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George S. Patton Lesser Known Facts

Khalid Elhassan November 19, 2024 12 min

Patton - George S. Patton — George S. Patton. Europe Remembers

1. Fortunately, The Patton Movie Finally Got the Pentagon’s Assistance

The ‘Patton’ movie eventually received assistance from the Pentagon. The Movie Database

For a change, the Army’s refusal to help with the Patton movie was not because it did not like the script, nor did it result from other censorship-related reasons. Instead, it was because when the idea for the movie was floated in 1951, only a few years after Patton’s death, his family wanted no part of it, and the Army honored their wishes. Fortunately, both Patton’s family and the Pentagon eventually got on board, and the film was released to great acclaim in 1970.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Atkinson, Rick – The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (2007)

History Collection – German Espionage in the United States During WWII

History Net – How Gen. George Patton’s Legend Went From Real to Reel

Lenoir, Tim, and Caldwell, Luke – The Military-Entertainment Complex (2018)

Library of Congress – Bill Mauldin Beyond Willie and Joe

Los Angeles Times, August 21^st, 2011 – The US Military’s Hollywood Connection

Mauldin, Bill – Up Front (1945)

Patton, George S. – War as I Knew It (1995 Edition)

Task Force Baum – The Hammelburg Raid

US Department of Defense – How and Why the DOD Works With Hollywood

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.