dbaseAt the onset of the American entry into WW1, Pershing promoted Patton to the rank of captain. When Patton requested a command leading troops at the front, Pershing assigned him to the newly formed Tank Corps. In this role, he initially observed actions of French tank units to learn about these new weapons. On 23 Mar 1918, he received his first ten tanks at the Tank School and Center at Langres, France; he personally backed seven of the ten French-built light tanks off of the train that delivered them. In Aug 1918, he became the commanding officer of the US 1st Provisional Tank Brigade (re-designated the 304th Tank Brigade on 6 Nov). With that unit, he participated in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. On 26 Sep 1918, he was wounded in the left leg while leading six soldiers and one tank in an attack on German machine gun positions near Cheppy, France; the war would end while he recovered from this injury. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Purple Heart medal for his WW1 service.

ww2dbaseIn the early 1920s, Patton became an advocate of tanks, but keen to the US Army's resistance to change, he advocated them only as support weapons to infantry rather as an independent branch. His writings at this time, however, suggested otherwise, calling the tanks to make bold and massed attacks to penetrate enemy defensive lines. Facing dramatic budget cuts in the post-WW1 US Army, he transferred back to the horse cavalry and abandoned for the time being his support for tanks. His colleague and friend Dwight Eisenhower privately thought that Patton had changed his mind due to political reasons, and thus had betrayed the cause that the two had fought together for the past few years. In Jul 1932, he commanded troops in the Bonus Army incident, where his men broke up a protest of veterans gathering in Washington DC, United States; he was said to be disappointed with his superior Douglas MacArthur's decision for such a policing action, but carried out his orders as commanded. In the late 1930s, he commanded Fort Myer, Virginia, United States; although he did not like this appointment as he thought it was a position too far from any potential action, this gave him the opportunity to stay in touch with several key top US Army leaders working in nearby Washington DC, which helped him gain the information that the US Army was finally forming two armored divisions. In Jul 1940, when the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions were formed, Patton managed to receive command in a brigade of the latter. In Oct 1940, he became the assistance division commanding officer at the rank of brigadier general. Between Nov 1940 and Apr 1941, he served as the acting division commander of the 2nd Armored Division; he was made the official commanding general on 11 Apr 1941.

ww2dbaseAs the United States entered the war in late 1941, Patton prepared the 2nd Armored Division for combat. He then served as the commanding officer of the Desert Training Center in Indio, California, United States, preparing troops for combat in North Africa. He was known to push very hard, putting both officers and men in tents rather than barracks during training, for example. After only months in that role, he was suddenly transferred to command the newly formed I Armored Corps, so sudden that he did not get a chance to speak to the attendees of the training centers, and had to settle for a letter addressed to the entire student body.

ww2dbaseIn Nov, Major General Patton was given command of US Army's Western Task Force in North Africa, landing troops in Morocco during Operation Torch; he accepted the surrender of local Vichy French forces, careful to maintain a respectful face to the French so to secure friendly relations. In 1943, upon American defeats at Sidi Bou Zid and Kasserine Pass, Eisenhower replaced Major General Lloyd Fredenall as the commanding officer of the US II Corps as a lieutenant general. He was known for his strict discipline, punishing troops who broke rules, however minor, with fines. It was in North Africa that he observed personal friend and superior Eisenhower being more so a politician rather than a military commander. It was also in North Africa that Patton began to regularly visit field hospitals in an attempt to raise morale; it was part of his "see and be seen" command style.

ww2dbaseUpon completion of the Desert War, Patton was given command of the US 7th Army for the invasion of Sicily, Italy. Lieutenant Charles Scheffel recalled an incident involving a poor choice of words when Patton spoke to his troops in preparation of this invasion.

ww2dbasePatton began an amazingly bellicose and agitated tirade about what we were going to do to the enemy when we got to Sicily. Then he said, "And gentlemen, when we land on the beaches of Sicily, there will be no prisoners taken." ww2dbaseI sat stunned in the first row of officers, not ten feet away from the pompous man. His words made my skin crawl. Nobody said anything for a long moment. ww2dbaseGeneral [Manton] Eddy stepped forward and tugged gently at Patton's shirtsleeve. "General," he said so softly I could barely hear him, "you might want to rethink your last statement." ww2dbasePatton looked out over the group of officers sitting on the sand before him. Then he wagged his hand toward us. "Forget what I just said." ww2dbaseWell, you don't forget those things.

