Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton

Rommel, Guderian, Liddell-Hart and JFC Fuller: early exponents and practitioners of armored warfare. These tactics were to break the stalemate that had characterized World War I. Advocates of the tank and above all speed, it was their ideas which decimated Saddam Hussein’s forces in the 1990 Gulf War. But among the proponents and practitioners of armored warfare, the brash, bold, arrogant and eccentric George S. Patton remains the world’s greatest armored commander by the one yardstick that really counts: the battlefield. In 1944–45, Patton’s Third Army raced across northern Europe, covering more ground and destroying more enemy resources than any other equivalent force in history.

Patton is one of America’s most celebrated generals and one of the most famous generals of the 20th century, but his story has its origins in the form of a shy, dyslexic boy who could cry uncontrollably and who viewed his own emotional intelligence as unmanly. Patton was a fascinating, complicated and controversial man whose life story ranges between genius, folly and tragedy, with absolute determination the one constant theme.

He was also a man constantly on the move, whether it was as an Olympic athlete or as one of the first American soldiers to work with tanks in World War I, but his life’s work truly went toward revolutionizing warfare on and off the battlefield. Between the two World Wars, he wrote at length about mechanized warfare and tactics, and during the Second World War he worked his way up colorfully, controversially, and capably, all of which made him more conspicuous during the war. Patton’s shocking death just a few months after the war ended ensured that the general died at the height of his fame and would always be remembered for his legendary attitude and exploits.

A career military man, Ike was too young to serve in combat during World War I, but he began a long and productive career collaborating with future military legends George Patton and Douglas MacArthur while serving some of the nation’s other famous generals, including George Marshall and John J. Pershing. Amazingly, he had never served in anything but administrative positions before World War II.

Eisenhower remained mired in middle management positions until George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, took notice of his skills and began promoting him. By 1942, Eisenhower was given the role of appointed Supreme Commander Allied (Expeditionary) Force in North Africa, and after his success there, Eisenhower oversaw the invasion of Sicily in 1943, which at the time had been the largest amphibious invasion in history.

With those successes, President Roosevelt picked Eisenhower to be the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, leaving him in charge of Operation Overlord and the defining moment of his military career, D-Day. Like many before him, his successes in the war made him a natural candidate for President, and he was offered plum political spots by both parties before winning the presidency as a Republican in 1952.