Who was George S. Patton?
George S. Patton (1885 to 1945) was a US Army general and one of the great practitioners of mobile tank warfare. A cavalryman and 1912 Olympian who led the first American tanks into battle in 1918, he commanded in North Africa and Sicily, drove the Third Army across France from August 1944, and in December 1944 turned it north to relieve the encircled defenders of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge. Brash and controversial, he died in Heidelberg on 21 December 1945, twelve days after a car accident.
George S. Patton believed the way to win was to attack, and keep attacking. Brash, profane and utterly confident, he was one of the outstanding practitioners of mobile tank warfare in World War II. He drove his Third Army across France faster than the enemy could react, and when a German offensive surrounded American troops at Bastogne, he wheeled his army north to relieve them. He was also a man of temper and scandal, and his career nearly ended more than once.1
Compare: Patton vs Rommel, Patton vs Montgomery
Early life
Patton was born on 11 November 1885 at San Gabriel, California. His grandfather and namesake, Colonel George S. Patton, had fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War; the colonel commanded at Droop Mountain in 1863 and was killed at Third Winchester in 1864.2 › Battle of Droop Mountain, 1863
He spent a year at the Virginia Military Institute, then went to West Point and graduated in June 1909 as a cavalry officer. In 1910 he married Beatrice Banning Ayer. In 1912 he represented the United States in the modern pentathlon at the Stockholm Olympics and finished fifth of 42.3
Mexico and the first tanks, 1916 to 1918
His first combat came in 1916, when he joined General John J. Pershing's punitive expedition into Mexico after Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico. Patton led a raid in automobiles, the first time the US Army used motor vehicles in combat.4
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Patton went to France with Pershing. Late that year he became the first officer assigned to the new US Tank Corps, and he organized and trained its first units. On 12 September 1918 he led American tanks into battle in the Saint-Mihiel offensive, and in the Meuse-Argonne offensive a few weeks later he was badly wounded.5 › The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 1918
Between the wars
After the war Patton remained a vigorous advocate of armored forces. When war came again, he set up the Desert Training Center in California early in 1942 to prepare troops for fighting in North Africa.6
North Africa and Sicily, 1942 to 1943
In November 1942 Patton commanded the Western Task Force in the Operation Torch landings in French Morocco, aimed at Casablanca. He then took over II Corps in Tunisia and was promoted lieutenant general.7 › Operation Torch, 1942
He then led the US Seventh Army into Sicily, landing on the Gulf of Gela on 10 July 1943 beside Montgomery's Eighth Army. Striking northwest, his troops took Palermo on 22 July. Then came a race with Montgomery for Messina along the north coast, helped by small amphibious hooks behind the German lines. American troops entered Messina late on 16 August, and Patton made his own entry the next morning, just ahead of the British.8
Sicily also brought his worst scandal. In August 1943, visiting field hospitals, he slapped two soldiers who showed no outward wounds and berated them as cowards, the first near Nicosia on 3 August and the second about a week later. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize to the soldiers and to his army, and reporters at first held the story. When it broke in November, there was a public outcry. Patton lost his Mediterranean command and was sent to Britain, and the command of the American ground forces for the invasion of Normandy went to Omar Bradley instead.9
The Third Army, 1944
Before D-Day Patton was put at the head of the First US Army Group, a fictitious army in eastern England that helped convince the Germans that the invasion would come at the Pas-de-Calais. His real command, the Third Army, became operational on 1 August 1944.10
What followed was the high point of his career. The Third Army broke out into Brittany and swept across northern France in a campaign marked, in Britannica's words, by great initiative, ruthless drive and disregard of classic military rules, crossing the Meuse by the end of August. Then fuel and supplies ran short, and in the autumn the advance stalled in Lorraine against strong German defenses at Metz and Nancy.11
Bastogne, December 1944
On 16 December 1944 the Germans launched their surprise offensive in the Ardennes and soon encircled the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne. Eisenhower ordered the Third Army to the rescue, and Patton turned his army north and repositioned it with astonishing speed. On 26 December his advance elements broke through to the defenders, and his troops then held the corridor open against heavy attacks.12 › Battle of the Bulge
In 1945 the Third Army fought into Germany. In April its units liberated Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald, and Patton toured it with Eisenhower and Bradley.13
Command style
Patton led from the front and demanded to be seen. His strict discipline and toughness won fierce pride among his men, who called him "Old Blood-and-Guts." His method was speed: armored columns moving fast and far, keeping the enemy off balance, even at the risk of outrunning his supplies, as happened in France in the late summer of 1944.14
His temper was the other side of the same nature. The slapping incidents of 1943 and his outspoken remarks after the war damaged him as much as any defeat could have. Historians, Britannica notes, agree that he was one of the greatest military leaders the United States has produced, and also one of the most complex and contradictory; the National WWII Museum likewise calls him a complex figure whose tactical innovations helped win the war in Europe.15
Later life and death
After the German surrender Patton asked for a command against Japan and did not get one. Instead he became military governor of Bavaria. His public criticism of denazification policy and careless remarks to the press led to his removal from command of the Third Army in October 1945.16
On 9 December 1945 his staff car collided at low speed with an Army truck in Mannheim. Patton suffered a severe spinal injury that left him paralyzed. He died in his sleep at Heidelberg on 21 December 1945, aged sixty, and was buried among soldiers of his Third Army at the Luxembourg American Cemetery.17
Legacy and memory
His memory was shaped as much by film as by history. The 1970 film Patton, with George C. Scott in the title role, won the Academy Award for best picture and shaped the popular image of the general. Britannica calls the sweep of the Third Army across France in 1944 the apogee of his career, and the turn to Bastogne remains the most famous of his feats.18
See his greatest fight at the Battle of the Bulge, explore the greatest battles of World War II, or see what else happened on his birthday in 11 November in military history.
Notes
A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; American Battlefield Trust, “Droop Mountain”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; Eric Ethier, “General George S. Patton's Race to Capture Messina”; U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; Eric Ethier, “General George S. Patton's Race to Capture Messina”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”; U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton”; The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”. ↩
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “George S. Patton” (including “Controversies and appraisal”)
- The National WWII Museum, “General George S. Patton”
- American Battlefield Trust, “Droop Mountain”
- U.S. Army, “The 80th Anniversary of Gen. Patton’s final battle” (2025)
- Eric Ethier, HistoryNet, “General George S. Patton's Race to Capture Messina”
