Patton Jr. George

Autograph Letter Signed, to his mother, Ruth Wilson Patton, January 19, 1919, [France]. 1 p., 8.25" x 10.25". Expected folds; minor repairs of verso; superb appearance.

 

Complete Transcript

HEADQUARTERS SECOND ARMY

american expeditionary forces

office of a.c. of s., g-5

Jan 19 ’19

Dear Mama:

I am off on a trip giving Tank demonstrations to the Divisions of this Army. I feel like a drummer selling a rather unpopular form of goods. But so far I have forced it down their throats with excellent results.

The weather is fine and mild and we are having an interesting time.

I fear that my reputation for manners has gotten me a job as Provost Martial of the 3 Army in Germany. I don’t want the job as it will keep me from coming home but apparently it can’t be helped.

I am sorry about Papa being sick  I hope he soon feels better  I am very well.

Your devoted son,

G S Patton Jr.

 

Historical Background

In the spring of 1918, Patton was given the task of creating a tank training school in France. After training dozens of officers and hundreds of men, he was given command of the 1st Provisional Tank Brigade in August 1918. As part of Colonel Samuel Rockenbach’s Tank Corps in mid-September 1918, Patton commanded 144 French-built Renault FT light tanks manned by Americans at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in the first American use of tanks in combat. Saint-Mihiel is a town in northeastern France, held by the Germans since 1914. The attack on Saint-Mihiel, if successful, might open an opportunity to attack the German railroad center in Metz, France, thirty miles to the northeast of Saint-Mihiel. The offensive, involving the American Expeditionary Force and 110,000 French troops as well as 275 French tanks, was successful in driving back the German salient from Saint-Mihiel and the capture of 15,000 German prisoners. However, the muddy roads prevented food supplies and artillery from keeping pace with the advance, and the operation stalled before reaching Metz. On the morning of September 26, at the beginning of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Patton was wounded while getting tanks forward and later received the Distinguished Service Cross for “extraordinary heroism” that day.

 

On October 10, 1918, General John J. Pershing (1860-1948), commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces, ordered the organization of the Second Army with Lieutenant General Robert L. Bullard (1861-1947) in command. The Army recovered twenty-five square miles of French territory in the final days of the war before the armistice on November 11, 1918.

On November 7, 1918, Pershing ordered the organization of the Third Army with Major General Joseph T. Dickman (1857-1927) in command. A week later, Pershing ordered Dickman to move quickly into central Germany to disarm and disband German forces and begin occupation duty. By mid-December, elements of the Third Army had crossed the Rhine. By April, entire divisions from the Third Army were being demobilized and sent to the United States. After German officials agreed to sign the Treaty of Versailles, the Third Army was disbanded on July 2, 1919.

 

After the armistice suspended all combat, Patton’s immediate future was uncertain, like that of most of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe at the time. On January 15, 1919, he wrote in his diary, “Gen. Eltinge told me I was to be inspector of Mil. police 3 army  Col. Grubbs said I was going home.” On January 20, he added, “Wrote notes on use of Tanks for distribution to 2nd Army.” Throughout January, Patton gave lectures and demonstrations about tanks to the divisions of the Second Army, stationed in northeastern France. On February 2, he learned that he “would have to go to Treves after Brigade goes home. God-Dam.” On February 14, he asked General James W. McAndrew (1862-1922) if he could go home; “he agreed.”

 

On February 16, 1919, Patton had lunch in Paris with the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII (1894-1972) and described the Prince in his diary as “a very nice fellow.” Five days later, his request to “go home with brigade disapproved by Lt. Col. Obrien.” The next day he appealed to General McAndrew about going home, and he said “it was o.k. anyhow.” On February 23, he “heard definitely that I was to return to the U.S.” but also “heard dogs not allowed on boat.” He arrived at Marseilles on February 28, sailed from France on March 2, and arrived in New York on March 16, 1919.

 

 

George S. Patton Jr. (1885-1945) was born in California and educated at the Virginia Military Institute and United States Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1909. An avid horseback rider, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the cavalry. In 1910, he married Beatrice Banning Ayer (1886-1953), the daughter of a wealthy Boston businessman. He competed in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, in the modern pentathlon, where he finished fifth behind four Swedes. He then traveled to France, where he learned fencing techniques. Returning to the United States, he redesigned cavalry saber combat doctrine and designed a new sword. In 1915 and 1916, Patton participated in the Pancho Villa Expedition in Mexico as Commander John J. Pershing’s aide. In the spring of 1917, he accompanied Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, to Europe. Patton took an interest in tanks and was soon training crews to operate them. By 1918, he was in command of a tank brigade. After World War I, he served in various army posts and began to develop the methods of mechanized warfare. At the beginning of World War II, Patton worked to develop and train armored divisions in the army. In the summer of 1942, he commanded the Western Task Force in the Allied invasion of French North Africa. He commanded the Seventh U.S. Army in the successful invasion of Sicily in July 1943. After the Normandy invasion of June 1944, Patton’s Third Army sailed to France and formed on the extreme right of Allied land forces. Through speed and aggressive offensive action, the Third Army continuously pressed retreating German forces until it ran out of fuel near Metz in northeastern France at the end of August. When the German army counterattacked in the battle of the Bulge in mid-December 1944, Patton’s ability to reposition six full divisions to relieve besieged Allied forces in Bastogne was one of the most remarkable achievements of the war. As the Germans retreated, Patton’s Third Army advanced, killing, wounding, or capturing 240,000 German soldiers in seven weeks before crossing the Rhine on March 22. After the end of the war in Europe, Patton hoped for a command in the Pacific but after a visit to the United States returned to Europe for occupation duty in Bavaria. In December 1945, the car in which he was riding collided with an American army truck at low speed, but Patton hit his head on a glass partition, breaking his neck and paralyzing him. He died twelve days later at a hospital in Germany. He was buried among some of his men of the Third Army in an American cemetery in Luxembourg.

 

Ruth Wilson Patton (1861-1928) was born in California. Her father was a pioneer and real estate developer in southern California, serving as mayor of Pueblo de Los Angeles around 1850. She married George William Patton (1856-1927), the son of a Confederate colonel and graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, in 1884. They settled at Lake Vineyard, California, where they raised produce and operated a winery. In 1902, he began working for Henry E. Huntington’s real estate development company, and he served as the first mayor of San Marino from 1913 to April 1922 and again from October 1922 to 1924. They had two children, George S. Patton Jr. and Anne “Nita” Wilson Patton (1887-1971).

 

 

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