George Smith Patton Jr.

General G. Patton
America's favorite tank general, a charismatic, vigorous but controversial general dubber by his men 'Old Blood and Guts'. He entered the US cavalry in 1909 and represented his country at the 1912 Olympics. In 1916 he took part in the punitive raid into Mexico and in 1917 joined Pershing's staff on the Western Front. A cavalryman through and through, he immediately saw the significance of the tank and became a vigorous proponent of armored warfare, of which he became one of the leading exponents. Following the 'Torch' landings, he commanded Western Task Force in North Africa then US II Corps, following the Kasserine disaster. As commander of US Seventh Army, his exploits in Sicily - a dramatic and unplanned thrust to Palermo and Messina before Montgomery arrived - earned him a reputation as a daring, aggressive leader, but his verbal and physical abuse of soldiers suffering from combat exhaustion revealed a darker side to his character and almost ended his military career. As commander of US Third Army, he led the right-flank of the breakout from the Normandy beachhead and advanced across France with spectacular speed, being slowed only by logistics. His redeployment to strike at the southern flank of the German 'bulge' during the Ardennes offensive was brilliant, and his army crossed the Rhine at Mainz and Oppenheim in March 1945. Third Army thereafter sped across southern Germany, ending the war in Czechoslovakia. Shortly after the cessation of hostilities Paton again committed and indiscretion in avocation the employment of ex-Nazi officials in the new administration, and he was relieved of his command. Volatile and pugnacious, he was often unadvisedly outspoken, but his battlefield accomplishments speak for themselves. He died as a result of a minor traffic accident in December 1945.