Patton: Legendary World War II Commander

Praise for his performance was precisely what George Smith Patton, Jr., had sought all his life. As a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute and West Point, he was already searching for what he called “the undefinable difference” that distinguished a great general from the good ones. He led a mechanized attack in Mexico and a tank battalion during World War I. In World War II he turned American fortunes around in North Africa, chased the Germans out of Sicily, and sparked the breakout and liberation of France. When the Germans attacked the American First Army in the Battle of the Bulge, Patton turned his army north and smashed the German salient. He then drove into the heart of Germany and reached Czechoslovakia by war’s end.

Brilliant yet flawed, Patton’s leadership style drove himself and his men to acts of bravery and victory. Half uncouth, provincial cowboy and half cultured sophisticate, the man behind the warrior mask was a complex and paradoxical person. He became an icon of the American military leader and the uncompromising individual.

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Publishers Weekly

George S. Patton Jr. is remembered as much for his tough, profane image as for his military skill. Few sense that this image represented an ideal and a command tool to Pattonand that developing and projecting it was one of many struggles for a man forever in doubt about his aptitude and performance. Blumenson (author of The Patton Papers and a one-time member of the general's staff) has written a detailed and persuasive study of Patton's character, making liberal use of quotes by Patton and his family which afford insight into Patton's view of himself. More afraid of cowardice and under-achievement than of injury or death, unable to live up to his own impossible standards or the example of his martial forebearsbut always tryingPatton was very conscious of his shortcomings and insecure in his accomplishments. From his early efforts to overcome dyslexia to forcing his courage on the battlefields of World War II, he remained ill at ease with the differences between himself and the ideal he desperately wished to embody. Photos not seen by PW. 35,000 first printing; $40,000 ad/promo. November 11

Kevin M. Hymel is the research director for WWII History and Military Heritage magazines and is the author of Patton’s Photographs: War as He Saw It (Potomac Books, Inc., 2006). He is a battlefield tour guide for Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours and leads an annual tour of General Patton’s European battlefields. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

The late Martin Blumenson served in Europe with the Third Army Headquarters as well as in several historian positions. He was a visiting professor at a number of universities, including the U.S. Army, Naval, and National War colleges and the Citadel. The author of eighteen books, he lived in Washington, D.C., until his death in 2005.