General Anthony Clement "Nuts" McAuliffe (2 July 1898 – 10 August 1975) was a senior United States Army officer who earned fame as the acting commander of the 101st Airborne Division defending Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

Later, he was chosen to attend the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.

Just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was promoted again, temporarily becoming a lieutenant colonel with the Supply Division of the War Department General Staff.

Major General Maxwell D. Taylor, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, was attending a staff conference in the United States at the time.

At Bastogne, the 101st was besieged by a far larger force of Germans under the command of General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz.

[4] On 22 December 1944, von Lüttwitz dispatched a party, consisting of a major, a lieutenant, and two enlisted men under a flag of truce to deliver an ultimatum.

Entering the American lines southeast of Bastogne (occupied by Company F, 2nd Battalion, 327th Glider Infantry), the German party delivered the following to Gen. McAuliffe:[4] To the U.S.A.

More German armored units have crossed the river Ourthe near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet.

The official reply was typed and delivered by Colonel Joseph Harper, commanding the 327th Glider Infantry, to the German delegation.

For his actions at Bastogne, McAuliffe was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by Lieutenant General George S. Patton, commanding the Third Army, on 30 December 1944[7] with official orders processed on 14 January 1945.

On 27 April, elements of the division entered Landsberg, where Kaufering concentration camp, a subcamp of Dachau, was liberated.

It then seized the Brenner Pass and met the 88th Infantry Division of the U.S. Fifth Army at Vipiteno, Italy, thereby joining the Italian and Western European fronts.

[citation needed] After his retirement from American Cyanamid in 1963, McAuliffe resided in Chevy Chase, Maryland, until his death on 10 August 1975, age 77.

[23] A southern extension of Route 33 in eastern Northampton County, Pennsylvania, completed in 2002,[24] was named the Gen. Anthony Clement McAuliffe 101st Airborne Memorial Highway.

[25] The new headquarters building for the 101st Airborne Division, which opened in 2009 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, is named McAuliffe Hall.