General George S. Patton

Lucian K. Truscott: The Soldier’s General

By Nathan N. Prefer

In his Maxims of War, Napoleon Bonaparte wrote, “It is exceptional and difficult to find in one man all the qualities necessary for a great general. Read more

General George S. Patton

Operation Torch: Invasion of North Africa

By Michael D. Hull

 Coming after a series of bitter defeats from France to Norway to Crete, news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II was one of the early high points of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s leadership years. Read more

General George S. Patton

The General Patton Memorial Museum

Raymond E. Bell, Jr.

Thirty miles east of Indio, California, is the General Patton Memorial Museum, a special museum dedicated to General George S. Read more

General George S. Patton

World War II Soldier’s First Combat: “You Learn Fast”

By Kevin M. Hymel

Private Armand Lorenzi and his fellow soldiers were advancing through a snowy German forest when enemy machine guns opened fire. Read more

General George S. Patton

Commanding Patton’s Personal Tanks

By Kevin M. Hymel

Major General George S. Patton, Jr. had no patience for soldiers disobeying the rules of combat at his Desert Training Center in Southern California. Read more

General George S. Patton

World War II’s Famous Battle of the Bulge

by Mike Haskew

On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched Operation Wacht am Rhein, or Watch on the Rhine. Popularly known as the Battle of the Bulge, the ensuing offensive was a desperate effort to win a major victory in the West. Read more

General George S. Patton

George S. Patton: World War II As He Saw It

By Kevin Hymel

Everywhere General George S. Patton, Jr., went, from North Africa to Sicily to continental Europe, his camera swayed from his neck, ready to capture images that interested him. Read more

General George S. Patton

Palermo Captured

By Kevin Hymel

When the Sicilian port city of Palermo fell to Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Seventh Army on July 22, 1943, his soldiers were surprised by their reception. Read more

General George S. Patton

The Allies’ Strong Stand Atop Mortain

by Kevin Hymel

A German SS officer, holding a white flag of truce, walked through the American lines and up to a tall lieutenant from Texas. Read more

General George S. Patton

The Rise of Ike: Supreme Allied Commander in the Making

By Eric Hammel

Dwight David Eisenhower began life as David Dwight Eisenhower in Abilene, Kansas, on October 14, 1890, the third of five sons. Read more

General George S. Patton

With the “Ragtag Circus” Across Europe: The Story of Frank Fauver

By Susan Zimmerman

The 83rd U.S. Infantry Division had been mobilized for World War I in September 1917. Its unit patch was a downward-pointing black triangle with the letters O-H-I-O stitched as an abstract gold monogram in the center. Read more

General George S. Patton

The Battle of Kasserine Pass and the Failure of General Lloyd Fredendall

By Jerome Baldwin

He came highly recommended, praised by General George C. Marshall as “one of the best.” But ultimately from these high hopes and expectations would come disastrous failure. Read more

General George S. Patton

Battle of Metz: Patton’s Bloody Fortress Battle

By William E. Welsh

Lieutenant General George Patton’s Third Army had come a long way since it was activated on August 1 in Normandy. Read more

General George S. Patton

Herrlisheim: What Became of the 12th Armored Division’s Lost Battalion

By Nathan N. Prefer

On January 17, 1945, as Allied forces prepared to descend on Germany itself and put an end to the war in Europe, an American tank battalion disappeared. Read more

General George S. Patton

Patton’s Fight for Fort Koenigsmacker

By Brig. Gen. (U.S. Army Ret.) Raymond E. Bell JR.

In his autobiography, War As I Knew It, Lieutenant General Patton set the tone for what was to become one of his Third U.S. Read more

General George S. Patton

Teddy Roosevelt Jr.: Rare Photos from His Funeral in Normandy

This picture was taken by Army Pfc. Sidney Gutelewitz roughly a month after the D-Day Invasion, according to the Los Angeles Times. Read more

General George S. Patton

Witnessing Patton’s Failure: A Prisoner’s View of the Task Force Baum Raid

By Eric Niderost

In December 1944 the vaunted Third Reich was in its death throes, crushed by Allied forces on all sides. Read more

General George S. Patton

Heroic Stand at Hosingen

By Alice M. Flynn and Allyn Vannoy

First Lieutenant Tom Flynn and his fellow POWs remained locked inside their boxcar prison on a Frankfurt railroad siding on Christmas Eve, 1944, as air raid sirens wailed and bombs exploded throughout the city. Read more

General George S. Patton

Voices of the Bulge, Part I

By Michael Collins & Martin King

BACKSTORY: Unternehmen Wacht-am-Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine), better known in the West as the Battle of the Bulge, had its beginnings following the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life by Colonel Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg and a group of other high-level plotters who felt that their Führer was not only leading Germany to defeat but also its doom, and thus had to be eliminated. Read more

General George S. Patton

The USO Turns 75: American soldiers’ “Home Away From Home”

By John Provan

Almost every American veteran has fond memories of a Track-Side Free Canteen, or a USO center at some train station or airport situated at locations around the world, or a “USO Camp Show” that provided entertainment close to the front lines, during every conflict since World War II. Read more