ww2dbaseThe 7th Army's role was to protect the western flank of General Bernard Montgomery's British troops, who was considered to be the main assault force; this annoyed Patton, but he went with the plan. As the Allied commander above him, Harold Alexander, the aggressive Patton took several opportunities to go out of the way to capture positions that were not necessarily in his path in order to secure fame for his commanders. As Montgomery's forces became bogged down by fierce Axis defenses, Patton moved along the coastal road in northern Sicily to capture Messina, the major port city that was originally assigned to the British. He thought it was a major political victory to have American troops entering it before the British. Although the Allied victory at Sicily was a significant one, dealing the Italian a major blow in morale (which would soon lead to Italy switching sides), Patton and Montgomery collectively lost the chance to conclusively defeat Axis forces there, allowing the bulk of the German and Italian forces to flee onto the mainland.

ww2dbaseOn 3 Aug 1943, Patton visited a field hospital in Sicily as he had often done. After he had just spoken to some of the more severely wounded soldiers, he came upon Charles Kuhl who apparently had no injuries but was registered as a patient. "What's the matter with you?", asked Patton. When Kuhl responded "[I]t's my nerves, I guess. I can't stand the shelling", Patton called him a coward and slapped him in the back of the head with the back of an open hand, sending his steel helmet to the ground. He went on to visit other wounded patients; before he departed, he made sure to yell at Kuhl one more time, demanding him to go back to the front lines. On 10 Aug, at the 93rd Evacuation Hospital a similar incident happened to Private Paul Bennett. The first incident with Kuhl was publicized by the journalist Drew Pearson on 21 Nov, creating a widespread controversy.

ww2dbaseAfter the war, Kuhl revealed that, immediately after, he was diagnosed with malaria, which was the cause of some of the symptoms that led to him being admitted to the hospital in the first place. In 1970, he noted that Patton later personally apologized to him at his headquarters. He added that Patton "didn't know that I was sick as I was" and "I think at the time it happened, he was pretty well worn out himself."

ww2dbaseNevertheless, in 1943, Eisenhower received several letters from the public demanding Patton's removal, but ultimately decided against it because Eisenhower thought Patton's ability as a commander outweighed the negatives from his eccentricities. First, Eisenhower placed a gag order on Patton, forbidding him to speak to the press; "it would be far easier to keep him for a significant role in the war if he could shut off his public utterances", Eisenhower said in his memoirs. Then, as punishment, Eisenhower removed Patton from field command, and keep him off of the front lines for many months. Eisenhower also used this punishment as a deception against the Germans, keeping Patton at locations where he would like to mislead the Germans to believe where the next Allied invasion would be, as the Germans respected Patton's ability as a commander and believed he would for sure play a significant role in the next offensive. In early 1944, he was assigned as the commanding officer of the First United States Army Group, which existed on paper only. This largely fictional army group was headquartered in the Dover, England, United Kingdom area, making the Germans believe that if an eventual cross-Channel invasion was to take place, it would be against the Pas-de-Calais region of France across the Strait of Dover.

ww2dbasePatton remained in England during the initial phase of the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, joining the offensive as the commanding officer of the US Third Army on the extreme western flank of the line only after beachheads had been secured. His first offensive took place on 1 Aug 1944 during Operation Cobra, where he began a movement out of the Normandy hedgerow country into Brittany, France to the west, then turned east. Together with other Allied units, he played a role in nearly trapping a large number of German troops near Falaise, France. He advocated an aggressive move to complete the encirclement, but Eisenhower ordered him to stop, fearing friendly fire between American and British units; as many Germans were able to escape from the area, albeit without much of the heavy equipment, Patton blamed Eisenhower for this failure. Some viewed Patton's style of advance as brash and overly aggressive, while others thought he was effective with highly mobile armor-infantry-air combined arms tactics.

ww2dbaseSome of Patton's front line soldiers did not appreciate Patton's style of leadership, which, in their view, focused overly on gaining objectives and not nearly enough on the human costs of such gains. US 2nd Infantry Regiment veteran Michael Bilder recalled observing Patton visiting the front lines near Metz, France, telling a junior officer "Keep moving and don't worry about casualties, I'll get you all the replacement you need. Just take that hill." Bilder noted that he and his comrades did not appreciate such in sensitivity. "The cold-blooded bastard actually said this in front of all of us!", said Bilder, despite his otherwise utmost respect for the general.

