Sold – In a Love Letter to Mamie, General Dwight D. Eisenhower Confides He Is Tired of World War II

On November 5, 1942, as Commanding General, European Theater, Eisenhower moved his headquarters to Gibraltar. Three days later 300,000 British, American and Free French troops under his command invaded French North Africa. All the area west of Algiers was in Allied hands three days after the landing.

With the fight for North Africa still ongoing, Roosevelt, Churchill, and their top military advisors met at Casablanca in January 1943 to examine the worldwide course of the war and decide on future strategy. In the Mediterranean theater, they called for the conquest of Sicily following a North African victory. The Allies recognized that island, located just south of the Italian mainland, as a logical step on the road to Rome.

In mid-May 1943, Axis forces in North Africa surrendered and Allied eyes turned northward. Lying between Tunisia and Sicily, the island of Pantelleria posed a threat to the gathering Allied invading forces. With the radio direction finder stations they had located there, Axis troops could interfere with ship movements in the Sicilian straits, and a modern airfield on Pantelleria gave the enemy an interdiction capability. Capturing this base would protect the invasion forces and allow the Allies to deploy fighters to safeguard ships and men during the first stage of the Sicilian operation.

In late May, Allied naval forces began pounding Pantelleria, while airmen unleashed a torrent of bombs using an array of aircraft. On June 11, 1943, a battered Italian garrison surrendered.

The next day, June 12, 1943, Eisenhower wrote his wife Mamie this Autograph Letter Signed, two pages, exhibiting the warmth of his relationship with her. In it, he recites the previous day’s victory at Pantelleria and confides that he has already seen too much of war and its consequences. The Johny he mentions is his son, John. “Just a note as I wait a few minutes for the assembly of a bunch of newsmen for a press conference. They want to know about the operation we completed yesterday. I graduated 28 years ago today and met you about 4 months later. Also, yesterday the 11th marked my 4 months wearing 4 Stars; so it was a nice day to capture 15,000 prisoners. Johnny’s notes are always interesting. He is developing his own philosophy of life – and having a lot of fun doing it! I usually try to give him one paragraph of heavy advice and kid him along a bit also. It’s real relaxation to write to him (of course I dictate my letters to him) and even more relaxation to get his replies. Take care of yourself, darling – I see so much of destruction and lose so many friends, I frequently get to imagining all the things that could happen to you. So for my sake, be careful – I want you there waiting when I get back with your cheeks a bloomin’ and your eyes sparkling. Lots and lots of love, Always yours, Ike.”

The transmittal envelope is present, with his full “Dwight D. Eisenhower” signature as censor. A moving and revealing letter on a number of grounds, and our first of Ike to Mamie. It is matted and framed with fine portraits of them. Unfortunately, however much Ike may have been tired of the war already, it had two more years to run with him at its center.