{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="250" style="margin-left:5px"{Military bio|alignimage ="center" colspan="2"|[[Image:Patton.jpg|200px300px]]|-!colspanname ="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: green no-repeat scroll top left;"|George S. Smith Patton, Jr.|-|Born|birth =November 11, 1885<br/>San Gabriel, California|-parents =George Smith Patton, Sr<br/>Ruth Wilson|Diedreligion =[[Episcopalian]]|spouse =Beatrice Banning Ayer| children =Beatrice Smith<br/>Ruth Ellen Patton Totten<br/>George S. Patton IV| death =December 21, 1945<br/>Heidelberg, Germany|-burial =American Cemetery and Memorial<br/>Luxembourg City, Luxembourg|education =Virginia Military Institute<br/>United States Military Academy| branch =United States Army| years =1909–1945| rank =General| commands =US 1st Armored Corps<br/>U.S. II Corps<br/>US 1st Armored Corps<br/>U.S. Seventh Army<br/>U.S. Third Army<br/>U.S. Fifteenth Army| battles =[[Mexican Revolution]]<br/>[[World War I]]<br/>[[World War II]]| postmilitary =none}}American General '''George Smith Patton Jr.''' was a celebrated and controversial American general in [[World War II]], famed for his successes in armored warfare against the Germans in 1944-45. His public image of tough-minded courage in battle remains fixed in the popular image of the war. '''''Historians estimate that Patton's Third Army caused an astounding 55% of all of Germany's casualties at the [[Battle of the Bulge]], while Patton's own men suffered only 9% of the losses on our side.'''''<ref>[http://romanushistory11.wikifoundry.com/page/The+Battle+of+the+Bulge The Battle of the Bulge]</ref>
Patton served in the [[American Expeditionary Forces]] in France in [[World War I]] as a senior tank officer. In World War II, he commanded U.S. Army invasions of North Africa (1942-431942–43) and Sicily (1943). Humiliated He perfected the art of lightning-fast tank maneuvers and unrestrained aggression, and he was the only Allied leader feared by the Germans. Prior to being deployed in North Africa, Patton led his men in war games in Atlanta that were supposed to last for many days. Patton’s innovative tactics and the unbridled enthusiasm of his men enabled him to win the games in just a day or two. Patton inspired a unique loyalty and spirit in his men that enabled his troops to win quicker and with fewer casualties than anyone else. [[Liberals]] hated Patton and feared that, after slapping defeating the Germans, he would then push the [[communist]] [[Russia]]n forces out of Eastern Europe. Given Patton's brilliance as a general, the liberals' fear was right, for once. Exploiting an exaggerated incident whereby Patton slapped a wounded soldier, liberal military leadership gave Patton command in 1944 was given command of a 'fake' army designed to fool the Germans as to where the invasion of France would take place. He was then given command of a major unit, the Third Army, pushed the Germans out of France, defended and counterattacked at the [[Battle of the Bulge]], then rolled through Germany in 1945. He died in an automobile accident. Patton has a very high visibility as a gruff, no nonsense, attacker who promoted armored force as they key to mobility nd and victory. His lightning-fast tank maneuvers shocked even the inventors of blitzkrieg.
==Career==
At the outbreak of World War II, as commander of the Second Armored Division and the First Armored Corps, he oversaw the training of the Armored Force. In November 1942 he led the Western Task Force in [[Operation Torch]], the Allied landings in North Africa; later he commanded the Second Corps in Tunisia. In July 1943 he led the newly formed U.S. Seventh Army in the attack on Sicily. His name became a byword for aggressive fighting and unexpected maneuvers. Although Patton had seen many cases of shell-shock, he was disgusted when one healthy-looking soldier was hospitalized, struck him, called him a coward, and talked of shooting him. News reporters, who admired Patton, covered up the story but the hospital doctors complained to his superior, Eisenhower. Eisenhower almost sent Patton home in disgrace and when the news broke the Army was embarrassed to be associated with brutality. Patton was made commander of a fake army operating in England that fooled the Germans into deciding the Allied invasion would come at Calais, far east of the actual landing point in Normandy. After the landings succeeded, Eisenhower gave Patton command of the Third Army, reporting to Patton's former subordinate [[Omar Bradley]].
On August 1 his Third Army poured through the breach in the German lines made by the First Army near St. Lô. The ensuing rapid sweep through Brittany and across northern France often defied logistic difficulties, especially the constant shortage of diesel fuel for tanks and trucks. The Third Army continued to play a major role in the winter fighting, helping stem the German counteroffensive in the [[Ardennes mountains|Ardennes]] called the "[[Battle of the Bulge]].". In the final offensive Patton struck boldly and suddenly across the Rhine after a blitz encirclement of the Saar Basin and advanced across central Germany. He secretly sent a rescue mission to liberate a POW camp that contained a relative of his; the raid was a total failure. Overall, his Third Army defeated 1,800,000 Germans, with lower casualty rates than any other army in World War II. Near the end of the war, he developed a plan to liberate Czechoslovakia from Communist rule. Given his experience fighting the Germans, the offensive would have easily crushed the 10,000,000 men of the Red army and prevented the Cold War. Liberals in the United States feared he would win, so they convinced Eisenhower to stop him from attacking.
He attained four-star rank shortly before the end of the war. He died Dec. 21, 1945, after an automobile accident, and was buried in the U.S. military cemetery at Hamm, Luxembourg.
