Robert W. Baumer

ROBERT W. BAUMER HAS BEEN WRITING about World War II for over twenty years. He is the coauthor with Mark Reardon of American Iliad: The 18th Infantry Regiment in World War II, author of Aachen: The U.S. Army’s Battle for Charlemagne’s City in World War II, Old Hickory: The 30th Division—The Top-Rated American Infantry Division in Europe in World War II, and The Journey of the Purple Heart, A First Infantry Division Soldier’s Story from Stateside to North Africa, Sicily and Normandy during World War II. The Journey of the Purple Heart is a leap in genre for Robert. Based on accurate military history, it is a book with narrative composition that puts readers in the thick of combat with its main characters, from General George Patton down the ranks to his late Uncle’s Big Red One commanding general, the colorful Terry Allen. First hand accounts of his Uncle’s best friend, his company captain, his mortar platoon leader, as well as his battalion commander add rich texture to the prose. Readers will also appreciate how the author weaves events on the home front into the book, and the anxious waiting his Uncle’s family endured waiting for word that he made it after landing in North Africa, Sicily and on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Robert is a graduate of the University of Illinois in Champaign- Urbana, and is a former columnist who wrote “The Tip of the Spear” for Armchair General magazine when it began circulation in 2004. Robert’s advocacy for veterans was first recognized in 2005 by an order of the Secretary of the Army, wherein he was made an honorary member of the 18th Infantry Regiment First Infantry Division of World War II; in 2017 he was inducted for life into the Order of the Old Hickory Society for actions that “forever enhanced the reputation, honor, and legacy of the famous combat unit known as Old Hickory.” Today Robert lives in Florida, and when not writing he’s riding motorcycles.