ww2dbaseIn late 1944, the Germans launched the Ardennes Offensive, which resulted in what the Allies named the Battle of the Bulge. Patton suggested to Eisenhower that the American should "let the sons-of-bitches go all the way to Paris, then we'll cut 'em off and round 'em up!"; Eisenhower, of course, did not take this advice, and instead set the furthest allowed extend to be the Meuse River instead. As an American salient became trapped at Bastogne, Belgium, Eisenhower dispatched Patton to relieve them. Although Eisenhower had given Patton more time to achieve this, Patton pushed to complete this task as quickly as possible, reaching Bastogne, 100 miles away, in the short period of 48 hours after turning his troops northward abruptly. Many considered this maneuver his greatest achievement as a general, citing not only for his ability to keep up the morale of his soldiers in the harsh winter weather, but also for his ability to resolve the difficult logistics issues that arose due to this complex maneuver, especially in such a short period of time.

ww2dbaseWhen Patton crossed the Rhine River into Germany on 24 Mar 1945, he decided to urinate into the river. Like others who had done it (such as Winston Churchill), he thought it was a gesture of pride, noting the Allied superiority over the Germans. In a later official message to Eisenhower requesting more gasoline and supplies for his troops, he opened with the line "Dear SHAEF, I have just pissed into the Rhine River." Upon completing the crossing, he picked up some dirt on the German side of the river, emulating William the Conqueror, who was among his favorite historical figures.

ww2dbaseAs the war progressed Patton picked up some rather distinct preferences in appearance - lacquered helmet, riding breeches, cavalry boots, and an ivory-handled Colt 45 revolver. Later in the war, he also gained a traveling companion, a bull terrier; initially named William the Conqueror, when the dog displayed an extreme fear of shell bursts, Patton renamed the dog with the diminutive Willie.

ww2dbaseOn 26 Mar 1945, Patton dispatched the 300-strong Task Force Baum to liberate prisoner of war camp OFLAG XIII-B near Hammelburg, Germany, where his son-in-law John Waters was imprisoned. 32 men were killed and about 200 were captured as the mission resulted in a complete failure. It became another controversy in Patton's military career, in which he was accused of risking 300 lives to save a family member.

ww2dbasePatton had long been known as a lover of horses. Upon learning that a group of horses, which included most of Europe's breeding stock of the fine Lipizzan breed of horses, were at Hostau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (pre-war Czechoslovakia; now in the Czech Republic), which was about to be captured by Soviet forces, he launched Operation Cowboy on 12 May 1945 to transfer the horses 1,200 found in Hostau to the west, which included 375 Lipizzans It was feared that the Soviet troops would slaughter the horses for food, which was something that they were known to do on a regular basis.

ww2dbaseThe European War ended as his troops were halted by Eisenhower outside Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. He visited several concentration camps and was observed to be disturbed by the sufferings of the inmates. Despite having anti-Semitic tendencies, he was said to have been extremely upset on most trips, and vomited at least once. Having noted that he had anti-Semetic tendencies, it must also be added that he also made comment against African-Americans. His prejudice against the two groups, however, were not different than the societal norm that existed in the United States during that time. When asked about minorities serving in the US Army, he responded "I don't give a damn who the man is. He can be a nigger or a Jew, but if he has the stuff and does his duty, he can have anything I've got. By God! I love him." His personal aide Sergeant Meeks, who he had serving under him for the entire length of the war, was also an African-American.

ww2dbasePatton was also highly critical of the Allied occupation's use of German prisoners of war as forced laborers in Western Europe. He thought such policy was comparable to the German practice that the Allies had long scorned, thus hypocritical.

ww2dbaseOn 9 Jun 1945, Patton and Lieutenant General James Doolittle were honored at a parade in Los Angeles, California, United States. On the following day, he spoke before a crowd of 100,000 people at the Burbank City Hall nearby. During this trip to California, he donated an original copy of the German anti-Semetic 1935 Nuremberg Laws, which he had found during the war and had stolen, to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. This was kept a secret by the chairman of the Huntington Library Robert Millikan for some time due to the illegal nature of this donation.

ww2dbaseLike many others, even before the war had ended, Patton had envisioned that the Soviet Union would soon turn into the next enemy of the Western Allies. He recommended, on several occasions, that the Anglo-Americans should sign a separate peace treaty with the Germans, and then, as the Germans' overlords, join the Russo-German war on the side of the Germans. He argued that in 1945 the Soviet Union was over-extended and extremely weakened by years of war within its borders, and a full-scale invasion by the Western Allies would easily reach Moscow. This recommendation, of course, was not taken seriously, as Allied leadership had long pushed against separate negotiations. Furthermore, civilians all across the Allied nations had long tired of war, and the leaders wished the same.

