[88], Patton was made G-3 of the Hawaiian Division for several months, before being transferred in May 1927 to the Office of the Chief of Cavalry in Washington, D.C., where he began to develop the concepts of mechanized warfare. She shaped the man, fortified the soldier, and created the legend Edit your search or learn more Public Member Photos & Scanned Documents Pictures [48] In the meantime, Patton was selected to participate in the 1916 Summer Olympics, but that Olympiad was cancelled due to World War I. Birthday: November 11, 1885 ( Scorpio) Born In: San Gabriel, California, United States 64 19 Military Leaders #4 Leaders #11 Quick Facts Nick Name: Old Blood and Guts Also Known As: George Smith Patton Jr. Died At Age: 60 Family: Spouse/Ex-: Beatrice Banning Ayer (m. 1910-1945) father: George S. Patton mother: Ruth Wilson She married Major General James Willoughby Totten on 6 July 1940, in Hamilton, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. [41] The judges' ruling was upheld. [177] When Eisenhower asked Patton how long it would take him to disengage six divisions of his Third Army and commence a counterattack north to relieve the U.S. 101st Airborne Division which had been trapped at Bastogne, Patton replied, "As soon as you're through with me. He fought in World War I as part of the new United States Tank Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces: he commanded the U.S. tank school in France, then led tanks into combat and was wounded near the end of the war. [117][118] The Sultan of Morocco was so impressed that he presented Patton with the Order of Ouissam Alaouite, with the citation "Les Lions dans leurs tanires tremblent en le voyant approcher" (The lions in their dens tremble at his approach). [33] In late 1911, Patton was transferred to Fort Myer, Virginia, where many of the Army's senior leaders were stationed. "[206] Patton also stirred a hostile antisemitism into his often-fractious relationship with newspaper reporters. Other armored units would then break through enemy lines and exploit any subsequent breach, constantly pressuring withdrawing German forces to prevent them from regrouping and reforming a cohesive defensive line. [73] Personally overseeing the logistics of the tanks in their first combat use by U.S. forces, and reconnoitering the target area for their first attack himself, Patton ordered that no U.S. tank be surrendered. Patton, Robert H. The Pattons: A Personal History of an American Family. In December 1940, he staged a high-profile mass exercise in which 1,000 tanks and vehicles were driven from Columbus, Georgia, to Panama City, Florida, and back. Addressing the 761st Tank Battalion Patton also said, Men, you are the first Negro tankers ever to fight in the American Army. [189], By April, resistance against the Third Army was tapering off, and the forces' main efforts turned to managing some 400,000 German prisoners of war. Patton, who had been told he had no chance to ever again ride a horse or resume normal life, at one point commented, "This is a hell of a way to die." In October Patton briefly retired to California after being burned by an exploding gas lamp. He was temporarily assigned to the Office of the Army Chief of Staff, and in 1913, the first 20,000 of the Model 1913 Cavalry Saberpopularly known as the "Patton saber"were ordered. [121] With orders to take the battered and demoralized formation into action in 10 days' time, Patton immediately introduced sweeping changes, ordering all soldiers to wear clean, pressed and complete uniforms, establishing rigorous schedules, and requiring strict adherence to military protocol. Patton developed phlebitis from the injury, which nearly killed him. A short-lived experiment to merge infantry, cavalry and artillery into a combined arms force was cancelled after U.S. Congress removed funding. [63] He returned from the expedition permanently in February 1917. His jeep bore oversized rank placards on the front and back, as well as a klaxon horn which would loudly announce his approach from afar. When the message arrived, Trier had already fallen. He responded with: Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Still unconvinced, Eisenhower ordered Patton to attack the morning of December 22, using at least three divisions. [25] The first Patton in America was Robert Patton, born in Ayr, Scotland. There, he met Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, who was so impressed with him that Marshall considered Patton a prime candidate for promotion to general. These thoughts resonated with Secretary of War Dwight Davis, but the limited military budget and prevalence of already-established Infantry and Cavalry branches meant the U.S. would not develop its armored corps much until 1940. [111] From his first days as a commander, Patton strongly emphasized the need for armored forces to stay in constant contact with opposing forces. She was born Beatrice Banning Ayer in Haverhill, Massachusetts the daughter of Frederick Ayer an industrialist who owned a woolen mill. Official date of rank of September 2, 1943. After she had "treed" him on top of the crates, stabbing at his legs, and making him dance quite a jig, he pleaded, "G-- D--- it, Bea, I'm sorry! On August 3, 1943, Patton slapped and verbally abused Private Charles H. Kuhl at an evacuation hospital in Nicosia after he had been found to suffer from "battle fatigue". [172] The German commander of Metz, General Hermann Balck, also noted that a more direct attack would have resulted in a more decisive Allied