Key Points and Summary – George S. Patton Jr. remains one of America’s most quotable and polarizing commanders—battlefield genius and hard-driving disciplinarian.
-Born in 1885, he battled dyslexia, yet pushed through VMI and West Point, competed in the 1912 Olympics, and saw action on the Pancho Villa Expedition.
Patton’s well-known custom ivory-handled revolver.
-In World War I he helped pioneer U.S. tank warfare, then spent the interwar years shaping armored doctrine. In World War II he commanded major formations, culminating with the Third Army’s fast campaigns in France and Germany.
-A 1945 car crash left him paralyzed; he died days later, leaving a legacy in tanks, film, and enduring quotes.
George Patton’s Most Quotable Lines—and the Hard Life Behind Them
“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.” That quote is one of the lesser-known and less profane sayings attributed to General George Patton.
George C. Scott’s rendition of Gen. Patton’s immortal Speech to the Third Army in the opening scene of the 1970 Oscar-winning film Patton was certainly memorable. However, the language therein was actually toned down a bit in order to get a “PG” rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. The original, unplugged version of the speech would have garnered an “R” rating.
U.S. Army General George Patton. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
General George Patton U.S. Army Photo
That said, we now embark on a brief bio of the legendary Gen. Patton.
Early Childhood and Pre-Military Life
George Smith Patton Jr. was born on November 11, 1885, in San Gabriel, California, to George S. Patton and his wife, Ruth Wilson.
Unbeknownst to many, young Georgie was dyslexic and had great difficulty learning to read and write. However, thanks to his innate intelligence, drive, and determination (taking to heart his father’s exhortation to “Do your damnedest always”), young Georgie adapted, improvised, and overcame.
VMI and West Point
George Jr. started his military career by following in his father’s footsteps at Virginia Military Institute (VNI), attending his father’s alma mater from 1903 to 1904. While at VMI, George was nominated for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point by Senator Thomas R. Bard (the “Father of Port Hueneme”).
Thanks to that year at VMI, Patton easily adjusted to the hazing of plebe year at West Point. However, his learning difficulties forced him to repeat the miserable first year after failing mathematics. (One could say that “math” was Patton’s least-favorite four-letter word.)
Patton persevered, attaining the billets of cadet sergeant major during his junior year and cadet adjutant his senior year. As a testament to his athleticism, Cadet Patton competed in the pentathlon in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, finishing in fifth place right behind four hometown hero Swedes.
Patton graduated number 46 out of 103 cadets on June 11, 1909, earning a commission as a second lieutenant in the Cavalry branch. The following year, he married Beatrice Banning Ayer, with whom he would have two daughters and one son.
M4 Sherman Tank from WWII Image: Creative Commons.
The Pancho Villa Expedition
Patton’s commissioning took place eight years before the United States entered into World War I, but he didn’t have to wait that long to see the action that he craved.
During General John “Black Jack” Pershing’s Pancho Villa Expedition of 1916, Patton wielded his Colt Single Action Army “Peacemaker” revolver, which later ended up as one of his two famous ivory-handled revolvers.
World War I
During the Great War, Patton first demonstrated his prowess in tank warfare. He became the first officer assigned to the Tank Corps and was charged with establishing the First Army Tank School. Soon enough, Patton shipped off to Europe.
He took to the battlefield like a fish to water, first during the St. Mihiel Offensive on September 12, 1918, and again during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He was wounded in the latter battle, but he kept on fighting and was promoted to colonel for his troubles. Coincidentally, the Armistice came on his 33rd birthday.
Between the World Wars
Immediately after the war, Colonel Patton was sent to Fort Meade, befriending Dwight David Eisenhower and introducing Ike to Major General Fox Conner, who became a great intellectual mentor to the eventual five-star general and president.
During the interwar years, Patton became a major advocate for the development of tank warfare tactics and strategy, stressing that tanks should be used not as mere infantry support, but rather as an independent fighting force.
World War II and (Barely) Beyond
So much has been written about George Patton’s World War II service and all-too-brief postwar career that we could not add much here, so we’ll give you the short version.
At the start of that war, Major General Patton was Commanding General of the 2nd Armored Division.
By the end of the war, he was a four-star general, having commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean Theater, followed by the Third Army in France and Germany after D-Day. Shortly after Germany’s surrender, General Patton was appointed as military governor of Bavaria, where he somewhat controversially led the Third Army in denazification efforts.
M4 Sherman Tank.
M1 Garand. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
On December 9, 1945, Patton was victim of a fatal vehicle accident when his staff car collided with an Army truck driven by T/5 Robert L. Thompson. The general suffered a broken neck and spinal cord injury that rendered him paralyzed from the neck down.
He lingered for 12 days before dying in his sleep of pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure at about 6:00 p.m. on December 21, 1945, at age 60. Three days later, he was laid to rest at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial in the Hamm district of Luxembourg City.
Patton’s Lasting U.S. Military Legacy
Appropriately, Patton has been honored and memorialized in more ways than you can count.
Since he was renowned for his genius in tank war, it should come as no surprise that there have been four U.S. Army tanks named in his honor: officially the M46, M47, and M48, which debuted in 1949, 1951, and 1952, respectively; and unofficially the M60, which debuted in 1959.
And, of course, he has also been immortalized in cinema. In addition to the 1970 motion picture, George C. Scott reprised the role in the 1986 made-for-TV movie The Last Days of Patton, based on the bestselling biography by Ladislas Farago. The final minutes of the latter film are absolutely heart-wrenching.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU).