ww2dbaseAlthough Patton had wanted a field command in the Pacific War, the US Army gave him an administrative position in Germany, instead. As the Military Governor of Bavaria, he was placed in charge of the region's de-Nazification. While others in similar roles across Germany purged the German government of former Nazi Party members, he kept many of them in high positions, citing that most, if not all, German civil leaders were forced to become members of the Nazi Party thus did not necessarily reflect their personal philosophy, and that these men must be retained in positions of power otherwise vital services such as electricity and heat would be interrupted. Already suspected of being too friendly with former Nazi Party members, a speech of his noting that being a Nazi Party member in Germany during war time was "like being a Democrat in the United States" was taken out of context and was used against him. When given a chance to apologize for such a statement that could easily lead to confusion, he re-asserted his statement instead without useful clarification, thus appearing even more so as he was putting the Nazi Party and major American political parties on par. To avoid further controversy, he was transferred to the US Fifteenth Army, a unit charged not with combat, but rather with writing the history of the war. Although disappointed, he was initially excited about the opportunity to partake in writing history, especially since he had been an avid history reader since he was a child. He quickly grew bored of inaction, however. Ultimately, he delegated some of the key tasks to subordinates, and traveled to a few cities in Europe. In Nov 1945, he decided to resign his position with the US 15th Army in early 1946 and to return to the US in 1946; he had planned to possibly retire upon his return, but he had not made up his mind, wishing to discuss it with his wife first.

ww2dbaseOn 9 Dec 1945, Patton was invited by Major General Hobart Gay to go on a hunting trip near Mannheim, Germany. Private First Class Horace Woodring was the driver at the front of the vehicle that took Patton to Mannheim, while Patton was seated in the rear. According to Woodring, Patton made a comment en route about the destroyed and abandoned vehicles on the side of the road, and Woodring might had momentarily taken his eyes off of the road. At 1145 hours, near Neckarstadt, an on-coming 2 1/2-ton truck driving by US Army Technical Sergeant Robert Thompson made a sudden and unexpected left turn into a supply depot. Woodring stepped on the brake pedal and swerved to the left, still hitting the truck, but his quick reaction reduced the impact to somewhat of a minimum. Woodring, Gay, and Thompson all emerged uninjured, but in the backseat, Patton was bleeding profusely from his head from impact with the division between the front and rear compartments of the vehicle, and he complained that he could not feel anything below his neck. After making sure Woodring and Gay were unharmed, Patton asked them to rub his shoulders and arms to help him regain feeling, but the two were unable to do so. He was rushed to the military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany, where it was discovered that he suffered damage in his neck and spinal cord. Eisenhower flew his wife to Europe to be at his side, and Patton, though depressed that he could never ride again, was said to be a model patient. On 21 Dec 1945, he had irregular breathing, which was reported by his wife and tended to by the medical staff. At about 1700 hours, he uttered "It's so dark. So late" to his wife, who would not realize that it would be her husband's last words. After his breathing became normal, she went to the cafeteria to eat dinner, during which she was fetched to return to Patton's side, informed that his condition had once again worsened. Before she reached Patton, he died from a pulmonary embolism at 1745 hours.

ww2dbasePatton's funeral service was held at the Christ Church (Christuskirche) in Heidelberg-Südstadt in Germany. His wife, noting that Patton wanted to be buried near the men he had commanded, thus he was buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial in Hamm, Luxembourg; this suited Eisenhower, who feared that, had Patton be flown back to the US, it might stir controversy as it would be a clear exception of US Army policy at the time where fallen servicemen were buried relatively locally where they had died. A cenotaph was later placed at the Wilson-Patton family plot at the San Gabriel Cemetery in San Gabriel, California, United States as a memorial.

ww2dbasePatton's personal virtue could be summed up with his quote "wars are fought with weapons, but they are won by men". He earned the nickname "Old Blood and Guts" from the press for his aggressive and effective style of leadership, though he hated the name, for that it was only selectively quoted from some of his speeches; this nickname left out a third characteristic he thought was equally important for a military leader: intelligence..

ww2dbaseSources:

Alan Axelrod, Patton

Barry Basden, Crack! and Thump

Donald Bennett, Honor Untarnished

Michael Bilder, A Foot Soldier for Patton

Dwight Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe

Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, Killing Patton

Wikipedia



Last Major Revision: Jan 2011

Famous Quote(s)

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You win the war by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!"

» 31 May 1944

» 31 May 1944 "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

» Speech at the Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston, United States, 7 Jun 1945

George Patton Timeline

Photographs

Videos

Did you enjoy this article? Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Even $1 per month will go a long way! Thank you. Share this article with your friends: Facebook

Reddit

Twitter

Stay updated with WW2DB: RSS Feeds

Visitor Submitted Comments

Show older comments

All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.