Description:

Patton Jr. George

General Patton Signed Envelope,  PSA/DNA Encapsulated And Graded NM-MT 8.

 

Signed postmarked airmail envelope, 9.5" x 4". Signed and autographed by General George Patton within the body of the address as "Mrs G S Patton Jr", including the word "3rd Army" to the upper left corner. The autographed sending address was to Patton's wife, "Mrs. G S. Patton Jr., (Beatrice) South Hamilton, Mass"  Postmarked "U.S. Army Postal Service, Jul 18, 1945". Faintly toned with slight handling marks.  PSA/DNA Encapsulated And Graded NM-MT 8.

 

The envelope had originally contained a letter to his wife of which we only know a small but revealing phrase "I am like a rat without a tale doing and doing"  which effectively demonstrated Patton's growing frustrations.

 

The envelope was mailed at an interesting period during Patton's campaign with the 3rd army. Providing some context Patton had just recently been promoted to General (On April 14, 1945), a promotion long advocated by Stimson in recognition of Patton's battle accomplishments during 1944. On June 14, 1945, Secretary of War Henry Stimson announced that Patton would not be sent to the Pacific but would return to Europe in an occupation army assignment. Patton was appointed as military governor of Bavaria, where he led the Third Army in denazification efforts. Later that month, Patton, Bradley, and Eisenhower toured the Merkers salt mine as well as the Ohrdruf concentration camp, and seeing the conditions of the camp firsthand caused Patton great disgust. The Third Army was ordered toward Bavaria and Czechoslovakia, anticipating a last stand by Nazi German forces there. He was reportedly appalled to learn that the Red Army would take Berlin, feeling that the Soviet Union was a threat to the U.S. Army's advance to Pilsen, but was stopped by Eisenhower from reaching Prague, Czechoslovakia before V-E Day on May 8 and the end of the war in Europe.

 

In its advance from the Rhine to the Elbe, Patton's Third Army, which numbered between 250,000 and 300,000 men at any given time, captured 32,763 square miles (84,860 km2) of German territory. Its losses were 2,102 killed, 7,954 wounded, and 1,591 missing. German losses in the fighting against the Third Army totaled 20,100 killed, 47,700 wounded, and 653,140 captured. Between becoming operational in Normandy on August 1, 1944, and the end of hostilities on May 9, 1945, the Third Army was in continuous combat for 281 days. In that time, it crossed 24 major rivers and captured 81,500 square miles (211,000 km2) of territory, including more than 12,000 cities and towns. The Third Army claimed to have killed, wounded, or captured 1,811,388 German soldiers, six times its strength in personnel.

 

Within 2 weeks of the posting of this envelope, the US dropped the bomb on Japan. Patton was particularly upset when learning of the end of the war against Japan, writing in his diary, "Yet another war has come to an end, and with it my usefulness to the world."

 

A lovely clean example, encapsulated and graded!

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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