My Grandfather Lieutenant Colonel John Reginald Burton Jr.

Hello,

I've never met my grandfather but I'm hoping you guys can help me gather information on who he was and his role in the war. His name is Lieutenant Colonel John Reginald Burton Jr. and was an ordinance officer during the war. He was accepted to MIT at 16 and then was recruited out of Harvard in his early 20's. He quickly rose to Major and was sent by Eisenhower to London in 1939 and quickly rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. I don't know anything about him only that Frank Lyndsey (OSS) spent a lot of time on his couch in London and they often disappeared for long period of time. I believe my grandfather held the key to unlock the weaponary of the US forces and the OSS might have worked with him to arm rebellion groups in Yugoslavia etc. The Brits were too busy scrapping in North Africa and really the only way to arm resistance groups was via the Americans. Also, he was very close to General Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith who was Dwight D. Eisenhower's Chief of Staff during Eisenhower's tenure at SHAEF and Director of the CIA from 1950 to 1953. I'm curious just how much my grandfather played a role in the war and his contributions. He was incredibly brilliant but their is a lot of mystery surrounding him. He never spoke of the war or what he did. After the war, he was offered the rank of brigadier general but turned it down. Thanks

 

I may be wrong in this, but I believe the British were more involved than the Americans in assisting the resistance in Yugoslavia after 1941 (in effect more than a year after the Germans arrived). The USA did not support the Allies venturing up towards Germany through Yugoslavia, thinking it less effective than going up through France (the US 7th Army route) or direct from Britain into northern France and then due east. The encirclement versus the push via France argument is not easy to resolve. If your grandfather was sent BY EISENHOWER to London in 1939 that suggests he was regular army rather than secret service (there was not much of either in 1939, as at the time the US Army was only 17th in size in the world, and the OSS was very much in its infancy, if that). It does read as if he was very much on the inside of the regular army if he was close to Eisenhower and Bedell Smith. Is he not mentioned in any accounts of SHAEF during WW2? do you know his exact substantive and brevet promotion dates? Ike himself was only a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1939 and both he and Patton were well behind their brevet ranks in terms of substantive rank even in late 1943.

 

Did me marry Evagela Del Sandys (born 1920) of the British Sandys family? A genealogy tree of that family lists a John Reginald Burton with a rank of Colonel, US Army, though no regiment stated, and postwar (presumably) occupation of Chairman, National Bank of Far Rockaway, New York City. You might expect there to be some family knowledgeon the Sandys side of the family about this American husband! Duncan Sandys, who was Sir Winston Churchill's son-in-law and a Member of Parliament (like his father before him and his daughter currently) and may have been a distant relative on the wife's side; and he was involved in the secret war against the Vi and V2 rockets, having lost or damaged his legs in the 1940 Norway campaign.

 

hi did he go to phillips exter academy in his senior year of high school i may have his year book from 1931

 

did he go to phillips exter academy in his senior year of high school i may have his year book from 1931

 

did he go to phillips exter academy in his senior year of high school i may have his year book from 1931

 

Maclean, he did go to Philips Exter Academy...thanks for the posts reponses...still struggling to find further information about him