Between Wars With the Great War at an end Patton returned to the United States of America where he found a good deal to keep him busy.
He learned to fly, drove the latest automobiles, sailed his yacht, mixed with high society, kept a stable of horses, and won hundreds of trophies and ribbons in numerous sporting events.
Such an extravagant lifestyle would ordinarily be well out of reach on a major's salary. However, in 1910 Patton had married Beatrice Ayer, the extremely wealthy heiress of a Boston industrialist.
The Pattons had more than enough money to do almost anything they wanted, but George had never wavered from his belief that he was destined to be a great soldier.
He maintained a special interest in armored warfare, and some visionaries were proclaiming that tanks would become the decisive weapon in any future conflict.
Heinz Guderian in Germany and Charles de Gaulle in France argued that tanks would return mobility to the battlefield, punching through enemy positions to create havoc in the rear.
Patton was thinking along similar lines, and he got the chance to test out some of his ideas in 1941 when the US Army held vast wargames across the states of Louisiana and Carolina.
More than 400,000 soldiers and 1,000 aircraft took part in mock battles held over 30,000 square miles. With Germany once again at war with Britain and Russia, and no guarantees that America would be able to remain neutral,
it was a much needed opportunity to test out tactics and equipment. It also served as a test of the men who would lead America's armies into battle.
The battles weren't real, but they were a close enough approximation for sixty-one men to lose their lives. However, despite these losses, the US Army gained valuable experience,