victory in the city. [229] His public image was more seriously damaged after word of the slapping incidents broke. [93] In August 1923, Patton saved several children from drowning when they fell off a yacht during a boating trip off Salem, Massachusetts. Luckily, "doing better" never occurred to Beatrice. [27][28][29] Patton is also a descendant of French Huguenot Louis DuBois. [53][54] Patton modeled much of his leadership style after Pershing, who favored strong, decisive actions and commanding from the front. She was born Beatrice Banning Ayer in Haverhill, Massachusetts the daughter of Frederick Ayer an industrialist who owned a woolen mill. In the meantime, on April 5, he removed Major General Orlando Ward, commanding the 1st Armored Division, after its lackluster performance at Maknassy against numerically inferior German forces. Beatrice Banning Ayer Patton (1886-1953) - Mmorial Find a Grave [184] To obtain these, Third Army ordnance units passed themselves off as First Army personnel and in one incident they secured thousands of gallons of gasoline from a First Army dump. After Patton accompanied Eisenhower to a Yom Kippur service in one of the camps, he referred to the Jews at the service as a "stinking mass of humanity," and complaining about their hygiene, said: "Of course, I have seen them since the beginning and marveled that beings alleged to be made in the form of God can look the way they do or act the way they act. [109] On January 15, 1942, a few weeks after the American entry into World War II, he was given command of I Armored Corps, and the next month established the Desert Training Center[110] in the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County in California, to run training exercises. Several actors have portrayed Patton on screen, the most famous being George C. Scott in the 1970 film Patton, for which he won (and refused) the Academy Award for Best Actor. Please see the last paragraph for information regarding the other site. This code phrase initiated a prearranged operational order with Patton's staff, mobilizing three divisionsthe 4th Armored Division, the 80th Infantry Division, and the 26th Infantry Divisionfrom the Third Army and moving them north toward Bastogne. [108], General Patton led the division during the Tennessee Maneuvers in June 1941, and was lauded for his leadership, executing 48 hours' worth of planned objectives in only nine. [256] Generaloberst Alfred Jodl, chief of staff of the German Army, stated that Patton "was the American Guderian. He believed that he might have been a military leader killed in action in Napoleon's army or a Roman legionary in a previous life. [140], Patton's niece Jean Gordon spent some time together with him in London in 1944, and in Bavaria in 1945. [190] Patton later said he felt the correct decision would have been to send a Combat Command, which is a force about three times larger. Marshall said he would be able to do so only if the Chinese secured a major port for his entry, an unlikely scenario. "[123], Patton's training was effective, and on March 17, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division took Gafsa, winning the Battle of El Guettar, and pushing a German and Italian armored force back twice. [122] His uncompromising leadership style is evidenced by his orders for an attack on a hill position near Gafsa which are reported to have ended by him saying, "I expect to see such casualties among officers, particularly staff officers, as will convince me that a serious effort has been made to capture this objective. "[186], The Third Army began crossing the Rhine River after constructing a pontoon bridge on March 22, two weeks after the First Army crossed it at Remagen, and Patton slipped a division across the river that evening. [65] Taken as Pershing's personal aide, Patton oversaw the training of American troops in Paris until September, then moved to Chaumont and was assigned as a post adjutant, commanding the headquarters company overseeing the base. Patton never seriously considered a career other than the military. [96][97] Patton also encountered his former orderly, Joe Angelo, as one of the marchers and forcibly ordered him away, fearing such a meeting might make the headlines. [71] He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 3, 1918, and attended the Command and General Staff College in Langres. George Patton Biography - Facts, Childhood, Family Life & Achievements General Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS)the professional head of the British Armynoted in January 1943 that, I had heard of him, but I must confess that his swashbuckling personality exceeded my expectation. He compared Nazis to Democrats and Republicans, bringing negative press stateside and angering Eisenhower. Patton then returned to Saumur to learn advanced techniques before bringing his skills to the Mounted Service School at Fort Riley, Kansas, where he would be both a student and a fencing instructor. Patton's father, who graduated from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), became a lawyer and later the district attorney of Los Angeles County. The schooner's name comes from Patton saying he would sail it "when and if" he returned from war. [140], When the weather cleared soon after, Patton awarded O'Neill a Bronze Star Medal on the spot. [39][40] If his assertion was correct, Patton would likely have won an Olympic medal in the event. [212], Patton spent most of the next 12 days in spinal traction to decrease the pressure on his spine. [148] Eisenhower