George S. Patton

George S. Patton

George Smith Patton Jr. was a general of the United States Army. He commanded the U.S. Seventh Army in the Mediterranean theater of World War II. Patton’s colorful image, hard-driving personality and success as a commander were at times overshadowed by his controversial public statements. Patton was also a devoted horseback rider and competed in modern pentathlon in the 1912 Summer Olympics.

About George S. Patton in brief

Summary George S. PattonGeorge Smith Patton Jr. was a general of the United States Army. He commanded the U.S. Seventh Army in the Mediterranean theater of World War II. Patton also commanded the Third Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Patton’s colorful image, hard-driving personality and success as a commander were at times overshadowed by his controversial public statements. An award-winning biographical film released in 1970, Patton, helped solidify his image as an American folk hero. Patton was also a devoted horseback rider and competed in modern pentathlon in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. He died in Germany twelve days later, on December 21, 1945, after being severely injured in an auto accident. He was buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California, with his wife, Ruth Wilson, and their three children, Beatrice Smith, Ellen Patton IV, and George Ayer Ayer VII. He is buried at Montrose National Cemetery in Pasadena, California. Patton is survived by his wife and two children, Anne and Beatrice Ayer Patton, and his son, George Patton III, who was born in 1885 and served in World War I and Second World War. He also had a younger sister, Anne Patton, nicknamed \”Nita.\’ Patton was described as an intelligent boy and was widely read on classical military history, particularly the exploits of Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, and Napoleon Bonaparte. He studied fencing and designed the M1913 Cavalry Saber, more commonly known as the \”Patton Saber\”, and won a gold medal in the pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics.

Patton never considered a career in the military other than the military, and was never seriously considered for the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps or the Army National Guard. He had a love of horses and was an avid reader, especially of the works of Shakespeare and Tolstoy. Patton died of a heart attack in Germany in December 1945, at the age of 48, after suffering a stroke in a car accident. His funeral was held at the National Infantry Museum in New York City, where he had served as an officer since 1885. Patton had a son, David Patton, who served in the Army Air Corps and later in the Air Force, and a son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel John K. Waters, who died in the Korean War. Patton served as military governor of Bavaria during the Allied occupation of Germany, but was relieved for making aggressive statements towards the Soviet Union and trivializing denazification. He served as the first Allied commander to reach Messina, and commanded the 2nd Armored Division in the invasion of Casablanca during Operation Torch in 1942. He led U. S. troops into the Mediterranean Theater with an invasion ofCasablanca in 1942, and soon established himself as an effective commander by rapidly rehabilitating the demoralized U. s. II Corps. Patton commanded the 3rd Army during the allied invasion of France in 1944, and later commanded the Fifteenth Army in Germany.