General George Patton

U.S. Army officer George Smith Patton 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 pride within his ranks. General Patton was referred to as "Old Blood-and-Guts." In 1909 he graduated from U.S military academy at West Point, New York. He began his army career as a cavalry lieutenant and After serving with the U.S. Tank Corps …

…e Palatinate, taking 100,000 prisoners. Patton's military achievements caused authorities to overlook strong civilian criticism of some of his methods, including his widely reported striking of a hospitalized, shell-shocked soldier in August 1943. (Patton publicly apologized for the incident.) His public criticisms of the Allied postwar denazification policy in Germany led to his removal from the command of the 3rd Army in October 1945. The controversial general died in a Heidelberg hospital after an automobile accident near Mannheim.