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Patton, George Smith (1885-1945)

American army officer, born in San Gabriel, California, and educated at the U.S. Military Academy. On his graduation in 1909 he was commissioned a second lieutenant; he advanced in rank to full general by 1945. He served as aide-de-camp to the American general John Joseph Pershing on Pershing's expedition to Mexico in 1917. In France during World War I, Patton established a tank training school and commanded a tank brigade. In 1942 and 1943, during World War II, he commanded U.S. forces in Morocco, Tunisia, and Sicily. Early in 1944 he was given command of the Third Army. Controversial throughout the war for his personal flamboyance, outspokenness, uncompromising standards, and aggressive combat strategy, he played a key role in the headlong Allied armored thrust to Germany after D-Day. In the summer of 1944 the Third Army broke through the German defenses in the Normandy campaign and advanced rapidly across France; in March 1945 it crossed the Rhine River into Germany and also moved toward Austria. After the war Patton served as military governor of Bavaria, but because of criticism of his lenient policy toward the former enemy, he was relieved of the post. He was named head of the Fifteenth Army late in 1945, shortly before he was fatally injured in a traffic accident. Patton's career is portrayed in the motion picture Patton (1970).

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