Synopsis
Finalist, 2016 Army Historical Society Distinguished Writing Award.
The 4th Infantry Division has always been there in America’s modern wars. On 14 September 1918 the men of the “Ivy” Division stood up in their trenches and prepared to attack. It would be one of the first times that American troops would operate autonomously, aside from Anglo-Franco command. They would go over the top on uneven ground to be blown to pieces by German artillery and fall in their hundreds to the spitting of German machine guns, yet nevertheless win the day.
In World War II on D-Day they scrambled ashore across the sands of Utah beach and remained fighting in Europe until Hitler was dead and Germany had surrendered. From the Normandy campaign to the hell of the Hürtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge, no other American division suffered more casualties in the European theater than the 4th, and no other division accomplished as much.
In Vietnam they would execute precarious “search and destroy” missions in dense jungles against a determined and resourceful enemy. They experienced a series of major engagements that would entail 33 consecutive days of vicious, close-quarters combat in the battle of Dak To in 1967. For their actions in Indochina they would receive no less than 11 Medals of Honor.
They fought in Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, and in May 2009, at the height of Operation Enduring Freedom, the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team deployed to Afghanistan for a 12-month combat mission. They operated in the birthplace of the Taliban along the Arghandab River Valley, west of Kandahar City, a place often ominously referred to as "The Heart of Darkness." The 2nd Battalion 12th Infantry Regiment saw heavy combat throughout.
Through firsthand interviews with veterans, across the decades, and the expert analysis of the authors, the role of one of America’s mainstay divisions in its modern conflicts is in these pages illuminated.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Preface
PART 1: THE GREAT WAR
1 “The Ivy men are on the way”
2 “The Ivy men are here!”
3 “Baptism on the Aisne-Marne”
4 “Hell in St. Mihiel”
5 The Meuse-Argonne Offensive: Part One
6 The Meuse-Argonne Offensive: Part Two
PART 2: WORLD WAR II
7 “We’ll start the war from right here”
8 Artillery flying all directions!
9 Breaking hard
10 No Boche in the building!
11 Maintaining contact
12 The Hürtgen Forest: Into the “meat grinder”
13 “The cold shoulder of the Bulge”
14 Seeing it through!
PART 3: THE VIETNAM WAR
15 Making End Term of Service
PART 4: GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR
16 Iraq: We Got Saddam!
17 Afghanistan
Epilogue
Bibliography
About the Author
Martin King is an Emmy Award winning British military historian, lecturer, and author. He spends his time writing, lecturing, working with veterans' organizations, and visiting European battlefields, where he's had the honor of reintroducing many veterans to the sites where they fought. He has traced the individual histories of veterans for almost 20 years. He has lectured at universities, and British and US military bases around the world. In 2007 he became Historical Consultant and writer on the hit series Greatest Tank Battles. His previous books include The Tigers of Bastogne and The Fighting 30th.
Jason Nulton is a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, logistic sofficer, and disabled veteran. He grew up near Gaithersburg, Marylandand was commissioned in 1995 from West Virginia University in Morgantown, earning a degree in Political Science with a focus on international relations. He also holds master's degrees from Webster University and the Air Force Institute of Technology. In his military capacity, he served on 9 active duty assignments and held numerous leadership positions, including two squadron commands where he led hundreds of people and managed budgets worth in excess of $400 million. During his service, he deployed across 4 continents and served in over 30 countries and all 50 US states. In addition, he served at forward locations throughout the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan. Since retiring in 2015, Jason has taught leadership/management, project management, and energy sciences at the under graduate level for Ohio Valley University. He regularly contributes to veteran news site Task and Purpose, and has also written for the Strategy Bridge blog. He's currently drafting a dramatizationof the true story of a Vietnamese family who narrowly escaped Saigonbefore it fell to communist forces in April 1975.
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