Description:

George Patton
Third U.S. Army Headquarters, August 18, 1945
George S. Patton TLS To Young PA Pen Pal Extends Thanks For Gifted Pipes Day After Restoring Napoleonic War Flags
TLS

A 1p typed letter signed by George S. Patton, Jr. (1885-1945), as "GS Patton Jr." at center right, and additionally signed by him in PRINT as "G.S. Patton, Jr. / General" below his signature. August 18, 1945. Headquarters, Third United States Army. On a watermarked sheet with embossed letterhead reading: "Headquarters / Third United States Army / Office of the Commanding General / APO 403." Expected wear including flattened transmittal folds and a few extra wrinkles. Isolated foxing, else near fine. 8.125" x 10.625." Accompanied by its original transmittal envelope with matching APO 403 return address, free-typed "General G.S. Patton, Jr." in the return address section and "Free" in the postage section, bearing a postmark, and letter-opened at the top. Scattered small pieces of tape are found within the envelope. Else very good, 8.75" x 4."

Patton wrote this letter to his pen pal Mary Jane Krieger (1924-1982) of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, then an unmarried 21-year-old high school graduate and Bell Telephone Company employee. Patton and Krieger's pen pal correspondence throughout 1944 and 1945 reveals a very warm friendship. The pair exchanged ideas, pleasantries, and gifts, and kept each other up to date as to their activities (local in Mary Jane's case, international and military in Patton's.) Patton's more humane side - revealed through this correspondence with Mary Jane - contrasts strikingly with the intimidating military persona he exuded elsewhere.

Patton wrote Krieger, in part:

"Dear Mary Jane:

Thanks very much indeed for the pipe and also the young pipe --- both of which arrived in fine shape… I regret there is nothing over here I can send comparable to your presents…"

Like his World War II contemporary Douglas MacArthur, Patton smoked a pipe; unlike MacArthur, who was known for his custom-ordered corncob pipes, Patton seemed like more of an opportunistic pipe smoker. He was also a lifelong pipe smoker: photographs show Patton, as a young personal aide assigned to General John "Black Jack" Pershing during the 1915-1916 Pancho Villa Expedition, smoking a Large Half Bent Billiard Pipe. Some 25 years later, Patton can be seen smoking a more rectilinear pipe while observing military maneuvers in Louisiana in 1941.

On August 18, 1945, the day before writing this letter to Mary Jane, Patton had attended an official ceremony at the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, returning stolen property to the French. While scouring Bavaria at the end of World War II, units of Patton's Third Army had discovered six regimental Napoleonic War flags secreted away in churches, cellars, and barns. The French war flags had been confiscated by the Germans some 70 years before during the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War. Patton formally restored these flags to the French Republic in a public ceremony, and later laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

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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  • Dimensions: letter: 8.125" x 10.625"
  • Medium: TLS

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