Posted by Snafu | Comments : (0)
Category : Letters & Messages
Tags: Eisenhower, Ohrdruf, Patton, Weimar
Headquarters
Third United States Army
Office of the Commanding General
APO 403
April 15 1945
My dear Ike :
I wrote a personal letter in the enclosed wording to each Corps Commander and to the Chief of Staff, which I believe was in line with our idea.
It may interest you to know that they are very talkative, alleged former of the murder Camp was recognized by a Russian prisoner as a former guard. The prisoner beat his brain out with a rock.
We have found at a place four miles north of Weimar a similar camp, only much worse. The normal population was 25.000 and they died at a rate of about a hundred a day. The burning arrangements according to General Gay and Colonel Codman who visited it yesterday, were far superior to those which they had at Ohrdruf.
I told the press to go up there and see it, and then write as much as about it as they could. I also called General Bradley last night and suggested that you send selected individuals from the upper strata of the press to look at it, so that you can build up another page of the necessary evidences as to the brutality of the Germans.
We all enjoy your visit very much.
Most sincerely
G. S. Patton Jr
General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower
Headquarters SHAEF
APO 575
US Army
Continue Reading >>>
Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: Admiral, Admiral William P. Leahy, Algiers, American Expeditionary Force, Amilcar, Archive Stories, Axel Munthe, Bari, Bay of Naples, Britain, C-54, Caacie, Cairo, Capri, Caruso, Caserta Palace, Chemical Warfare, Chief of Staff, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Clark, Dakar, Distinguished Service Cross, Egypt, Eisenhower, Ellen Ruthmann, Flying Fortress, Gen Carl Tooey Spaatz, Gen Mark W. Clark, Gen Walter Bedell (Beetle) Smith, Harry Hopkins, Italian POWs, Italy, Legion of Merit, London, Maj Gen Leroy H. Watson, Malta, Marrakech, Marshall, Mattie Pinette, Mediterranean, Mike Reilly, Mount Vesuvius, Naples, Nazi Europe, North-Africa, Overlord, Pacific Theater, Palestine, Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister, Prince Urnberto, Red Cross, Rome, Sarah Oliver, Sicily, Signal Corps, Sir Alan Brooke, Sir Winston Churchill, Smith, Spaatz, Sue Sarafin, Telek, Tunis, Washington, Watson, White House
Returning from Cairo to Algiers, I began digging away at the minor mountain of paper accumulated on my desk. Memories of Egypt and Palestine faded completely as I worked late each night to reduce those piles of the General’s fan mail. Like everyone else at headquarters, however, I was still busier on unofficial duties… working overtime on the old rumor that Gen Marshall, not Gen Ike, would head the new American Expeditionary Force building in Britain, and that Ike would go to Washington to become Chief of Staff.
Continue Reading >>>
Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: Admiral Ernest J. King, Admiral William P. Leahy, Advance CP, AFHQ, Algiers, Allied Supreme Commander, American Secret Service, Amilcar, Archive Stories, Bay of Tunis, Bizerte, Cairo, Commander-in-Chief, Eisenhower, El Aouina Airstrip, Falla, Gen George C. Marshall, King of England, La Marsa, Mike Reilly, Mr. Harry Hopkins, Oran, President of the United States, Prime Minister, Roosevelt, Ruth Briggs, Tunisia, USS Iowa
General Eisenhower told me about it as we drove down from the villa, where I picked him up every morning, to the hotel headquarters of AFHQ in Algiers : It’s a top level secret, he confided, but I can tell you because you’re in on it. He smiled. In a week or so you’re going to be driving the President of the United States.
Continue Reading >>>
Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: 3rd Inf Div, AFHQ, Algiers, Army Air Force, Eisenhower, II US Corps, King of England, Mateur, Mussolini, North-Africa, Oran, Pantelleria, Royal Navy, Sgt Huntll, Sicily, Supreme Commander, Truscott, Tunis, US Navy, West Point
For Me, that strange late Spring was filled with the scent of orange blossoms. I couldn’t smell the ordinary jasmine, the poppy fields; I could neither see nor hear the war being readied against Mussolini. I expected to be married before June melted into the African summer. Dick, now a full colonel, was in Oran with II Corps HQs. Gen Eisenhower not only promised each of us at least several days’ leave after our marriage, already approved by the Army after its usual ninety-day waiting period; he also offered, as a sort of refuge from the war, the use of his little farm outside Algiers. We would have a full-fledged honeymoon in North Africa. Dick arrived in Algiers the last week of May, en route to Gen Truscott’s 3rd Inf Div’ Hqs at Mateur. Ive got a command, at last, he told me. Got what I always wanted, a regiment and actual field duty.
