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Personal info

Full name
GORDON, Clifton Lewis
Date of birth
30 January 1922
Age
22
Place of birth
Groveland, Essex County, Massachusetts
Hometown
Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts

Military service

Service number
O-1015366
Rank
First Lieutenant
Function
unknown
Unit
86th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized),
6th Armored Division,
B Troop
Awards
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
8 January 1945
Place of death
South of Bastogne, Belgium

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Luxembourg
Plot Row Grave
H 16 47

Immediate family

Members
Daniel H. Gordon (father)
Mabel E. Gordon (mother)
Chester E. Gordon (brother)
Raymond E. Gordon (brother)
Phyllis E. Gordon (sister)
Constance Gordon (wife)

More information

1st Lt Clifton L. Gordon graduated from Haverhill Tracie School as an auto mechanic, class of 1939.

He enlisted on 7 July 1941 in the Air Corps and was selected for OCS at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He was commissioned 2nd Lt., Cavalry on 16 January 1943.

B Troop was ordered to attack a dug-in German position in the woods east and just south of Bastogne. Denied tank support, B Troop nevertheless made its attack. Lt. Clifton E. Gordon, in his first major battle with the squadron, was killed along with eight of his men. Another seventeen enlisted men were wounded. The attack failed and eventually took a much stronger force to drive the enemy from the woods.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.ancestry.com - Headstone and Interment record / 1930/1940 Census / Massachusetts Mason Membership Cards, www.super6th.org
Photo source: Peter Schouteten, www.ancestry.com - U.S. School Yearbooks Haverhill Massachusetts, Haverhill in World War II