Sorry guys. He was not a "Soldiers General" to me
I think most soldiers who served under him would agree. The typical soldier liked a strong leader who could take them into a good fight, but they didn't like taking risks and being pushed to exhaustion.
There is some good info about Patton in Atkinson's book "An Army At Dawn". It said that Patton was in one of the troop ships waiting to land in N. Africa when the French coastal batteries opened up. The shelling (or the concussion from their return fire) knocked Patton's personal kit out of the landing craft and it fell into the sea. He had just strapped on his pistols. But he went around complaining that he didn't have a #%$& toothbrush.
I give Patton credit for his initiative to form the early American tank corps. He also founded the Desert Training Center in southern California which allowed large exercises in tank warfare. It was later renamed the California-Arizona Maneuver Area .
Steve