The reality is that Patton accepted the inevitability of death in combat but strove mightily to save the lives of his men.

so wrote Carlo d’Este in his biography of Patton – A Genius for War.

Patton’s preferred nickname for himself, “Blood and Guts”, would seem to bely this assessment. Carlo d’Este had this to say about Patton’s reputation:

Eisenhower was well aware that Patton's detractors were snidely twisting his vainglorious nickname by referring to him as "Our Blood, his Guts," and apparently privately agreed with them to some extent. "Ike feels Patton is motivated by selfishness," wrote Butcher. "He thinks Patton would prefer the war to go on if it meant further aggrandizement for him. Neither does he mind sacrificing lives if by so doing he can gain greater fame." It was a reflection of Patton's obsession with carving his place in history that even his closest friend viewed him as intrinsically a glory hound. Or, as Eisenhower's biographer Piers Brendon has less charitably written: "Ike recognized that Patton's vicious and manic qualities were better calculated to win victories than the sober virtues of less inspired generals."

So what’s the truth?

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