"Old Blood & Guts" Topic

On this date in 1945 General George Patton died from the injuries he sustained in a car wreck a couple weeks earlier.

PM,

Thanks for the notice.

While at Fort Hood, TX in the 1980s I encountered his son who was commander of the 2nd Armored Division then. He looked nothing like his imposing father, rather being a stooped, graying "milquetoast" looking guy. I was disappointed.

Jim

He looked nothing like his imposing father, rather being a stooped, graying "milquetoast" looking guy. I was disappointed.

Sounds to me like he was more like his father than you think. We get our image of Patton from George C. Scott. However, as it turns out, Scott was nothing like the general at least in manner.

Differences:
Patton had a fairly high voice (Scott's is rather booming)
He was not a large man (Scott was pretty stocky)
He did not come across as being exceptionally tough. He was pretty demanding but maybe not in a tough guy sort of way.

Similarities to the movie character:
He was exceptionally brave
He drove his men hard occasionally taking high casualties in the process (Old blood and guts?)
He swore a lot

Still a great contributor to the war effort. Thank you General. May you rest in peace.

I was comparing George III to the pictures I've seen of George, Jr., not to the movie's idealized Patton (Scott).

Jim

Isn't the son the one who was quoted as saying "We had to destroy the village in order to save it"?

George III

Apparently his son is actually George IV. George S. was still Jr though.

Pictures for comparison.

Some voice of the real Patton. YouTube link Starts at about 56 seconds in.

Son was quoted as saying, "Oh how I like to see the arms and legs fly." He commanded the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment during his tour in Vietnam. Like much else from that era maybe he said it or maybe some reporter made it up. The quote about destroying the village in order to save it was made by a US Advisor to ARVN about a suburb of Saigon during the TET Offensive. Just read it in William Keith Nolan's "House To House".

Our blood, his guts.

That being said, my dad (a decorated WWII paratrooper) loved him, as they cancelled several jumps because Patton captured drop zones.
He used to say something like I would kiss his fanny and give him ten minutes to draw a crowd.

Wow, that Patton speech is very revealing… "And various towns in Southern Germany and Austria, whose names I cannot pronounce but whose places I have removed" (thunderous laughter). The great American imagination of war has not changed much in nearly a century, has it?