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George Patton biography

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  • PLACE OF BIRTH: San Gabriel, California
  • PLACE OF DEATH: Heidelberg, Germany
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General George Patton led the Third Army in a very successful sweep across France during World War II in 1944. He was skilled at tank warfare.

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Synopsis

George Patton was born on Nov 11, 1885, in San Gabriel, California. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He served with the U.S. Tank Corps in World War I and was promoted to lieutenant general in March 1943. He led the Third Army sweep across northern France in 1944. They reached Germany by January 1945 and took 100,000 prisoners. He was removed from command in 1945.

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(born November 11, 1885, San Gabriel, California, U.S.—died December 21, 1945, Heidelberg, Germany) U.S. Army officer who was an outstanding practitioner of mobile tank warfare in the European and Mediterranean theatres during World War II. His strict discipline, toughness, and self-sacrifice elicited exceptional pride within his ranks, and the general was colourfully referred to as “Old Blood-and-Guts” by his men.

A 1909 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and a descendant of a Virginia family with a long military tradition, Patton became a keen student of the American Civil War (1861–65), especially its great cavalry leaders, an interest that likely contributed to the strategy of bold, highly mobile operations associated with his name. He began his army career as a cavalry lieutenant (1913) and was aide-de-camp to General John J. Pershing in Mexico (1916–17) and in England (1917). After serving with the U.S. Tank Corps in World War I, Patton became a vigorous proponent of tank warfare. He was made a tank brigade commander in July 1940. On April 4, 1941, he was promoted to major general, and two weeks later he was made commander of the 2nd Armored Division. Soon after the Japanese surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), he was made corps commander in charge of both the 1st and 2nd armoured divisions and organized the desert training centre at Indio, California. Patton was commanding general of the western task force during the U.S. operations in North Africa in November 1942. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in March 1943 and led the U.S. Seventh Army in Sicily, employing his armour in a rapid drive that captured Palermo in July.

The apogee of his career came with the dramatic sweep of his Third Army across northern France in the summer of 1944 in a campaign marked by great initiative, ruthless drive, and disregard of classic military rules. Prior to the Normandy Invasion, he was publicly placed in command of the First U.S. Army Group, a fictitious army whose supposed marshaling in eastern England helped to deceive German commanders into thinking that the invasion would take place in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. Patton's armoured units were not operational until August 1, almost two months after D-Day, but by the end of the month they had captured Mayenne, Laval, Le Mans, Reims, and Chlons. They did not stop until they hurtled against the strong German defenses at Nancy and Metz in November. In December his forces played a strategic role in defending Bastogne in the massive Battle of the Bulge. By

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