George S. Patton Signed Menu.

General George S. Patton’s 60th birthday celebration was a day-long event that served both as a reunion with fellow veterans of the Third and Seventh Armies and as a farewell before his planned departure for the United States on December 10, 1945. The occasion offered a brief moment of joy amid the turbulence of Patton’s final months. In September, just weeks earlier, he had been relieved of his positions as commander of the Third Army and military governor of Bavaria by General Eisenhower, following controversial remarks in which he compared former Nazi Party members to Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Reassigned to lead the Fifteenth Army, a unit tasked with compiling the official history of the war, Patton found little satisfaction in the new role. He disagreed with American denazification efforts and believed U.S. forces should remain strong in Europe to counter any future threat from the Soviet Union. With no reassignment to the Pacific forthcoming, Patton hoped simply to return home—a journey he would never complete. On December 9, a truck collided with his jeep, resulting in a broken neck and paralysis; he died in a hospital in Heidelberg on December 21, 1945.