General George S Patton

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." - General George Patton Jr

George Smith Patton (1885 - 1945), born in San Gabriel, California, was an American general leading U.S forces in various World War II campaigns.

Patton's grandfather was a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War. Patton was educated at the Virginia Military Institute and at the West Point Military Academy.

Patton was a staunch believer in reincarnation, and much anecdotal evidence indicates that he held himself to be the reincarnation of the Carthaginian General Hannibal; a Roman legionnaire; a Napoleonic field marshal; and various other historic military figures.

During the Mexican Border Campaign of 1916, Patton, while assigned to the 13th Cavalry Regiment in Texas, accompanied then-Brigadier General John Pershing as his aide during the Punitive Expedition into Mexico.

During World War I, Patton, then a lieutenant colonel, was placed in charge of the U.S. Tank Corps, which was part of the American Expeditionary Force and then the First U.S. Army. He took part in the St. Michel offensive of September, 1918, and was seriously wounded.

Between the wars, Patton wrote professional articles on tank and armored car tactics, suggesting new methods to use these weapons.

During the buildup of the American Army prior to its entry into World War II, Patton established the Desert Training Center in Indio, California. He also commanded one of the two wargaming armies in the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941. Fort Benning, Georgia is well known for General Patton's presence.

In 1942, Major General Patton commanded the Western Task Force of the U.S. Army, which landed on the coast of Morocco in Operation Torch. Following the defeat of the U.S. Army by the German Afrika Korps at the Battle of Kasserine Pass in 1943, Patton was made lieutenant general and placed in command of II Corps. Although tough in his training, he was generally considered fair and very well-liked by his troops.

Patton led the Seventh Army in the 1943 Sicilian campaign.

Patton's career nearly ended in August of 1943. While visiting hospitals and commending wounded soldiers, he slapped and verbally abused Pvts. Paul G. Bennet and Charles H. Kuhl, whom he thought were exhibiting cowardly behavior. The soldiers were suffering from various forms of battle fatigue or shell-shock, and had no visible wounds (though one was subsequently found to have dysentery). Because of this action, Patton was kept out of public view for some time and secretly ordered to apologize to the soldiers. Patton also was relieved of command of the Seventh Army prior to its operations in Italy.

In the period leading to the Normandy invasion, Patton gave public talks as commander of the (fictional) First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG), which was supposedly intending to invade France by way of Calais. This was part of a sophisticated Allied campaign of military deception, Operation Fortitude.

Following the Normandy invasion, Patton was placed in command of the Third U.S. Army, which was on the extreme right (west) of the Allied land forces. He led this army during Operation Cobra, the breakout from earlier slow fighting in the Norman system of planting hedgerows, besieged Cherbourg, and then moved south and east, assisting in trapping several hundred thousand German soldiers in Falaise.

The Third Army was stopped because of a lack of fuel in September, and resumed offensive operations in the late fall of 1944. When the German army counterattacked during the Battle of the Bulge, Patton was able to disengage his army fighting eastward and turned it ninety degrees north—a considerable tactical and logistical achievement.

Once the Bulge was reduced, Patton moved into the Saar Basin of Germany. Patton was planning to take Prague, Czechoslovakia, when the forward movement of American forces was halted.

In October 1945 General Patton assumed control of the Fifteenth Army, a paper army, in American-occupied Germany. He died from injuries suffered in an auto accident and was buried in American War Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg.

Quotes

"An army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of bullshit."
- General George Patton Jr

“It is absurd to believe that soldiers who cannot be made to wear the proper uniform can be induced to move forward in battle. Officers who fail to perform their duty by correcting small violations and in enforcing proper conduct are incapable of leading.”
- General George S. Patton Jr., April 1943

“You cannot be disciplined in great things and indiscipline in small things. Brave undisciplined men have no chance against the discipline and valour of other men. Have you ever seen a few policemen handle a crowd?”
- General George S. Patton Jr, May 1941, in an address to officers and men of the Second Armored Division.

"War is an art and as such is not susceptible of explanation by fixed formula"
- General George Patton Jr

"If a man does his best, what else is there?"
- General George Patton Jr

"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking."
- General George Patton Jr

"Infantry must move forward to close with the enemy. It must shoot in order to move…. To halt under fire is folly. To halt under fire and not fire back is suicide. Officers must set the example"
- General George Patton Jr

"Few men are killed by the bayonet, many are scared by it. Bayonets should be fixed when the fire fight starts"
- General George Patton Jr

"All men are timid on entering any fight. Whether it is the first or the last fight, all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood."
- General George Patton Jr

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.
- General George Patton Jr

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.
- General George Patton Jr

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.
- General George Patton Jr

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.
- General George Patton Jr

Pressure makes diamonds.
- General George Patton Jr

May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't.
- General George Patton Jr

If you can't get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?
- General George Patton Jr

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
- General George Patton Jr

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.
- General George Patton Jr

Do your damnedest in an ostentatious manner all the time.
- General George Patton Jr

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.
- General George Patton Jr

I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.
- General George Patton Jr

"Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!"
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Make your plans to fit the circumstances."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Take calculated risks."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"You're never beaten until you admit it."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"It is only by doing things others have not that one can advance."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"All glory is fleeting."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Success demands a high level of logistical and organizational competence."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Perpetual peace is a futile dream."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"If I win I can't be stopped! If I lose I shall be dead."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Magnificent! Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance.
Gold help me, I do love it so!"
- General George Patton Jr

"A good plan executed today is better than a perfect plan executed at some indefinite point in the future."
- General George Patton Jr

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 wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."
- General George Patton Jr

"Go forward until the last round is fired and the last drop of gas is expended...then go forward on foot!"
- General George Patton Jr

"It is the unconquerable nature of man and not the nature of the weapon he uses that ensures victory."
- General George Patton Jr

"Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man."
- General George Patton Jr

"If you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do... the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."
-General George S. Patton

"Just drive down that road, until you get blown up"
- General George Patton, about reconnaissance troops

"You must do your damdest and win."
-General George S. Patton