The legend of George S. Patton is one of triumph touched by controversy. He delivered both in the Mediterranean theater of World War II, setting the stage for the campaign that would cement his name in the pantheon of American military history: the 1944-45 invasion and liberation of Western Europe.

William Nance of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth recounts the famed general’s achievements in the campaign, from his valuable role as a decoy in the runup to D-Day in June 1944 to leading his Third Army across the continent, inflicting massive German casualties. Nineteen months after celebrating victory in Europe, he was dead of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.