Donald E Lavender

Nudge Blue: a 9th Infantry Division Rifleman's Memoir of World War II Donald E Lavender

Publisher Marketing: Merriam Press Military Monograph 222. Seventh Edition (November 2012). Lavender was a member of Company I, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, originally arriving as a replacement in early October 1944 in the Huertgen Forest. There are a lot of stories about the war. Some have been made into movies. If you are looking for sensationalism, you won't find it here. If you have an interest in what war was like to a 20-year-old in the Infantry, Nudge Blue comes close to describing that experience. The combat portion of this story was written directly from notes accumulated during the actual fighting. In the over 50 years since, facts about places and unit action have been verified to assure accuracy. It includes action in several places that are famous-the Huertgen Forest, the Bulge, the Rhine River crossing at Remagen and contact with the Russians on the Elbe River. The military experience prior to combat, the post-war situation in Europe and commentary about war, in the appendices, were added later. Veterans who were in I Company of the 39th Infantry have commented favorably about Nudge Blue acknowledging it to be a faithful description of their personal experience. Lavender's experiences in combat make for fascinating, insightful reading, and an excellent companion to the late Bob Baldridge's Victory Road, showing what it was like to be an infantryman in the 9th Division. Contents: The Fatal Forest; Blocking the Bulge; From River to River; Bridgehead Battle; On to the East; Deutschland Kaput. Appendices: Writing Nudge Blue; At the Convenience of the Government; Observations on the Battle for Germany; The Huertgen Forest; Our Part in the Bulge; Bridge Anniversary; The Decision Not to Go to Berlin; Facts and Quotes; What is There About War? 26 photos, 1 illustration, 2 maps.