George Smith Patton, Jr. (also George Smith Patton III) (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a distinguished though controversial United States Army officer.

Commissioned in the army in 1909, Patton participated in the unsuccessful attempt to capture Pancho Villa in 1916-17. In World War I, he was the first officer assigned to the new United States Tank Corps and saw action in France. After the war he was a strong advocate of armored warfare.

It was in World War II that he made his mark, commanding both corps and armies as a general in North Africa, Sicily, and the European Theater of Operations. Near the end of the Sicilian campaign, Patton jeopardized his career by slapping a soldier recuperating from "battle fatigue" at a hospital; Patton considered him a coward. The well-publicized incident caused General Eisenhower to relieve him of command. Thus, instead of playing a major part in the invasion of Normandy, he was relegated to being a decoy. However, he was later given command of the U.S. Third Army and ably led it in breaking out of the hedgerows of Normandy and across France. When a surprise major German offensive resulted in American units being surrounded in Bastogne, Patton rapidly disengaged his army from fighting in another sector and moved it over 100 miles in 48 hours to relieve the siege.