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| Captain Clarence Coggins, 45th Infantry Division, once captured more than 900 Germans. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131758243/clarence-elton-coggins https://owlcation.com/humanities/1st-Lt-Clarence-E-Coggins-Oklahomas-Own-War-Hero |
Clarence Elton Coggins never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Clarence was born on July 3, 1920 in Mississippi. His parents Arthur and Clara were both born in Mississippi. His father worked as a farmer and public school teacher. Clarence had one older sister. He graduated from Oklahoma A&M College where he participated in ROTC. While there he met Ethel Castiller whom he later married. They had one son.
He enlisted in the army in September 1941 when the Oklahoma National Guard was federalized as the 45th Infantry Division. By October 1942 he was a first lieutenant in Company E, 2nd Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. Before he could be deployed overseas, a medical evaluation found he was completely deaf in one ear so he was forced to stay behind. After multiple appeals he was able to rejoin his unit.
I am not sure exactly when Lt. Coggins rejoined the 45th ID. It spent 238 days in battle in Sicily and Italy in 1943 and 1944. By the time it was pulled out of Italy to prepare for the invasion of Southern France, only 28% of its original men remained.
After landing in Southern France in August 1944, Lt. Coggins, a Company Commander, was on a reconnaissance patrol behind enemy lines on August 23 when he was captured. He convinced the Nazi commander of almost 1,000 German troops that they were surrounded by the Americans. The Germans had treated the local French rather badly so they decided that surrendering to the Americans would be the best option. They asked Lt. Coggins to arrange the surrender. Based on this achievement, he was promoted to the rank of captain and was in the HQ Company.
On January 7, 1945, Captain Coggins and a group of soldiers under his command were caught in an exposed position inside a small church. American artillery fire was landing all around because the enemy was that closed. Coggins arranged for the shelling to stop momentarily so his men could escape back to safety. Coggins was the last man out, giving the Germans more time to spot the move. He was shot and killed exiting the church. Note: a different source says he was killed when he stepped on a land mine.
During his service Captain Coggins earned 2 Silver Stars, 1 Bronze Star, 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, 2 Purple Hearts and the Gold Star.
You can read much more about Captain Coggins in this article by Eric Standridge here.
His grave is at Oakland Cemetery in Poteau, Oklahoma. His widow remarried and lived to age 98, dying in 2018. I don't know what happened to his son.
This is one of the final 100 stories (62) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled Guadalcanal fallen and Distinguished Service Cross hero Edward Krygowski, Americal Division. You can read about Edward here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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