felt the invasion of Europe was too important to risk any uncertainty, and that the slapping incidents had been an example of Patton's inability to exercise discipline and self-control. A native of Fort Sheridan, Ill., Mrs. German commanders interviewed after the war noted he could have bypassed the city and moved north to Luxembourg where he would have been able to cut off the German Seventh Army. [80] Trying to move his reserve tanks forward, Patton relates that he might have killed one of his own men, stating: "Some of my reserve tanks were stuck by some trenches. [201], Patton attracted controversy as military governor when it was noted that several former Nazi Party members continued to hold political posts in the region. The division was one of few organized as a heavy formation with many tanks, and Patton was in charge of its training. He was reportedly appalled to learn that the Red Army would take Berlin, feeling that the Soviet Union was a threat to the U.S. Army's advance to Pilsen, but was stopped by Eisenhower from reaching Prague, Czechoslovakia, before V-E Day on May 8 and the end of the war in Europe. It was fired at about 50m[160ft] so made a hole about the size of a [silver] dollar where it came out."[82]. Beatrice Banning Ayer (1886-1953), who married future World War II general George S. Patton. [198] Showalter believes that Patton, under severe physical and psychological stress, made up claims of sexual conquest to prove his virility. [141] Criticism of Patton in the United States was harsh, and included members of Congress and former generals, Pershing among them. "[133], Two high-profile incidents of Patton striking subordinates during the Sicily campaign attracted national controversy following the end of the campaign. Historical Society Dedicated to the Life, Career, and Achievements of General George S. Patton, Jr. George S. Patton Papers: Diaries, 19101945, Newspaper clippings about George S. Patton, Five Famous Locals Who Were Veterans: Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. (18851945) at Pasadena now.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_S._Patton&oldid=1152693032, Honorary Companions of the Order of the Bath, Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Modern pentathletes at the 1912 Summer Olympics, Olympic modern pentathletes of the United States, Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium), Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France), Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States), Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army), Recipients of the Order of the White Lion, United States Army Command and General Staff College alumni, United States Army generals of World War II, United States Army personnel of World War I, United States Army Cavalry Branch personnel, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Third Army logistics were overseen by Colonel Walter J. Muller, Patton's G-4, who emphasized flexibility, improvisation, and adaptation for Third Army supply echelons so forward units could rapidly exploit a breakthrough. [94] He was temporarily appointed to the General Staff Corps in Boston, Massachusetts, before being reassigned as G-1 and G-2 of the Hawaiian Division at Schofield Barracks in Honolulu in March 1925. "There is a very Semitic influence in the press," he wrote. "[254] In an interview conducted for Stars and Stripes just after his capture, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt stated simply of Patton, "He is your best."[257]. [178] Eisenhower was incredulous: "Don't be fatuous, George. Patton had a younger sister, Anne, nicknamed "Nita. Patton's ability to disengage six divisions from front line combat during the middle of winter, then wheel north to relieve Bastogne was one of his most remarkable achievements during the war. This is not a duplicate memorial. She was born Beatrice Banning Ayer in Haverhill, Massachusetts the daughter of Frederick Ayer an industrialist who owned a woolen mill. Official date of rank of September 1, 1943. [211][212][213], Gay and others were only slightly injured, but Patton hit his head on the glass partition that separated the front and back seat. He took big risks and won big successes. [67], On November 10, 1917, Patton was assigned to establish the AEF Light Tank School. Martin Blumenson, Patton, George Smith in John Garraty, ed., Encyclopedia of American Biography (1974) p 839. [240], Patton admired Russia as a political entity, but was disdainful of Russians as a people, saying, 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. I am not so hellish young and it is not spring, yet still I love you just as much as if we were 22 again on the baseball grandstand at West Point the night I graduated. Name Components. In October and November, the Third Army was mired in a near-stalemate with the Germans during the Battle of Metz, both sides suffering heavy casualties. After sailing back to Los Angeles for extended leave in 1937, he was kicked by a horse and fractured his leg. [124][125], For Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, Patton was to command the Seventh United States Army, dubbed the Western Task Force, in landings at Gela, Scoglitti and Licata to support landings by General Sir Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army. Alameda County. [106] Although he garnered a reputation as a general who was both impatient and impulsive and had little tolerance for officers who had failed to succeed, he fired only one general during World War