Continue Reading >>>
Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: 9th Infantry Division, Admiral Cunningham, Admiral Darlan, Afrika Korps Prisoners, Allied Commander, Allied Force Headquarters, Arab, Arabian Nights, Archbishop Spellman, Archive Stories, Barney Fawkes, Beetle Smith, Bizerte, Casablanca, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Churchill, Civilian First Class Summersby, Clinique Glydne, Constantine, De Gaulle, Downing Street, Eisenhower, Elspeth Duncan, First Sea Lord, Foreign Office, Free French, French, Gen Arthur Wilson, General Anderson, General Giraud, General Sir Alan Brooke, General Truscott, George C. Marshall, Giraud, Hill 609, Hopkins, Kasserine Pass, London, Lt Dampier, Mac-Millan, Maison Blanche, Mateur, Mountbatten, Murphy, New York, Nogues, One Dozen Roses, Oran, Peg Chase, Peyrouton, Pound, President of Turkey, Red Ball Express, Rita Hayworth, Roll Out the Barrel, Roosevelt, Royal Navy, Sgt Clay Williams, Sidi Athman, Sidi Bou Zid, Sir Alexander Cadogan, Sir Alan Brooke, Sir F. N. Mason-Macfarlane, Spahi, St George Hotel, Supreme Commander, Tebessa, Tedder, Tex Lee, Tommies, Tunis, Vichy, Von Arnim, Yanks
Within twenty-four hours, the war ripped us apart again. Dick waved forlornly, shin-deep in mud, as Ethel, Jean, and I climbed into Gen Eisenhower’s 6-17 dispatched to make certain that we proceed to Allied Force Headquarters without further delay. When the plane pulled itself from Oran’s swampy airfield I could scarcely keep from bawling as Dick gradually diminished to a mere pinpoint near the airstrip far below. His last words still rang in my ears : Im trying to get up to the front, darling.
Continue Reading >>>
Posted by Snafu | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: 3rd Infantry Division's Hqs, Admiral Cunningham, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Algiers, Ambassador Winant, Bournemouth, Brig Eric Mockler-Ferryman, Clyde, Col Julius Holmes, Dorchester, Eisenhower, Elspeth Duncan, Freeman Mathews, French Morocco, Gen Truscott, General Eisenhower, Greenock, Grosvenor Square, Harriman, Hendon, Huston Station, II Corps HQs, Inveteracy, Kensington Close, Kentallen, King of England, Lt Craig Campbell, Maison Blanche, Mateur, Mr. William H. B. Mack, Mussolini, Norfolk House, North Africa 40-45, North-Africa, Oran, Pantelleria, President Roosevelt, Road to Morocco, Robert Murphy, Scotland, Sicily, Telegraph Cottage, Torch Operation, Wardour Street
Inevitably, I had heard of the impending North African invasion. Talk in the back seat of my staff car was more Top Secret than anything on paper. In general, I knew about as much about Torch Operation as most senior commanders in the early autumn of 1942. One month before the birthday party I had taken Gen Eisenhower out to Telegraph Cottage in a hurry. For once he seemed preoccupied. He obviously didn’t want to talk; I had long made it a habit not to ask questions, ever. As we sped through Kensington he mumbled something about ‘big doings for a colonel’. The rest of the ride was in heavy silence. But Generals, three-star Generals don’t usually get excited over colonels. I knew something big was up. I don’t know how long we’ll be here, the General said as he got out at the cottage.
Mickey will look after you.
Continue Reading >>>
My name is [xxxx xxxx] and I am the great grandchild of Mrs. Robert from Barneville in France (Normandy) which accommodated General EISENHOWER and General PATTON during the WWII invasion in June 1944. My great-grandmother had a small hotel with restaurant and could therefore receive a group of american officers for about 2 weeks.
The White House wrote our familiy a personal letter of thanks after the war – of course we still have this letter in our family archive.
Continue Reading >>>
