134th Infantry Regiment Website "All Hell Can't Stop Us"

Pfc Gilbert E Purdy

60th Engineers Combat Battalion, Company B

Gilbert Edmund Purdy, son of Claude Gilbert and Sadie Irene (Danforth) Purdy, was born August 12, 1923 in Hudson Falls, New York. He registered for the draft on June 30, 1942 and was inducted into the Army February 4, 1943 at Albany New York. He served in Company B, 60th Engineer Combat Battalion and was promoted from Private to Private First Class October 1, 1944.

The night of October 10, 1944, the 60th Engineer Combat Battalion was laying down a mine field near Ajoncourt, about 18 miles northeast of Nancy, France. Trucks carrying the mines were parked along the Moselle River just south of town. At about 11 PM that night one of the trucks exploded, causing another truck and nearby stacks of mines and other ammunition to also explode. Thirty-three men died in that explosion and fourteen were wounded. Pfc Gilbert E Purdy is one of the men who was killed in that explosion. He is buried at Evergreen Memorial Park, Colonie, New York.

The Post-Star, Glens Falls, New York, February 12, 1945