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George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Born in 1885, Patton attended the Virginia Military Institute and the ...
- 1909–1945
- Beatrice Smith, Ruth Ellen, George Patton IV
The official cause of death was pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure. General George S. Patton Jr. was buried at mid-morning on December 24, 1945, in a grave dug by German prisoners of war. He was laid next to a Third Army soldier who had been killed in combat during the Battle of the Bulge. A United Press correspondent reported: Patton ...
At 5:55 p.m. on December 21, 1945, General George S. Patton, Jr. passed away in his sleep. A blood clot in his paralyzed body had worked its way to his heart, stopping it and ending the life of one of America’s greatest battlefield commanders. The 60-year-old general had led a life of adventure, fighting in almost every major American ...
- Malloryk
- Overview
- Education and early military career
- World War II
George Patton was born into a life of privilege. His father was a successful lawyer who served as the Los Angeles County district attorney, and his mother was the daughter of Benjamin D. Wilson, the first elected mayor of Los Angeles and a wealthy landowner.
Where was George Patton educated?
Although George Patton’s formal education did not begin until after his 11th birthday, he was an eager student of history. He entered the Virginia Military Institute in 1903 but transferred to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point after just one year. Patton struggled academically, possibly because of undiagnosed dyslexia, but he graduated in 1909.
What was George Patton most famous for?
George Patton was a brilliant but hot-tempered U.S. Army general who was arguably the Allies’ most gifted tank commander. He led a series of wildly successful offensive operations in Europe during World War II, but his controversial and erratic behaviour off the battlefield damaged his reputation and hampered his own career advancement.
How did George Patton die?
Patton was born to a wealthy California family and enjoyed a privileged childhood. His early years were marred, however, by difficulties in spelling and reading, which has led some historians to speculate that he suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia. His formal education did not begin until age 11, but, in time, he became a voracious reader and later in life published numerous articles on military subjects. Patton enjoyed military history in particular, especially books about the American Civil War, a conflict in which his grandfather and great-uncle had been killed while fighting for the Confederacy. Patton spent a year at the Virginia Military Institute and then transferred to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he was forced to repeat his plebe (freshman) year because of poor grades. His academic performance improved, and, after graduating in June 1909, Patton was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the cavalry. On May 26, 1910, he married Beatrice Banning Ayer, the daughter of Boston industrial tycoon Frederick Ayer.
In 1912 Patton was selected to represent the United States at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. There he competed against military officers from around the world in the modern pentathlon, an event that included swimming, pistol shooting, running, fencing, and riding. Patton made a respectable showing, coming in fifth out of 42 contestants. He had learned fencing at West Point and continued his study of swordsmanship while in Europe. Later—while attending the Mounted Service School in Fort Riley, Kansas—Patton was designated an instructor of swordsmanship and received the title Master of the Sword. In that role he designed the U.S. Model 1913 Enlisted Cavalry Saber, known as the “Patton Sword.” Patton also loved polo, and he played it, like he pursued so many things, with a violent, reckless abandon, frequently injuring himself in the process. Biographer Martin Blumenson has suggested that his frequent head injuries may have contributed to the erratic behaviour attributed to him in his later years.
Patton saw his first combat soon after leaving Fort Riley. When Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa led an attack on the border town of Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, Patton joined the staff of Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing and accompanied him on a punitive expedition into Mexico. Though the mission failed to apprehend Villa, Patton was responsible for leading a raid that killed three of Villa’s men. The attack garnered much publicity and was notable for being the first time that automobiles had been used in combat by the U.S. Army.
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When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Pershing was made the commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), and Patton, promoted to captain, joined him in France. In November 1917, Patton, now a major, left Pershing’s headquarters staff and became the first officer to be appointed to the new U.S. Army Tank Corps. Over the next months he organized, trained, and even designed the uniforms for the new tank units; he was also promoted to lieutenant colonel. On September 12, 1918, Patton, ignoring orders to stay in radio contact, personally led the first U.S. tank units into battle during the Saint-Mihiel offensive. In the Meuse-Argonne offensive a few weeks later, Patton was badly wounded by a machine-gun bullet. He lay in a shell hole for hours before it was safe to evacuate him, but he refused to be taken to the hospital until he had reported to his commander. He was promoted to the temporary rank of colonel and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery under fire.
During the demobilization that followed World War I, Patton reverted to the permanent rank of captain. He graduated with distinction from the Army War College in 1932, and he remained a vigorous proponent of tank warfare throughout the interwar years. He was promoted to colonel in 1938 and temporary brigadier general in 1940. On April 4, 1941, he was promoted to temporary major general, and a week later he was made commander of the 2nd Armored Division. Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), Patton organized the Desert Training Center near Indio, California, to simulate combat and maneuvers in the harsh North African climate. Patton was commanding general of the western task force during the successful U.S. landings at Casablanca in November 1942. He was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant general in March 1943 and led the U.S. Seventh Army into Sicily, employing his armour in a rapid drive that captured Palermo in July and Messina in August.
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(Read Sir John Keegan’s Britannica entry on the Normandy Invasion.)
The apogee of Patton’s career came with the dramatic sweep of his Third Army across northern France in the summer of 1944 in a campaign marked by great initiative, ruthless drive, and disregard of classic military rules. Prior to the Normandy Invasion, he was publicly placed in command of the First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG), a fictitious army whose supposed marshaling in eastern England helped to deceive German commanders into thinking that the invasion would take place in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. Patton’s armoured units were not operational until August 1, almost two months after D-Day, but by the end of the month, they had captured Mayenne, Laval, Le Mans, Reims, and Châlons.
As German resistance in Normandy began to collapse, a pocket formed between advancing British and American forces that threatened to trap two German armies at Falaise. Patton desperately wanted to complete an encirclement of the Germans, but his commander, Gen. Omar Bradley, feared that such an attack would leave Patton’s flanks weak and exposed to counterattack. By the time the gap between Falaise and Argentan was closed on August 20, some 20,000–40,000 Germans had escaped. As the Third Army approached the German border, the advance was slowed because of supply shortages, but it was not stopped until it met the strong German defenses at Nancy and Metz in November.
George S. Patton, Jr., was buried at 0930 hours on December 24, 1945, among other American soldiers, many of whom had died while under his command. The ceremony lasted 25 minutes. In the final minute of the ceremony, Master Sergeant William G. Meeks, the man who had served Patton faithfully as his orderly since April 1942, presented Beatrice ...
Nov 9, 2009 · George S. Patton (1885-1945) was a high-ranking WWII general, who led the U.S. 7th Army in its invasion of Sicily and northern France in the summer of 1944. Patton began his military career ...
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It was 11:45 am, on December 9, 1945, and former U.S. Third Army Commanding General George Smith Patton, Jr., and fellow officer General Hobart “Hap” Gay were off to hunt Hungarian pheasants in recently conquered Nazi Germany. The two men were talking in the back seat of a 1938 model 75 Cadillac sedan, which Patton had used as a staff car ...
