Encyclopedia
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a leading
U.S. Army general in
World War II. In his 36-year Army career, he was an advocate of
armored warfare and commanded major units of
North Africa,
Sicily, and the European Theater of Operations. Many have viewed Patton as a pure and ferocious warrior, known by the nickname "Old Blood and Guts", a name given to him after a reporter misquoted his statement that it takes blood and
brains to win a war. But history has left the image of a brilliant military leader whose record was also marred by insubordination and some periods of apparent instability.
Family
George Smith Patton, Jr. was born in
San Gabriel, California to George Smith Patton, Sr. 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's summer home was located in Hamilton, Massachusetts. The town has since dedicated its central park to Patton, boasting a full-size World War II tank in the center of town, and the town's schools play under the name "Generals". In addition, the French Government bestowed two statues to the town commemorating Patton's service to their nation. They were improved in 2003 and sit at the entrance to Patton Park.
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. A great-uncle, Waller T. Patton, perished of wounds received in
Pickett's Charge during the
Battle of Gettysburg. Another relative Hugh Weedon Mercer was a Confederate General.
Patton's paternal grandparents were
Brigadier General George Smith Patton and Susan Thornton Glassell. Patton's grandfather, born in
Fredericksburg, graduated from
Virginia Military Institute , Class of 1852, second in a class of 24. After graduation, George Smith Patton 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 at the Battle of Opequon , Patton's grandfather left behind a namesake son, born in
Charleston,
West Virginia when it was still part of Virginia. The second George Smith Patton was one of four children. 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. He 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."
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.
Education
Patton attended
Virginia Military Institute for one year, then transferred to
West Point. He flunked out after plebe year with
Courtney Hodges , but re-entered to graduate in 1909, being commissioned as a cavalry officer.
Patton was an intelligent child, intensively studying
classical literature and
military history from a young age. He learned to read at a very late age as a child having never seen a printed page until starting school at the age of twelve, and never learned basic skills such as proper spelling. Because of the late academic start that he received, 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 his 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. He finished fifth. 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 . 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 Épée champion in the fencing segment of the event.
The Patton saber
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. It had a large, basket-shaped hilt mounting a straight, double-edged, thrusting blade designed for use by heavy cavalry. Now known as the “Patton” saber, it was heavily influenced by the
1908 and 1912 Pattern British Army Cavalry Swords.
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.
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 to the newly formed United States 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 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 an American officer would have commanded British troops, the role of observer is the most likely. From his successes , Patton was promoted to major and then 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 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 the Distinguished Service Medal and the 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. Patton also wrote professional articles on tank and
armored car tactics, suggesting new methods for their use. 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 , in an action to disperse the protesting veterans known as the "
Bonus Army" in
Washington, DC.
Patton served in
Hawaii before returning to
Washington to once again ask Congress for funding for armored units. In the late
1930s, Patton was assigned command of
Fort Myer,
Virginia. Shortly after
Germany's
blitzkrieg is a popular name for an offensive operational-level [i] military doctrine [i]...
attacks in Europe, Patton was finally able to convince Congress of the need for armored divisions. Shortly afterwards, 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.
Following 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 on March 6, 1943. 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 Lloyd 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 quickly; by mid-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. The Seventh Army's mission was to protect the left flank of the British Eighth Army as both advanced northwards towards Messina.
The Seventh Army repulsed several German counterattacks in the beachhead area before beginning its push north. Meanwhile, the Eighth Army stalled south of
Mount Etna in the face of strong German defenses. The Army Group commander,
Harold Alexander, exercised only the loosest control over his two commanders. Montgomery therefore took the initiative to meet with Patton in an attempt to work out a coordinated campaign.
Patton formed a provisional Corps under his Chief of staff, and quickly pushed through western
Sicily, liberating the capital,
Palermo and then swiftly turned east towards
Messina. US forces liberated Messina in accordance with the plan jointly created by Montgomery and Patton. Unfortunately for the Allies, the Germans were able to withdraw much of their strength, including heavy equipment, across the straits of Messina onto the Italian mainland.
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 "shell-shock," now known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder , and had no visible wounds . Because of this act, Patton was kept out of public view for some time. At the advice of Eisenhower, Patton, although not specifically ordered to do so, apologized to the individual soldiers and hospital units that witnessed the incidents. One of the soldiers thanked him and shook his hand. 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 months later, there were calls from some that he either resign or be fired.
