Maj. General Clift Andrus

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Maj. General Clift Andrus's Geni Profile

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Clift Andrus

Birthdate:
Death: September 29, 1968 (77)
Immediate Family:

Son of Colonel Edwin Proctor Andrus and Marie Andrus

Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:
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Immediate Family

About Maj. General Clift Andrus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clift_Andrus

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=9035&GRid=9...

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/andrus.htm

United States Army General. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1912, he became a Major General 1945, and retired in 1952. During World War II, from 1942 to 1944, he was commanding officer of the Artillery 1st Division, and from 1944 to 1945 he was commanding general of the 1st Division Northwest Europe. For his service, he received the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medals, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Soldier's Medal, and the Bronze Star. He was the son of Colonel Edwin Proctor Andrus. (bio by: Barry Charles)

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General Andrus was known as Mr. Chips in uniform, a reference to James Hilton’s fictional schoolmaster. The general had a small mustache, graying, sandy hair and gray eyes and smoked a pipe, played chess and read Dickens and Mark Twain in the field. He was said to give orders in the calm tones of a teacher addressing a class and was renowned for his coolness under fire.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, General Andrus was commanding the 24th Infantry Division Artillery. His units were credited with being the first to roll, being emplaced and ready to defend the beachs within 35 minutes after the first bomb dropped.

Later he commanded the First Infantry Division’s artillery in all of its World War II campaigns – in North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium and Germany – until he was named division commander in December 1944.

The General led the “Fighting First” from the Battle of the Bulge to its last combat action in Falkenau, Czechoslovakia.

General Andrus, born at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the son of an Army Colonel, attended Cornell University, but left in 1911 to join the Army. He was an instructor at the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in World War I, then attended the Command General Staff School, the Army War College and the Naval War College.

After World War II, General Andrus commanded Fort Sill from 1945 to 1949, was Assistant Army Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations at the Pentagon in 1949, and was named Deputy Commander of the Second Army at Fort Meade, Maryland, in 1950. He retired from that post in October 1952.

In 1951 he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Drexel Institute of Technology.

General Andrus was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Soldier’s Medal and the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster.

Surviving are his widow, the former Marion Lightfoot; a daughter, Mrs. Marion Seferlis of Ga.

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Maj. General Clift Andrus's Timeline

1890
October 12, 1890
1968
September 29, 1968
Age 77