In the interwar years Patton was one of the military thinkers along with Englands JFC Fuller, and Germany's Rommel and Guderian, who developed the theories that became modern armored warfare.
The theories of "Blitzkreig" or Combined arms "Lightning war" were not a strictly German development, but a culmination of international thinking by the men who would be the leaders in the next war. The difference was that the German High Command listened while the Allied leaders said "that's not how we did it last time".
Another example of the international nature of the development was the way Ernst Udet studied USMC dive bombing techniques being pioneered in the "Banana wars" and integrated them into the armored thrust as flying artillery.