US soldier and aviator, born in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. The son of a newspaperman, he trained at West Point (1906) and served in the aviation section of the Signal Corps during World War 1. As the first commander of the army's General Headquarters Air Force (19359), he helped develop the B-17 bomber (a key weapon of World War 2). He was a leading advocate of air power as an offensive weapon, and campaigned to establish the Air Corps as an independent service. He held senior commands in the Caribbean and the Middle East (19413) before succeeding Eisenhower (who had become supreme Allied commander in North Africa) as the head of US forces in Europe (1943). He was killed in an air crash in Iceland on 3 May 1943. Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, DC is named after him.
Andrews was the first head of an autonomous American air force and the first air officer to serve on the Army's general staff. Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland is named after him, as well as Andrews Barracks (a kaserne in Berlin, Germany).Early life and World War I
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Andrews graduated from the city's Montgomery Bell Academy in 1901 and entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in July 1902. Andrews' service records, however, show that his commanding officer in the Second Cavalry vetoed his application to shift to Army Signal Corps air duty in February 1914, a decision that held firm despite a plea from the Chief Signal Officer's for reconsideration by higher-ups.
Within a month after the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Andrews was transferred, over the objections of his cavalry commander, to the Aviation Section of the Army Signal Corps. Instead, he commanded various airfields around the United States and served in the war plans division of the Army General Staff in Washington, D.C.
Work with the Army Air Corps
After returning to the United States in 1923, Andrews assumed command of Kelly Field, Texas, and he became the first commandant of the advanced flying school established there. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, Andrews served as the chief of the Army Air Corps' Training and Operations Division for a year before taking command of the 1st Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, Michigan. After graduation from the Army War College in 1933, Andrews returned to the General Staff in 1934.
In March 1935, Andrews took command of the newly formed General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force, which consolidated all the Army Air Corps' tactical units under a single commander. The Army promoted Andrews to brigadier general (temporary) and to major general (temporary) less than a year later. Under his command, GHQ Air Force started the development of air power that became the mighty US Army Air Force.
A vocal proponent of the four-engine heavy bomber, General Andrews advocated the purchase of the Boeing B-17 in large numbers. The Army General Staff disagreed with Andrews, believing it better to purchase a large number of twin-engine light and medium bombers like the Douglas B-18 than a small number of four-engine heavy bombers.
Later career, and World War II
Andrews became a trusted air adviser to a rising officer in the Army bureaucracy, George C. After President Roosevelt named Marshall in July 1939 to serve as Chief of Staff, Marshall's first senior staff selection was Andrews — a decision that prompted furious opposition from the Secretary of War and others, over which Marshall prevailed only after threatening to resign his new post.
In 1940, Andrews assumed control of the Army's Panama Air Force, and in 1941, he became commander of the Caribbean Defense Command, which had the critically important duty during World War II of defending the southern approaches to the United States, including the vital Panama Canal. In 1942, General Andrews went to North Africa, where he spent three months in command of all United States forces in the Middle East from a base in Cairo. Andrews was appointed commander of all United States forces in the European Theater of Operations. Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces in World War II, expressed the belief that Andrews would have been given the command of the Allied invasion of Europe — the position that eventually went to Gen. Marshall would say, late in life, that Andrews was the only general he had a chance to groom for a possible Supreme Allied Command later in the war.
However, on May 3, 1943, the B-24 carrying Andrews on an inspection tour crashed while attempting to land at the Royal Air Force Base at Kaldadarnes, Iceland. Andrews was the highest-ranking Allied officer to die in the line of duty to that point in the war.
Legacy
Andrews Air Force Base, located a few miles southeast of Washington, D.C. Another base named for him, Andrews Field, in Essex England was the first airfield constructed in 1943 by army engineers in the United Kingdom during World War II.
Andrews Field was notable as having been the only named US airfield in the United Kingdom during World War II.
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