This date in history, 1945: General George Patton dies

  On December 9th, 1945 the war had been over for about four months and General Patton and his Chief of Staff decided to take in a little pheasant hunting. As they were being driven down a quiet road they noticed a truck approaching in the opposite direction. This truck took a sudden left hand turn in front of General Patton’s vehicle without signaling and Patton’s 1938 Cadillac slammed into the turning truck.

  Neither vehicle was traveling very fast and neither was seriously damaged; both General Patton’s driver and Chief of Staff were not hurt, but General Patton suffered a spinal injury and was paralyzed from the neck down. Twelve days later, on December 21st, 1945 General Patton died of an embolism. He was buried with the men of the 3rd army who died fighting under him at the Battle of the Bulge.

  General Patton was America’s most famous and controversial general at the time of his death and because of some of his words there has always been speculation that this accident was no accident. Conspiracy theories abound that either the United States or Russia assassinated the great general, I don’t believe them but we will never know.

  General Patton first came to national prominence when he led the first armored attack in history by heading into Mexico to hunt down Pancho Villa, and gained more fame for his courage during WWI. But is was during WWII that “Old Blood and Guts” etched his name into the history books forever.

  Here is a short biography on America’s most famous general for anyone who may be interested.

  Here is a video that was narrated by Ronald Reagan:

  And what tribute would be complete without George C Scott’s rendition of one of General Patton’s most famous speeches? (Even though some of the text of the speech was removed and edited to make it “less offensive” to the movie going public.) Note. apparently the reason the flag is backwards in this video is to avoid copyright infringement. (Don’t tell the Department of Homeland Security or ICE or they may shut youtube down!)