Patriots Pathfinder missions were more dangerous than regular missions and required higher skills Accordingly, crew were paid more and gained promotion more readily See also creep back PATRIOTS “Arbegnoch.” Patriots was the British term for Ethiopian resistance fighters against Italian occupation See East African campaign (1940–1941) PATTERN BOMBING A bombing technique developed by USAAF General Curtis LeMay It called for an entire payload to be dropped at once, to minimize scattering and hence maximize the destructive pattern made around an intended target PATTON, GEORGE (1885–1945) “Old Blood and Guts.” Highly intelligent, widely read, socially active and prominent, Patton was driven by an extreme ambition that fed upon an absolute conviction that it was his personal destiny to lead a great army in a major war He also believed in his own repeated reincarnation Whatever the sources of his great drive, he achieved beyond the norm in multiple fields of endeavor, including swordsmanship After some difficulty, he emerged from West Point as a young cavalry officer intent on fulfi lling his “destiny” for military greatness A physical specimen, he represented the United States at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm Blessed with a keen intellect, he studied at the French cavalry school at Saumur and at the U.S cavalry school in Kansas In 1916 he was part of General Pershing’s futile expedition that chased Pancho Villa into Mexico Patton then undertook training on the new armored cavalry weapon, the tank, just coming into its own on the battlefields of Western Europe He became an enthusiast of armored warfare Because of his established connections in France he was named to command the U.S tank school that was hurriedly established there upon U.S entry into the war Patton led a massed tank assault at St.-Mihel on September 12–17, 1918 During the engagement he was slightly wounded He stayed with tanks after the war but also served on the General Staff from 1923 to 1927, and as chief of cavalry from 1928 to 1931 He returned to the general staff in 1935 Patton was near peacetime retirement age when World War II broke out He was critically important in developing U.S Army armored warfare doctrine during key war games prior to U.S entry into the war He helped plan the TORCH landings in North Africa in November 1942 He led the forces that carried out a triad of landings in Morocco that were briefly opposed by Vichy troops Patton showed real battlefield skill during the campaign that followed in Tunisia, to which he came late from Morocco to take command of U.S 2nd Corps His rapid rise was assisted by the failure and dismissal of more senior commanders after initial failure against the Axis in Tunisia He took over command of U.S ground forces in North Africa briefly in March 1943, but quarreled with the British and 836