Aaron Bradshaw Jr.

Aaron Bradshaw Jr. CBE (July 1, 1894 – November 8, 1976) was a highly decorated officer in the United States Army with the rank of major general. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, he is most noted as an anti-aircraft artillery officer during World War II.

Following the war, Bradshaw remained in the Army and served in logistics assignments, including assistant chief of staff for logistics (G-4), U.S. European Command.

Early years and World War I

Aaron Bradshaw Jr. was born on July 1, 1894, in Washington, D.C., as the son of lawyer Aaron Bradshaw and Mary Emma Leech. After graduating from high school, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, where he was a member of the Class of 1917.

Bradshaw graduated, 85th in w class of 139, with a Bachelor of Science degree on April 20, 1917, exactly two weeks after the American entry into World War I, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps. He completed his training and embarked for France, where he joined the 3rd Anti-Aircraft Battalion during the air defense of Paris. Bradshaw was later transferred to the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Battalion and participated in the Meuse–Argonne offensive in the fall of 1918.

Between the wars Following the armistice with Germany on November 11, 1918, which brought a close to hostilities, Bradshaw participated in the occupation of the Rhineland until mid-1919, when he was ordered to England and entered a post-graduate course at the University of Oxford. He later served in a variety of Coast Artillery commands, including with the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippine Islands in 1925, and completed the Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

In August 1936, Bradshaw joined the office of the Chief of Coast Artillery Corps under Major General Archibald H. Sunderland and served as major and editor of the Coast Artillery Journal until October 1940. He was then appointed federal inspector and instructor of the 7th Regiment, New York National Guard, and remained in that capacity until March 1941, when he was appointed deputy for administration, Anti-Aircraft Artillery Training Center at Fort Stewart, Georgia. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on July 1, 1940.

World War II

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Bradshaw was promoted to the temporary rank of colonel on December 11, 1941, and appointed deputy chief of staff for training at Fort Stewart. With the upcoming Operation Torch, an Anglo–American invasion of French North Africa, he was ordered to England in mid-September 1942 and assumed duty as chief of anti-aircraft section, Allied Force Headquarters, in London under Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Postwar career

Following the end of hostilities, Bradshaw took command of the 71st Anti-Aircraft Brigade, tasked with disarming the German 14th Army under General Joachim Lemelsen and placing them into prisoner-of-war camps.