“Discipline can only be obtained when all the officers are imbued with the sense of their awful obligation to their men and to their country that they cannot tolerate negligence. Officers who fail to correct errors or to praise excellence are valueless in peace and dangerous misfits in war.”

George S. Patton Jr (1885 to 1945)

George Smith Patton Junior was a US Army officer. He was an outstanding practitioner of mobile tank warfare in the European and Mediterranean theatres during World War II.

His strict discipline, toughness, and self-sacrifice elicited exceptional pride within his ranks, and the general was colourfully referred to as “Old Blood-and-Guts” by his men. However, his brash actions and mercurial temper led to numerous controversies during his career.

Historians generally agree that Patton was not only one of the greatest military leaders that the US has ever produced but also one of the most complex and contradictory. He died on 21 December 1945 after breaking his neck in a car crash near Mannheim, Germany, 12 days earlier.