January 2014 Auction Ends Thursday, January 30th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/30/2014
Lt. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower typed letter twice signed as Commander of the European Theatre of Operations during WWII. Dated 8 October 1942, a month before he began Operation Torch, Eisenhower writes his wife Mamie from his covert underground headquarters in Gibraltar. Upon Allied Force Headquarters, Office of the Commander-in-Chief stationery, letter reads in part: ''...I hope you won't mind my writing at least part of this letter by dictation. Frankly, I am so weary that I just haven't the courage to pick up a pen. We got no sleep at all last night, and all nights for the past couple of weeks have been hectic. This minute I am sitting in my office in the Command Post, which is located in a tunnel several hundred feet underground. Certainly, I am safe enough here! As you must have heard over the radio, I am in command of an expedition moving in North Africa. Getting the whole force organized and ready to move has been a terrific job and every once in a while I catch myself wishing for a couple days leave. If I could only take forty-eight hours and have it all at the Wardman Park Hotel [where Mamie was living], I think I could face the next few months with much greater enthusiasm. Butch and I both are in good health, as is Wayne Clark, T.J., and Al Gruenther. I left [Deputy Theater Commander] Everett Hughes in the U.K., as well as Bob Littlejohn. Both of them were fine but I hated to leave them behind. Everett promised me that he would send you a cable today, the 8th, informing you that the notice about my coming to Washington was all a blind. I hope that Charlie Gailey or someone else let you have some inkling of this so that you were really not expecting me to show up some bright morning. It was a thing on which I could not write or wire you, as that would have given away the purpose of the story. Today, I wrote a note to [son] Johnny...my first one in a couple of weeks. I received no mail last week since I was moving around so rapidly that there was no chance for me to pick it up, if any arrived. I have been hopeful that a plane would arrive here soon from the U.K. bringing letters from you and, possibly, from John. My little dog took sick just before I left London and I had to leave him behind. I haven't had a report on his condition which worries me, because I miss having him around. I am hopeful that I will hear about him quickly. In recent letters I have been trying to get over to you that you must not worry about my peregrinations in this war. I knew, of course, that I was coming down here and was afraid that unless you got some word of reassurance from me, you would imagine up all sorts of terrors and dangers that probably do not exist. Moreover, people are lost every day - I do not yet know how many this Army lost this morning. We have got to steel ourselves to these things in war and just get down to earth and work as hard as we can so as to get the damn thing over quickly...I find that the fact that almost everything is on the censored list makes letter writing a terrible chore. Anyone can talk or write best about the things he is doing from day to day, his surroundings and his general environment. In war this can't be done, so it's discouraging to try to write except to someone as close as you are...I think I have already told you to continue to send your letters merely addressed to me at 'Headquarters, US Forces in London' - from there they will always be sent down here by the most rapid means...[handwritten] With lots of love / Ike''. He also handwrites a postscript: ''I've had an hour's sleep and feel pretty well. It seems to me that life is one long conference - I start another right away! Again, much love. D''. Letter runs 2pp. on two separate sheets, ideal for framing. Measures 8'' x 10.5''. Creasing, else fine.
Eisenhower WWII Letter Signed -- ''...Moreover, people are lost every day - I do not yet know how many this Army lost this morning. We have got to steel ourselves to these things in war...''
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