With this formidable aggression and unrelenting discipline, the general managed to put U.S. Patton headed to North Africa late in 1942 at the head of an American force before the initial landings on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, he presented his troops with an expression of his now-legendary philosophy of battle: “We shall attack and attack until we are exhausted, and then we shall attack again.” Patton’s lust for battle would earn him the colorful nickname “Old Blood and Guts” among his troops, whom he ruled with an iron fist. Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Patton was given command of the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions and organized a training center in the California desert. General Patton in World War II: North Africa and Sicily By the time the country began to rearm itself in 1940, he had risen through the ranks to colonel. After the war, Patton served positions in tank and cavalry units at various posts in the United States. He soon earned a reputation for his leadership skill and knowledge of tank warfare. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Patton went along with Pershing to Europe, where he became the first officer assigned to the newly established U.S. Of the five events-running, swimming, fencing, riding and shooting-he fared poorest in shooting, but still managed to finish fifth overall in the event. Pershing, commander of American forces in Mexico, and accompanied the general on his unsuccessful 1916 expedition against Villa.ĭid you know? In 1912, George Patton represented the United States in the Stockholm Olympics, competing in the modern pentathlon. He served as aide-de-camp to General John J. Patton gained his first real battle experience in 1915, when he was assigned to lead cavalry troops against Mexican forces led by Pancho Villa along the U.S.- Mexico border.

Patton decided early on that he wanted to carry on the tradition, and graduated from the U.S. His family, originally from Virginia, had a long military heritage, including service in the Civil War. George Smith Patton was born in 1885 in San Gabriel, California.

Major tank battles after wwii