WW II Christmas 1944 Card from Gen. Patton to Third US Army

WW II Christmas 1944 Card from Gen. Patton to Third US Army

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The Christmas Card was created on 8 December 1944, written by Msgr. James H. O'Neill, Chief Chaplain of the Third Army. He wrote it at the request of Gen. Patton at Third Army Headquarters, then located in the Caserne Molifor in Nancy, France.

This is the text of Patton's Christmas Prayer, on the other side of the card. Rain had plagued Third Army throughout the Moselle and Saar Campaigns from September 1944 to 8 December, the motivation for the words:

Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.

About 250 thousand of these cards were printed and distributed. By Christmas Day 1944, Patton's troops were committed to the relief of Bastogne, Belgium, the key engagement of the Battle of Bulge. Just when needed, the skies cleared enabling crucial supplies to be airdropped to the defenders and allowing time for Third Army to arrive.

Today in WW II: 16 Jun 1940 Armistice advocate, 84-year-old Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France, requests peace terms from Germany, forms Vichy France government.  More ↓
16 Jun 1941 On orders from the US Department of State, all consulates, travel and other agencies of Nazi Germany in the US are closed.
16 Jun 1942 RAF and US planes sink Italian cruiser and 2 destroyers that attacked Allied convoys in Mediterranean.
16 Jun 1943 Last Jewish residents of Berlin are deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp, reducing to zero the pre-Nazi Jewish population estimated at 186,000.
16 Jun 1943 Over Guadalcanal in the Solomons, 77 Japanese fighters and bombers downed by Allied pilots with 17 more destroyed by ships and antiaircraft guns. US lost only six planes.
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