Allied Commanders of World War Two/Patton, Part One

"George S. Patton" Part 1

This highly controversial American World War Two general was made even more famous by the 1970 release of the successful motion picture "Patton," in which the general was portrayed by George C. Scott. Patton had a number family members who were officers in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and his family was well off financially. Patton attended West Point and he became a cavalry officer. Later Patton served under General John Pershing during the American expedition into Mexico in response to Pancho Villa's raid into American territory. Patton achieved success in an attack in which he personally killed one of Villa's leaders. This gave the future general his first taste of fame.

During World War One Patton organized American tank units in France, where he was wounded near the end of the war. After the war, Patton teamed up with his future superior Dwight Eisenhower in developing ideas about American armored warfare, including the idea of relentlessly pursuing the enemy with mobile forces to prevent his digging in, and to, in his opinion, prevent higher casualties. Just months before America entered World War Two, Patton was put in command of the U.S. Second Armored Division. In November 1942 Patton was in charge of part of the American forces which landed in French Morocco, well in the rear of German Field Marshal Rommel's retreating army. The defeat of the U.S. II Corps by German and Italian units at the "Battle of Kasserine Pass" prompted General Eisenhower (the overall commander of the American forces there) to put Patton in command of the corps. Patton's strict discipline brought the corps together and helped it (along with other Allied forces) drive the Axis forces back until they surrendered North Africa in May 1943.

Patton was given command of the U.S. Seventh Army for the invasion of Sicily. Initially Patton's army was relegated to protecting the flank of British and Commonwealth forces under the command of Bernard Law Montgomery, but Patton quickly improvised and sent troops into western Sicily and then onto the key city of Messina. It was during the Sicilian Campaign that General Patton slapped a couple of American soldiers who were in hospitals with no wounds. The first incident became a major story, and Patton was ordered by Eisenhower to apologize to the soldier and various units of the army. Patton was removed as commander of the Seventh Army, and while the outward appearance was that the general was in disgrace, Eisenhower actually had big plans for his friend "Georgie" Patton.

WORD HISTORY:
Ox-This noun goes back to Indo European "uksen," which became "ukhson" in its Old Germanic offspring. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "oxa," which then became "ox." The plural, "oxen," is a retention of the old way English commonly, but not exclusively, formed plurals, and other Germanic languages still often use "n" or "en" to form plurals; for example, German has "Frau" (woman), and "Frauen" (women). Forms of "ox" are common in the other Germanic languages: German has "Ochse," Low German has "Oss," Dutch has "os," West Frisian has "okse," Swedish has "oxe," Icelandic has "uxi," and Norwegian and Danish have "okse."