==Tactics==
Patton also perfected the art of lightning-fast tank maneuvers and unrestrained aggression. He was first given control over the 3rd Cavalry which was transfered transferred into a tank division. Once Patton led his men in war games in Atlanta that were supposed to last for many days. Patton's aggression and the enthusiasm of his men enabled him to win the games in just a day or two. Patton inspired a unique loyalty and spirit in his men that enabled his troops to win quicker and with few casualties than everyone else. A German profile once said he could swear like a stable boy, but be as complimentary as a king. Patton had no part of the [[D-Day]] landings because he was in temporary disgrace after slapping a shell-shocked US soldier while visiting a military hospital during the Sicily campaign. Just six months after the war in Europe ended, Patton died in a car crash in [[Berlin]], [[Germany]] in 1945 on his way to lunch with a friend.
Patton's fame derives primarily from his record as an outstanding practitioner of mobile armored warfare. Quick-tempered and bluff in speech, he was frequently involved in political controversy, not least because of his propensity to racist and anti-Semitic remarks. He was nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" by his men, who disliked his minute attention to dress codes even in battle zones. Patton's war diary was published posthumously in 1947 under the title "War As I Knew It."
==The 1970 movie==
[[Image:George_C._Scott.jpg|right|200px|thumb|George C. Scott as Patton in the 1970 film; unlike the gravel-voiced Scott, Patton spoke with a falsetto: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYjnWXFTQkM&feature=related]]]Patton became famous to new generations through by the due to an Oscar-winning 1970 movie, which sanitized it slightly. Actor starring George C. Scott captured Patton's mannerisms and style exactly in the movietitle role. It is a biographical film, except for based based on the books ''Patton: Ordeal and Triumph,'' by Ladislas Farago, and ''A Soldier's squueky high-pitched voiceStory'', by General of the Army [[Omar Bradley]] (Bradley served as technical adviser in the film, and was himself played by Karl Malden). The famous opening scene portrays is one of the most familiar in film history, with Patton's actual standing before a large American flag and delivering a speech of March 1945to unseen troops based upon one he gave on June 5, 1944,<ref>http://www.pattonhq.com/speech.html</ref> yet sanitizing away several of the obscenities. Patton used harsh and foul language and castigated cowards, or "psychoneurotics," and those who used self-inflicted wounds to get out of combat. The basic message was "shoot and keep shooting.,"<ref> Pullen (2005)</ref>keeping with the General's standing order of "Always take the offensive; never dig in." This movie even had to tone down the strength of Patton's real speeches, in order to make them palatable to a general civilian audience.
The movie seven academy awards including "Best Picture." It is a biographical film, based factually on Ladislas Farago's book ''Patton: Ordeal and Triumph,'' and General Omar Bradley's ''A Soldier's Story.'' Bradley was a major consultant, andthe movie shows him in a very good light indeed. It starred [[George C. Scott]], and critic Roger Ebert called it "one of those sublime performances in which the personalities of the actor and the character are fulfilled in one another."[[Image:George_C._Scott.jpg|left|160px]] The movie conveys many facts about Patton's career, but highlights his colorful personality and his controversial role in the public eye. The opening of the film has become famous, and is frequently alluded to or parodied. A gigantic American flag fills the screen, and Patton addresses his (unseen) troops with frankness and brutality; the screenplay was inspired by a real speech Patton actually gave. His most famous line in that scene was "I want you to remember that no bastard has ever won a war by dying for his country. We won by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!" "We will not only kill our enemies, but cut his liver out and shine the tracks of ours tanks with it!". The movie was originally filmed and presented on 70mm wide-screen film, and had a dimension of spectacle which cannot be fully appreciated in home video. The film was directed Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and originally distributed by 20th Century Fox, ''Patton'' won seven academy awards including "Best Picture. The movie has been interpreted " Critic Roger Ebert said it was ''"released at the height of the unpopular war in Vietnam, was described by many reviewers at the time as both "really" an anti-war and pro-military; Ebert judges film. It was nothing of the movie to be "kind. It was a hard-line glorification of the military ethic, personified by a man whose flaws and eccentricities marginalized him in peacetime, but found the ideal theater in battle. In this he was not unlike Churchill; both men used flamboyance, eccentricity and a gift for self-publicity as a way of inspiring their followers and perplexing the enemy. That Patton was in some ways mad is not in doubt--at least to the makers of this film--but his accomplishments overshadowed, even humiliated, his cautious and sane British rival, Montgomery."''<ref>http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020317/REVIEWS08/203170301/1023</ref>
==Legacy==
* Patton, an Episcopalian, who believed in reincarnation and that he himself had been the hero in many important battles in the ancient world of [[Rome]] and [[Greece]]. His granddaughter, Margaret Georgina Patton, became a nun in the [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic Church]].<ref>http://www.456fis.org/GENERAL_GEORGE_S._%20PATTON.htm</ref> *Patton's son, George S. Patton IV, also an Army officer, served near the conclusion of World War II. He also served in Korea and Vietnam, and attained the rank of major general. Toward the end of his career, he was given command of the 2nd Armored Division, the same unit his father had commanded at the beginning of [[World War II]], making father and son the first Army officers to command the same Army division. Patton retired from active service in 1980. A cousin of George S Patton Jr. was Democratic Congressman from Georgia [[Larry McDonald]] who was on [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] shot down by the Soviets near [[Moneron Island]] just west of Sakhalin Island on Sept. 1, 1983.
==Quotes==
* "May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't"
==See also==
* [[List of military strategies and concepts]]
==Bibliography==
<references/>
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[[Category: World War II Commanders]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:People who were Educated at Home]]
[[Category:Military Strategies and Concepts]]
[[Category:Military Commanders]]
[[Category:Oath Keepers]]
[[Category:Patriots]]
[[Category:Veterans]]