Image: Wiki Commons by Joseph Christian Leyendecker
About This Quiz
Despite his controversial career, the Allied powers knew they could rely on George Patton when World War II erupted and the United States was dragged into the conflict. After all, an opportunity like that was something for which Patton had waited his entire life, as he hoped to display the talents he crafted between WWI when he got his first major battle experience and WWII when years of hard work put him in position to lead troops through some of the most critical battles in world history.
Despite the legacy he left behind, Patton wasn't viewed as a prodigy from an early age, especially considering he was never an academic in his youth. That, of course, didn't stop him from becoming one of the most recognized generals of the 20th century, both at home and abroad. The legacy he built was one based on pure determination and admiration for the military life, a topic from which he rarely took his mind off.
Here's your chance to see if you know how General Patton's life shaped out. From his earliest years to his ranking as a general in the U.S. Army, Patton achieved and overcame tasks to which most other people would succumb. Get started with this quiz and show everyone that you're not one to succumb either.
Virginia
Georgia
New York
California
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.
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Operation Neptune
Operation Bodyguard
Operation Sledgehammer
Operation Torch
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.
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Norwich University
Virginia Military Institute
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.
Harvard University
Washington and Lee University
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Life
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.
Time
The New Yorker
Harper's Bazaar
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Rowing
Tennis
Pentathlon
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.
Cycling
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Second lieutenant
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.
Lieutenant
Captain
Major
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Germany
Britain
France
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.
Spain
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Chestnut
Ivory
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.
Walnut
Pearl
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Pancho Villa
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.
Emiliano Zapata
Francisco I. Madero
Porfirio Diaz
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Machine guns
Hand grenades
Radios
Motorized vehicles
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.
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John Pershing
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.
Edwin Babbitt
William Kenly
William Campbell Langfitt
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Planes
Machine gun
Tanks
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.
Artillery
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The shoulder
The leg
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.
The foot
The hip
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Camp Lee
Camp Jackson
Camp Lewis
Camp Meade
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.
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Douglas MacArthur
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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.
Omar Bradley
Gerald Ford
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Burned them
Hung them
Strapped them to his car
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.
Sent them to the Mexican president
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Purple Heart
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.
Medal of Honor
Distinguished Service Cross
Silver Star
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Painting
Writing short stories
Writing novels
Writing poetry
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.
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1929
1932
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.
1935
1940
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Washington D.C.
California
Texas
Hawaii
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.
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He fell off a house.
A car hit him.
A horse kicked him.
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.
He fell while hiking.
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300
500
1,000
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.
2,000
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Blood and Guts
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.
Infamy
Four Freedoms
Arsenal of Democracy
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A fire broke out.
They were drowning.
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.
Horse's almost trampled them.
A car crashed.
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U.S. I Corps
U.S. II Corps
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.
U.S. III Corps
U.S. IV Corps
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Battle of Sidi Bou Zid
Battle of Medenine
Battle of the Mareth Line
Battle of El Guettar
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.
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He was supposed to be on the battlefield.
He cheated on his wife.
He slapped the soldier.
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.
He refused to return to the United States.
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Sicily
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.
Spain
Greece
Switzerland
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Biscari Massacre
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.
Jilava Massacre
Palawan Massacre
Piazza Tasso Massacre
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Dunkirk
Ostend
St. Malo
Pas de Calais
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.
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U.S. First Army
U.S. Second Army
U.S. Third Army
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.
U.S. Fourth Army
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Kursk
Bastogne
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.
Aachen
Paris
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Auschwitz
Chelmno
Dachau
Buchenwald
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.
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Five-star general
Three-star general
Four-star general
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.
Five-star general
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Stray bullet
Fever
Car crash
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.
Heart attack
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