Description:

Patton Jr. George

 

General Patton Battle of the Bulge, Twice Signed Free Frank

 

Free Frank envelope, 9" x 4". Signed twice and Autographed by General George Patton, once above the return address as "Commd G S Patton", and once in the body of the address as "Mrs G S Patton Jr", including the word "Free" to the upper right corner. The autographed sending address was to Patton's wife, "Mrs. G S. Patton Jr., South Hamilton, Mass"  Postmarked "U.S. Army Postal Service, Jan 4, 1945", dated in the midst of the Battle of the Bulge. Faintly toned with slight handling marks and grubbiness. Envelope neatly opened at flap.

 

General George Patton twice signed Free Frank addressed to his wife at their home in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. While Beatrice was home, Patton was in the trenches of his most spectacular battle, one which would go down forever in history. The Battle of the Bulge was his crowning  achievement — the epitome of a lifetime of devotion to the profession of arms.

 

Stepping back in time a mere few weeks, Patton was called upon to lead was would become the largest battle fought on the Western Front in Europe during World War II; it was also the largest battle ever fought by the United States Army.

The strategy session took place on the second floor of an old stone barrack surrounded by a sea of slush and mud. Warmed inadequately by a lone potbelly stove, the room was set up with large easels for displaying maps. There, Air Marshal Arthur Tedder, General Bradley, General Patton, Lt. Gen. Jacob Devers, and Field Marshal Montgomery’s deputy, Freddie de Guingand, and their aides were to work out joint moves to blunt the German thrusts.

 

Eisenhower unpersuasively described the fumbled defense crisis as an opportunity rather than a disaster, appealing for “only cheerful faces at this conference table.” Farther to the east, where the frontiers of France, Belgium, and Luxembourg met, the conferees knew that dismayed American divisions were still being mauled. Although Ike warned Patton about bluster and bravado, thinking big as usual, Patton offered: “Hell, let’s have the guts to let the sons of bitches go all the way to Paris. Then we’ll really cut ’em up and chew ’em up.” Several at the table laughed, but Eisenhower interrupted sharply with “George, that’s fine. But the enemy must never be allowed to cross the Meuse.”

 

Inevitably, as the enemy advance divided Bradley’s army group, he would diminish into a minor player. His northernmost forces would be closer to Montgomery’s command than to Bradley’s own headquarters in Luxembourg City. “George,” Eisenhower instructed Patton at Verdun, with a diplomatic nod toward Bradley to keep him in the picture although Patton was now much on his own, “I want you to command this move—under Brad’s supervision, of course—making a strong counter­attack with at least six divisions. When can you start?” “As soon as you’re through with me,” Patton claimed. “I can attack the day after tomorrow morning.

 

Patton noted in his diary that it “didn’t enter Ike’s head” that the other divisions called for “exist only on paper.” They had been battered in the Hürtgen Forest, above the Ardennes, in November and were still refitting. He had only the reliable 4th Armored and the 26th and 80th Infantry divisions.

Patton’s aide, Lt. Col. Charles R. Codman, recalled “a stir, a shuffling of feet, as those present straightened up in their chairs. In some faces skepticism [showed]. But through the room a current of excitement leaped.” Taking tens of thousands of men facing eastward, swiveling them north, and moving them—with their armor and supplies set up for a different thrust, and over inadequate and icy roads—to counterattack two days later seemed logistically unsound. Patton was confident he could do it. Turning toward Bradley as he described his plans for the southern shoulder of the Bulge, Patton, who was known for his bravado and inappropriate superlatives, contended, “Brad, the Kraut’s stuck his head in a meat grinder. And”—he turned his fist in simulation—“this time I have hold of the handle.”

 

A fantastic, important piece of history!

Provenance: Obtained directly from the Patton family museum in Hamilton Massachusetts. John Reznikoff, owner of University Archives, has been the agent for the Patton family for 25 years.

 

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