Eisenhower, Dwight David

CRUSADE IN EUROPE [INSCRIBED TO GENERAL WILLIAM ALLEN KNOWLTON]

Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1948. Book Club Edition. Octavo, xiv, [2], 559 pages; VG/none; bound in publisher's brown cloth, black label with brown titling to spine; mild bumping to corners, light wear; mild toning to pages; Inscribed on the half-title by Eisenhower to Major William A. Knowlton "with best wishes to a fellow soldier"; Provenance: From the Family of General Knowlton; HP consignment; shelved case 5.

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General William Allen Knowlton (1920-2008) was a United States Army four-star general and a former Superintendent of the United States Military Academy. He served on the staffs of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Omar Bradley at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the early 1950s. As a full general, he served as Commander, Allied Land Forces South East Europe, and as the United States Military Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.;

"One of the most fantastic episodes of the whole war occurred shortly before V-E Day when a young lieutenant of the Seventh Armored Division was ordered to advance with his reconnaissance troop beyond the American lines to find the Russians. This 24 year old West Pointer never guessed that, with fewer than 100 men, he would have to fluff his way over 60 miles through the whole German 12th Army. Cut off from communications with his headquarters, plunging forward because he dared not admit his weakness by turning back, Captain Knowlton achieved the disarming of thousands of German troops and the surrender of several German Towns. His breezy narrative, written in a letter to his wife and not intended for publication, is packed with drama, suspense and a sense of high adventure, and is spiced with humor typically American. The climax comes with his vociferous and convivial meeting with our Russian allies."

“I want you to take your troops and contact the Russians. They are somewhere to the east – between 50 and 100 miles, according to rumor. Get someone from their staff and bring them here." “The German 12th Army lies between you and the Russians,” he continued. “If you get in trouble we can send you no help. Do not get too entangled and let me know your progress. Good luck to you.”...Well, we had gotten that far – now the question was how to make the historic junction without getting a lot of people killed. I called up a jeep, climbing on the front of the radiator with a big white flag and started down to the town. As we rounded a corner, there was a Russian Major, looking at a map. I leaped off the peep, clicked my heels and saluted, yelled “Ya Amerikaneetz Oberlitnant” and shook hands with him. Thus at 0925, 3 May 1945, was junction made between the American and Russian forces north of Berlin. It was the first contact on the other side of the Elbe." [“Your Mission is to Contact the Russians” by Captain William A. Knowlton, (Troop B, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 7th Armored Division), Reader’s Digest August 1945 (Vol. 47, No. 280), pp. 116-128]