Brief TLS signed “G. S. Patton, Jr.,” one page, 8 x 10.5, Headquarters Fifteenth US Army letterhead, December 2, 1945. Patton makes a “formal” response to a collector. In full: “My signature to this letter is the autograph you request.” On December 9th, a day before he was due to return to the United States, Patton was severely injured in a road accident. He and his chief of staff, Major General Hobart R. 'Hap' Gay, were on a daytrip to hunt pheasants in the country, outside Mannheim. It was a cold, wet, hazy December morning. Their 1939 Cadillac Model 75 was driven by PFC Horace Woodring. Patton sat in the back seat, on the right with General Gay on his left, as per custom. At 11:45 near Neckarstadt, (Käfertal) a 2 1/2 ton truck driven by Robert L. Thompson appeared out of the haze and made a left-hand turn towards a side road. The Cadillac smashed into the truck. General Patton was thrown forward and his head struck a metal part of the partition between the front and back seats. Gay and Woodring were uninjured. Paralyzed from the neck down, George Patton died of an embolism on December 21, 1945 at the military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany with his wife present. In fine condition. COA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
