Happy 125th birthday to General George S Patton!

General George Smith Patton: thank you for service in the 1912 Olympics, WWI and WW II, you were a brillant general,remembering you today on this Veterans Day, Happy 125th Birthday!



George Smith Patton, Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well-known for his controversial outspokenness.

Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army upon his graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1909. In 1916-17, he participated in the unsuccessful Pancho Villa Expedition, a US operation which attempted to capture the Mexican revolutionary. In World War I, he was the first officer assigned to the new United States Tank Corps and saw action in France.

After the war, he was a strong advocate of armored warfare.However in the interwar period budget cuts to the US Army caused by the Great Depression saw Patton abandon his advocacy of the tank in favour of the cheaper and politically more popular maintenance of horse cavalry. This abandonment of the tank came at a time when Patton's longtime friend Dwight D. Eisenhower was actively seeking his support for the US Army to adopt the revolutionary Christie tank (which was subsequently developed in Russia into the famed T-34). Eisenhower felt this was a betrayal of principles for political expediency and was the start of the decline of the friendship between the two men.

In World War II he commanded corps and armies in North Africa, Sicily, and the European Theater of Operations. Near the end of the Sicilian campaign he jeopardized his career by slapping a soldier (whom he regarded as a coward) while the soldier was recuperating from battle fatigue at a hospital. Relieved of his command by Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower over the well-publicized incident, Patton was relegated to acting as a decoy in Operation Quicksilver instead of playing a major part in the Normandy Landings and Operation Overlord. However, he was later given command of the U.S. Third Army and ably led it in breaking out of the hedgerows of Normandy and across France. A surprise German offensive at the Battle of the Bulge resulted in American units being surrounded at Bastogne, but Patton rapidly disengaged his army from fighting in another sector and moved it over 100 miles in 48 hours to help relieve the siege.

Legacy

General George S. Patton statue Ettelbruck / Luxembourg 2007
A residential street in Shreveport, Louisiana, is named for Patton. Adjacent to this street is another named for Dwight D. Eisenhower.General George Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Place du Général Patton in Paris (next to Avenue de la Grande Armée) is named after Patton. Some 10 other French towns and cities, including Avranches, Thionville, Troyes and Le Mans, have a "Place du Général Patton" in his honour.
A museum dedicated to Patton, and his efforts training thousands of soldiers for African desert combat, is located at the site of the Desert Training Center in Chiriaco Summit, California. A statue of Patton can be seen from nearby Interstate 10.
Two active United States Army installations are named in memory of General Patton. Patton Barracks in Heidelberg, Germany houses the headquarters for the United States Army Garrison Heidelberg.
Patton Army Air Field, located on Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, provides rotary-wing aviation support for Army units in southern Kuwait.
Patton United States Army Reserve Center, in Bell, California is named for General Patton.
Patton Hall, located in Fort Riley, Kansas, houses much of the Judge-Advocate General (JAG) Corps at the base.
Patton Junior High School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas is named for him.
The Patton series of tanks is named for him.
A chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution is named for Patton.
Patton Monument (West Point)
There is a large Patton Monument in Avranches, France.
At the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in San Gabriel, California, there is a stained glass window depicting Patton as a version of Saint George. He is shown in a tank fighting a dragon festooned with swastikas. The lettering in the window reads "I fought a good fight." The Wilson-Patton family members are buried in the San Gabriel Cemetery about 120 yards to the west of the Church, including the patriarch, Benjamin (Don Benito) Wilson. The exception is General Patton, buried in Germany.
Hamilton, Massachusetts, where Patton's summer home was located, dedicated its central park to Patton, boasting a World War II–era tank in the center of town, and the town's school sports teams play under the name "Generals." In addition, the French government gave two statues to the town commemorating Patton's service to their nation.

They were improved in 2003 and sit at the entrance to Patton Park.
Patton was named the class exemplar for the United States Air Force Academy's class of 2005, the only non-aviator to receive this honor.
A street in Arlon in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium, is named for General Patton, and a street in the comune of Ixelles, in Brussels.
Patton wrote much material, including speeches, lectures, and poetry. Incorporating the biblical phrase "Through a Glass, Darkly" he composed a poem imbued with his personal interpretations of reincarnation:
“
Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star

[...]

So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.

[...]

So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more.

quotes from George S Patton:


General George S. Patton, Jr.
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"Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom."

"I don't want to get any messages saying, "I am holding my position." We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to goover, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!"

"There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change; it is, 'To use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."

"Give me an army of West Point graduates and I'll win the battle; give me an Army of Texas Aggies and I'll win the war!"