II, Orlando Ward, and only after two warnings, whereas Bradley sacked several generals during the war. Both of them had a kind of second sight in regard to this type of warfare. [134] Ordering both soldiers back to the front lines,[135] Patton railed against cowardice and issued orders to his commanders to discipline any soldier making similar complaints. Gen. Patton, after a. Login to add information, pictures and relationships, join in discussions and get credit for your contributions. [102], Patton had a personal schooner named When and If. [250], One possible exception was Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery who appears to have admired Patton's ability to command troops in the field, if not his strategic judgment. President Woodrow Wilson forbade the expedition from conducting aggressive patrols deeper into Mexico, so it remained encamped in the Mexican border states for much of that time. He wrote a plan to intern the Japanese living in the islands in the event of an attack as a result of the atrocities carried out by Japanese soldiers on the Chinese in the Sino-Japanese war. Gen. George Patton's wife put a Hawaiian curse on his ex-mistress. She Gen. George Smith Patton, Jr. (1885 - 1945) - Genealogy After briefly considering this, Bradley vetoed it, since he was less concerned about killing large numbers of Germans than he was in arranging for the relief of Bastogne before it was overrun. General Patton's Second in Command - Minnegate Press - The Cereal Reader Moments later the 1938 Cadillac limousine they were riding in collided with an American army truck at low speed. [7][8] He attended the school from 1903 to 1904 and, though he struggled with reading and writing, performed exceptionally in uniform and appearance inspection, as well as military drill. "[124] By the time his force reached Gabs, the Germans had abandoned it. [84], In addition, he was also awarded the Purple Heart for his combat wounds after the decoration was created in 1932. [46], Patton graduated from this school in June 1915. [216], Patton epitomized the fighting soldier in World War II. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1984. He was very bold and preferred large movements. She married Gen. George Smith Patton Jr. on 25 May 1910, in Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. Huguenots migration: descendants' contributions to America. In spite of their love for each other, there were many explosive episodes during the Pattons' 30 years together. [122] During this time, he reported to British General Sir Harold Alexander, commander of the 18th Army Group, and came into conflict with Air Vice Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham about the lack of close air support being provided for his troops. He would not work so I hit him over the head with a shovel". For other uses, see, Denazification controversy and antisemitism. [196] His final media blowup occurred in September 1945, when goaded by reporters about denazification, he said "[d]enazification would be like removing all the Republicans and all the Democrats who were in office, who had held office or were quasi-Democrats or Republicans and that would take some time." [50] Patton remained in Mexico until the end of the year. Patton's attempts to win her back were said to be among the few instances in which he willingly showed remorse or submission. He was awarded the Silver Lifesaving Medal for this action. Befriending Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Patton served as his aide at social functions on top of his regular duties as quartermaster for his troop. [77][78] His orderly, Private First Class Joe Angelo, saved Patton, for which he was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC). [254] Many German field commanders were generous in their praise of Patton's leadership following the war,[c] and many of its highest commanders also held his abilities in high regard. [160] The Third Army typically employed forward scout units to determine enemy strength and positions. Patton's I Armored Corps was officially redesignated the Seventh Army just before his force of 90,000 landed before dawn on D-Day, July 10, 1943, on beaches near the town of Licata. Patton chose a 10,000-acre (40km2) expanse of desert area about 50 miles (80km) southeast of Palm Springs. [130][131], Patton's conduct in this campaign met with several controversies. He handed them to Beatrice demanding that she open one of the crates she had worked on so long and hard, and re-pack it with the new acquisitions. Light aircraft such as the Piper L-4 Cub served as artillery spotters and provided airborne reconnaissance. Born in 1885, Patton attended the Virginia Military Institute and the United States Military Academy at West Point. They then repulsed counterattacks at Gela,[126] where Patton personally led his troops against German reinforcements from the Hermann Gring Division. Bio by John R. Bacak. Notwithstanding Eisenhower's estimation of Patton's abilities as a strategic planner, his overall view of Patton's military value in achieving Allied victory in Europe is revealed in his refusal to even consider sending Patton home after the slapping incidents of 1943, after which he privately remarked, "Patton is indispensable to the war effortone of the guarantors of our victory. "[133] Bradley refused Patton's suggestions. While recuperating from his wound, Patton was brevetted to colonel in the Tank Corps of the U.S. National Army on October 17.
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