George S. Patton 1885 – 1945

Biography

George S. Patton was an American general whose aggressive armoured warfare helped drive the Allied victory in Europe during the Second World War. Born in California into a military family, he graduated from West Point in 1909 and competed in the modern pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. He served in the Pancho Villa expedition and commanded tanks in the First World War, becoming a leading advocate of mechanised warfare between the wars. In the Second World War he led American forces in North Africa and Sicily, then commanded the Third Army in its rapid drive across France after the Normandy landings. His relief of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge became legendary. Outspoken, profane and controversial, Patton was both admired and feared by his own troops. He died in Germany in December 1945, twelve days after being paralysed in a low-speed car accident near Mannheim.