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 Germans' respect for 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 , 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 left 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 Normandy hedgerows. The Third Army simultaneously attacked west , south, east towards the Seine, and north, assisting in trapping several hundred thousand German soldiers in the
Chambois pocket, between Falaise and Argentan, Orne. Patton used Germany's own
blitzkrieg is a popular name for an offensive operational-level [i] military doctrine [i]...
tactics against them, covering 600 miles in just two weeks, from
Avranches to Argentan. Patton's forces were part of the Allied forces that freed northern France, bypassing Paris. The city itself was liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division under French
General Leclerc, insurgents who were fighting in the city, and the
US 4th 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, defeating 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 allow the Germans to further fortify the fortress of Metz. In October and November, the Third Army was mired in a near-stalemate with the Germans, with heavy casualties on both sides. By November 23, however, Metz had finally fallen to the Americans, the first time the city had been taken since the
Franco-Prussian War.
Ardennes offensive
In late 1944, the German army made a last-ditch offensive across
Belgium,
Luxembourg, and northeastern France. The
Ardennes Offensive , was planned by German Field Marshal
Gerd von Rundstedt. On December 16, 1944, the German army massed 29 divisions 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 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 , disengaging from the front line to relieve the surrounded and besieged
101st Airborne Division pocketed in
Bastogne. By February, the Germans were in full retreat and Patton moved into the
Saar Basin of Germany. The bulk of Third Army completed its 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 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 ivory-handled, nickel-plated revolvers as his most famous sidearms . His vehicles carried oversized rank insignia and loud horns. His speech was riddled with profanities. The 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 Major General
Manton Eddy to undertake an immediate operation to liberate the OFLAG XIII-B prison camp at Hammelburg, some 80 kilometers 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 without
General Eisenhower's approval. Patton, having no desire to involve Eisenhower , flew to the
XII Corps command post at Undenheim, waited until Eddy left for dinner, and personally delivered the operation order to Brigadier General Hoge of the
US 4th Armored Division. Noting that intelligence indicated a strong Wehrmacht and possible SS Panzer presence in the area , Hoge and "Combat Command B" commander Lieutenant Colonel
Creighton Abrams told Patton that no less than a full Combat Command would be required. Patton rejected this, insisting that only a limited task force be sent. He also mandated that his aide-de-camp and personal friend, Major Alexander Stiller accompany the force "to gain experience".
The task force, named
Task Force Baum , fought valiantly through significant resistance to liberate the camp, but was too exhausted and reduced in size from 52 hours of continuous fighting to break out of the noose of Wermacht reinforcements that rapidly swarmed into the area to surround them. The bulk of the remaining force was hacked to pieces and routed in the woods around Hammelburg. Only 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 officers was most probably personal: he had been informed on February 9th by General Eisenhower that his son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel 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 Stiller go along also didn't hold water; as a decorated World War I officer, Stiller had already seen significantly more combat than most of the men in Task Force Baum, and as a personal friend of Patton's family, he had met Waters and would be able to identify him. 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 Stiller was captured, Patton refused to try to liberate the camp where he and other survivors were being 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 8 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, 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 could consolidate their position. In this regard, he told then-Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson that the "point system" being used to demobilize 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 a combat command in the
Pacific Theater of Operations. Unhappy with 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
, 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 at the time and his outspoken opposition to post-surrender denazification is still widely debated today. Many still laud his generous treatment of his former German enemies and his early recognition of the Soviet threat, while detractors say his protests reflect the views of a bigoted 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 command of Third Army and transferred to the Fifteenth Army, a paper command preparing a history of the war.
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 afterwards, he remarked, "They gave a good first impression, but I have no faith in the inherent fighting ability of the race."
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 the first American military leader to integrate the rifle companies "when manpower got tight."
Patton's views on African Americans seem mild and even generous compared to remarks he made about
Jews, Arabs,
Hawaiians, and other ethnic groups he encountered throughout his military career . Like many Americans of his era, he generally considered those who were not 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 internment 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 in his time, as with all of his controversial opinions, he was often exceptionally blunt in his expression of them. He once wrote:
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 pr
