Nudge Blue: A 9th Infantry Division Rifleman’s Memoir of World War II
by Donald E. Lavender
Merriam Press World War II Memoir
eBook not available
Paperback - ISBN 978-1480287655 - $14.75
Hardcover not available
The story of a rifleman replacement who joined the 3rd Battalion of the 39th Infantry Regiment of the famed 9th Infantry Division in the Hürtgen Forest.
The account begins with Lavender’s induction into the U.S. Army and training as an infantryman and a BAR man.
Later he decides to join the Air Corps (flying is better than walking!), but when the ground forces need men more than the air forces, he is sent back to an infantry unit and shipped overseas.
He experiences the relative comfort of going overseas aboard the Ile de France, one of the large ocean liners converted into a troopship and considered fast enough to make the crossing unescorted.
After landing in Scotland and moving down through England, he ships across the Channel to France.
He then moves by train and truck to join with his new unit in the Hürtgen Forest.
Here he begins to experience war.
The moments of sheer terror—and the hours and days of excruciating boredom.
Fighting in and around the many cities and small towns from the Hürtgen Forest to the Bulge, the Roer, the Rhine and the Elbe Rivers.
Places that are practically household names today, as well as many that were barely known even then.
In combat, major units were identified by code names rather than their usual numerical identification.
Similar names were used for all units under one command and all units which were organic to or attached to a division would have code names starting with the same letter.
A typical series might include such names as Nugget, Nomad, Notary, Nudist and Nudge.
When a code name like Nudge was assigned to a regiment, a color was added to identify the battalion.
As such, it was common to see a sign along the road with an arrow pointing to Nudge Blue instead of the 3rd Battalion, 39th Infantry.
Contents
Preface
Nudge Blue
Prologue
Chapter 1: The Fatal Forest
Chapter 2: Blocking the Bulge
Chapter 3: From River to River
Chapter 4: Bridgehead Battle
Chapter 5: On to the East
Chapter 6: Deutschland Kaput
Epilogue
Appendix 1: Writing Nudge Blue
Appendix 2: At the Convenience of the Government
Appendix 3: Observations on the Battle for Germany
Appendix 4: The Hürtgen Forest
Appendix 5: Our Part in the Bulge
Appendix 6: Bridge Anniversary
Appendix 7: The Decision Not to Go to Berlin
Appendix 8: Facts and Quotes
Appendix 9: What is There About War?
140 6x9-inch pages , 26 photos, 1 illustration, 2 maps

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