Finally Berlin

Submitted By Rick Atkins

"PFC Lewis Atkins-101st Airborne
Heavy Machine Gunner......Served in England, France, Belgium, and Germany for eighteen months from 1944 to 1945.He was in the battles and campaigns in Northern France, the Ardennes, and the Rhineland.In late 1944, he got trench feet...dad called it "froze feet" in a letter to his mother, my grandmother, from a hospital in England.He also suffered a busted ear drum from a "big shell" that landed, as he put it, "too damn close".

Some of his decorations and citations include the Purple Heart, Expert Rifleman badge, a lot of battle ribbons including the European-African-Middle Eastern Theatre Ribbon, WWII Victory Ribbon, and a Good Conduct Medal.In about all of his letters home, except to his mother, he stated over and over again how "rough" and cold and snowy it was.He also said the he hoped the war would be over soon so his cousin wouldn't have to go through what was happening to him.In one of his last letters home (March 1945), he said he hoped to see Berlin soon.He finally saw Berlin in May.One of the few stories he told was about one day his squad was on patrol and there had been firefights all day, and the squad couldn't make it back to their base camp before dark.So, they dug foxholes and hunkered down until morning.Late in the night, while my dad was on guard, he kept hearing the brush crack and pop in the distance.He woke up his buddy when the noise kept getting closer.Dad said it sounded like several people walking.They started yelling "Halt! Who goes there!".No response.Dad said that by this time they were scared that it might be German troops.When the noise got too close, they opened up with their machine gun and emptied a whole ammo box.The noise stopped.At first light, they went to investigate what they had shot at.About 20 yards in the woods, they found blood and tracked it another 20 yards.There they found what dad said "looked like hamburger" was some French farmers' cow! Dad laughed about this a lot but he said it was one of the worst nights of the war for him.He said they were scared to death that the cow was German troops...PFC Lewis M. Atkins (1918-1968) was honorably discharged from the Army in January 1946.

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