The best U.S. division at war, from Normandy to the Bulge and beyond

The 30th Infantry Division, drawn from the hill country of Tennessee and the Carolinas, was regarded during World War II as the cream of the crop of U.S. fighting units. The Germans agreed, calling the division “Roosevelt’s SS” for its tenacity and skill. The 30th fought in Normandy, along the Siegfried Line (where it conducted “the perfect infantry attack”), at the Battle of the Bulge, and in the final operations inside Germany. Baumer relies on primary sources to tell the story of this remarkable unit and its men in what is sure to become a classic World War II division history.

Robert W. Baumer, a graduate of the University of Illinois, has been writing about World War II for twenty years. He is a former columnist for Armchair General, author of Aachen: The U.S. Army's Battle for Charlemagne's City in World War II (978-0-8117-1482-2), and coauthor with Mark Reardon of American Iliad: The 18th Infantry Regiment in World War II (978-0-9717650-5-4).