Leadership Style of Gen. George Patton

As the Second World War fades out of the living memory of all but an older generation of Americans, no military leader in that war retains a more vivid image in the popular mind than General George Patton. The immediate reason for the survival of Patton as a symbol of military leadership is undoubtedly the 1970 movie "Patton," starring George C. Scott in the title role.

A generation of Americans with no direct memory of the Second World War -- indeed, whose outlook was shaped by the contemporary debacle in Vietnam -- were introduced to Patton through the film's arresting opening sequence. Scott as Patton steps out onto a stage in front of an enormous American flag and directly addresses the audience as though they were his troops. The backdrop is perhaps Hollywood contrivance, but the speech, including its notably salty language, was true to the man (see for example Essame, 1974, p. 137). Indeed, the film as a whole gives an accurate picture of General Patton, from his semi-delusional belief that he was a reincarnation of military geniuses of the past, to the notorious episode in which he slapped a soldier suffering from what was then called battle fatigue (in modern language, post-traumatic stress syndrome).

Above all, the film captures the lead-from-the-front style of America's first great practitioner of blitzkrieg-style armored assault. The remainder of this essay is devoted to an examination of Patton's leaders

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choice confronted most cavalrymen of the time. Cavalry was not yet accepted as wholly obsolete (well into the 1930s, Patton would consider ways of combining horse cavalry with armored columns), but there was no place for it on the Western Front. Cavalrymen, seeking a new medium for their dashing style of offensive warfare, tended to go into either armor or air forces, and the subsequent development of both arms was profoundly shaped by what may be called the cavalry outlook. Unsurprisingly, Patton chose armor over infantry, and took part in the earliest American tank offensives in the waning days of the war. Early tanks had no radios (which were not introduced till the beginning of the Second World War), and this posed a difficult problem for command. By normal doctrine, unit command was to be exercised from a fixed headquarters, in communication with flanking units and the rear, but a commander so placed would quickly lose contact with his own advancing units (Essame, 1974, pp. 14-15). In violation of this doctrine -- and accepting the risk of a reprimand -- Patton led from the front, positioning himself on top of a tank. He thus had only runners to provide communications, but gained what he regarded as more important: a
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