The reputation behind the sentence was built in North Africa. Eisenhower gave George S. Patton II Corps in March 1943 after the Germans broke it at Sidi Bou Zid and drove it back through Kasserine Pass — and after two other generals had turned the job down.
The line about thanking God that such men lived comes from a state dinner at the Copley Plaza Hotel, hosted by Massachusetts Gov. Maurice Tobin. Earlier that day Patton had spoken to wounded veterans at the Hatch Memorial Shell and argued that a soldier did not have to die to be a hero — a point he …
George S. Patton told Eisenhower at Verdun he could turn the Third Army north in 48 hours. On December 26, 1944, the 4th Armored Division reached Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.
In September 1918 a German machine gun shot George Patton through the thigh as he led the 304th Tank Brigade forward in the Meuse-Argonne. He kept directing the fight and received the Distinguished Service Cross.
