How Much Do You Remember About General Patton?

George Patton shares the name of his father, who was a prominent figure in California. The elder Patton was an attorney before he turned to politics, where he was elected as the first mayor of San Marino.

General Patton was given control of the Western Task Force when the invasion of North Africa was planned under Operation Torch. His force, which consisted of 35,000 troops, landed near Casablanca, Morocco, on November 8, 1942. Two days later, they captured Casablanca.

Throughout his youth, George Patton struggled with reading, which followed him to college at the Virginia Military Institute. He only attended the college for a year before he was selected to attend West Point.

An issue of Life magazine released on July 7, 1941 shows Patton riding atop his signature tank. The issue was released a few months after Patton had been promoted to major general, a rank he held for the next two years.

The 1912 Summer Olympics was the first time that the pentathlon was added as an event. Patton competed well and ended up placing fifth overall behind four Swedish competitors.

In 1909, Patton graduated in the top 50 of his class at West Point, which earned him a commission as a second lieutenant. As part of the commission, he joined the United States Cavalry, where he shaped his early military career.

With the knowledge he gained in France, Patton designed his own saber called the Cavalry Sword Model 1913. This saber, sometimes called the Patton Saber, was the last saber used by the U.S. Cavalry.

George Patton could be seen regularly carrying around pistols with ivory handles. A .45 Long Colt Single Action revolver was the most common pistol he carried, but he also favored a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver if the situation ever called for it.

Pancho Villa rose to fame as part of Francisco Madero's uprising in opposition of Mexican President Porfirio Diaz. He would later form his own military group to fight Victoriano Huerta, at which time he combated U.S. forces. Eventually, internal division forced him to retire.

When George Patton led the expedition into Mexico, his forces used the 1915 Dodge Model 30. The car was known for having more horsepower than its competitors at the time and helped Dodge establish itself as a competitor in the car industry.

John Pershing was a significant U.S. general who led the American Expeditionary Forces into WWI. After his achievements in the war, Pershing was named General of the Armies, the only American general to ever receive the rank during his lifetime.

In 1917, Patton traveled to Paris, where he was trained by the French army in tank warfare. He went on to train soldiers to use the tanks in support of infantry before becoming the commander of the 1st Tank Corps.

Earning him recognition among his soldiers and peers, Patton continued to command his troops from a shell hole while he was waiting to be evacuated after being shot in the leg. With the injury, his role in WWI came to an end, since he didn't return to action.

Camp Meade was named after Major General George G. Meade, who had served in both the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. The camp was built during WWI as a training ground for the 79th Division before becoming a demobilization center after the war.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Patton bonded over their enthusiasm for the future of tank warfare. When they met in 1919, Patton had already been influenced by his time working with tanks in Europe while Eisenhower ran a tank training center in the United States.

Patton and his troops never found Pancho Villa during their pursuit into Mexico, but they found and killed Julio Cardenas, who was one of Villa's captains, and two of his soldiers. Feeling accomplished, Patton carried the men's bodies back on top of his vehicles like trophy animals.

The Purple Heart was created as a successor to the Badge of Military Merit, the oldest military merit in American history. Including Patton, over 300,000 soldiers from WWI received the medal due to injuries they received.

As a lifetime member of the military, Patton's poetry often reflected his time at war. Evidence of how he struggled to return to civilian life, Patton occasionally wrote about his desire for a war, where he felt the most comfortable.

The Great Depression weighed heavily on the United States in 1932, and former soldiers felt the effects of the economic woes. Demanding early pensions, they marched on Washington D.C., but it was one of their own, George Patton, who stood against them, demanding that they return home.

Still struggling to adjust to peacetime in America, George Patton viewed Hawaii as a chance to utilize the best of his talents by preparing soldiers for future warfare. He eventually was assigned as a G-3, an operations officer, where he spoke out against commanding officers, earning him a bad reputation.

George Patton was on leave in 1937 when he decided to go horseback riding with his wife, Beatrice. During this trip, Beatrice's horse kicked him in the leg when he was riding too close, knocking Patton to the ground where he passed out.

The trip from Columbus, Georgia, to Panama City, Florida and back was a 400-mile stretch that Patton personally led. Part of Patton's reasoning for undertaking the venture was that he wanted to gain positive publicity for the Army and its use of tanks in warfare.

George Patton, after having been promoted to major general, started giving his "Blood and Guts" speeches at Fort Benning in 1941 as a way of inspiring his soldiers. To accomplish this, Patton went as far as building an amphitheater that would hold his entire devision.

While on a trip to Salem, Massachusetts, several children fell off a yacht and into the water. Patton, always looking for an opportunity to show his heroics, dived in and saved the children, earning the Silver Lifesaving Medal for the act.

When Patton was given command of the U.S. II Corps, replacing Major General Lloyd Fredendall, it had just been defeated by the German Afrika Korps. With the change of command, Patton was promoted to lieutenant general.

When the Allied forces under General Patton first arrived at El Guettar, Tunisia, they faced little resistance because the Italian troops who occupied the town retreated into the surrounding mountains. However, once the Italians held this position, they launched several attacks against the Americans with the help of German tank units, though these attacks were unsuccessful.

The horrors of WWII affected thousands of soldiers, giving them what is now called PTSD. However, Patton, who thrived during times of war, refused to accept any excuses for soldiers to skip out on the action, leading to him slapping multiple soldiers suffering from PTSD.

Patton was one of the most aggressive commanders during the Sicily Campaign, where he commanded the Seventh U.S. Army. At one point, Patton supposedly ignored a message for him to hold off on attacking Messina, claiming the message never reached his camp.

Initially, after hearing of the Biscari Massacre, Patton dismissed the claims, believing they were exaggerations, as he sought to focus on the war. However, his views were challenged, and he eventually decided the troops who committed the act should stand trial.

The Germans feared General Patton as much — if not more — than any other Allied forces general during WWII, knowing that he was willing to fight to the end. Even when it became clear that the invasion was being launched elsewhere, the Germans refused to move troops from Pas de Calais in case Patton came ashore there.

The U.S. Third Army was first activated in 1918 during WWI, though it was disbanded the following year as the war came to a close. The force was reactivated in 1932 when the U.S. Army was reorganized, though it served no major purpose until WWII.

Several important roads through the Ardennes met at Bastogne, which meant the city had to be captured if the Germans wanted to capture Antwerp. Ally forces in Bastogne had to stem off the German siege for seven days before they were relieved by Patton and the Third Army.

The Buchenwald concentration camp was finally liberated in April of 1945, revealing the horrors of German antisemitism throughout the war. To show them what their leaders had done, German civilians were marched through the camp.

Only five soldiers from WWII received the five-star ranking of General of the Army: George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry Arnold and Omar Bradley. Patton, who often spoke out against other commanders, only received the four-star ranking, partly because he wasn't well-liked.

While still in Europe following WWII, General Patton was involved in a car crash where the car he was in collided with an Army truck. Patton hit his head in the crash, which paralyzed him from the neck down. He died a few weeks later in the hospital.