General Patton commanded the Seventh Army during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and served in this capacity until March 1944, when he was given command of the Third Army which became operational in France in August 1944. When American forces broke through the German defenses, Patton's Third Army dashed across Europe and exploited German weaknesses with remarkable success.
In October 1945, he assumed command of the Fifteenth Army in American-occupied Germany. On December 21, 1945, General Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany as a result of an automobile accident. He is buried among the soldiers who died in the Battle of the Bulge in Hamm, Luxembourg.
The newspapers called him "Blood and Guts." His men in Africa called him "Gorgeous Georgie" after his distinctive way of dressing. The men of the Third Army simply called him "Georgie," his nickname from childhood. Whatever the nickname, George S. Patton, Jr. represented a rarity in the U.S. Army, the cult of personality. To this day, while other World War II veterans refer to their division and often only to their regiment or battalion, men of the Third Army refer to their belonging to the Third U.S. Army as, "I was with Patton."
General Patton is wearing a specially-modified version of the B-3 bomber jacket. The B-3 features: sheepskin, tanned from thick Nappa Leather, and all-natural sheep fur. He
carried one of two ivory handled pistols, a Colt .45 Model 1873 Single Action Revolver or the Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum Revolver. His initials "GSP" were engraved in the handles. |
