Veterans column: Newark's Perkins falls in effort to retake Italy in World War II
By Feb. 20, 1944, the Allied armies were still deadlocked with the Germans at the Anzio Beachhead. For almost a month, the American and British forces had attacked the enemy's line with no luck. In addition, the Germans had no more success in their attacks either. Soldiers on both sides were hanging on for dear life.
PFC. John D Perkins Jr. had been there from the beginning with Company K of the Seventh Infantry. Due to censorship, his letters home had not been able to describe the desperate situation he and the army were in. We know only that he was looking forward to any news from home that would be of encouragement while he was in the war zone.
His mother sent a letter on Feb. 25: “Dear Son: Don’t know if you will get this or not. I hear they are holding up mail in and out of Italy. Hope you are getting our letters o.k. It has been so long since we heard from you. Hope you are well. Dad went to a special meeting at the plant today. Dick and Neil was there and had quite a chat with the boys tonight. He is at the club room. It all depends on how he comes home if he can go again. Ha! Ha! How is the weather there? It is like spring here. Perry Kelly is rolling his lawn and cleaning off his garden getting ready to plant peas. I did not work today, had one of those headaches of mine. Well Son let us hear from you as soon as you can. I will try to write again and a big letter that time. Bye-bye for now, love always from Mother and Dad.”
According to an account of the Battle of Anzio on Wikipedia.com., the Germans launched their Panzer Divisions in another assault on Feb. 29 around Cisterna to dislodge the Allies. During this assault, John Perkins Jr. was killed at the age of twenty-three. The letter his mother wrote above was returned to the family unopened.
The allies did eventually break through the German lines in June and captured Rome. During the four-month campaign, 2,800 Americans were killed, 11,000 were wounded and 2,400 were counted as missing or prisoners of war. The dead were buried in Italy at what would become the Anzio War Cemetery. When the war ended, the Gold Star families were notified by the U.S. Government that they had a choice of leaving their loved ones interred overseas or having them returned to the states and re-interred in a national cemetery or private cemetery of the families choosing. John’s parents chose to have him returned to Newark to be buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery.
On Aug. 3, 1948, the remains of PFC. John D. Perkins Jr. were back in Newark at the Criss Brothers Funeral Home. According to an obituary printed on Aug.t 2, 1948, in the Newark Advocate, the service for the former Owens Corning worker was scheduled for Thursday, Aug.t 5, at the funeral home under the “auspices of the Veterans of Foreign Wars with the Reverend Paul J. Morris,” conducting the service. The last furlough John had been home on was in July of 1943, now five years later he was home for good.
Doug Stout is the Veterans Project Coordinator for the Licking County Library. You may contact him at 740-349-5571 or dstout@lickingcountylibrary.org. His book "Never Forgotten: The Stories of Licking County Veterans" is available for purchase at the library or online at bookbaby.com.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Veterans column: Newark's Perkins falls in effort to retake Italy
