MILMORE, Ky. Soldier Alvin H. Perry was told the assignment at Normandy was going to be a clean-up mission.

It would prove to be anything but. He and the 331st Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army were immersed in terrifying combat within days of arriving at Omaha Beach in Normandy. He saw some of his fellow soldiers gunned down by the Germans. Perry himself was shot in the shoulder, captured by the enemy and forced into hard labor for 10 months as a prisoner of war.

Today, at 95, he still still can’t believe he survived.

“When you talk about combat, you are talking about fighting,” said Perry. “It was really tough. We were fighting from hedge row to hedge row.”

Perry lives at the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore, Ky. Seventy five years have come and gone since those fateful times in Normandy, but he still remembers much of the D-Day invasion like it was yesterday. He is one of an ever-dwindling number of living witnesses to the heroism, devastation, tragedy and ultimate triumph on the shores of France in June of 1944.

“I wondered how I could live through it all and how I could get back home,” Perry said. “I didn’t think the chances were very good.”

From the farm to Normandy

Perry was born and raised in rural Anderson County, Ky. He was working on the family farm when, at the age of 20, he received his draft notice in the mail in 1943.

“I was scared,” Perry said. “My father didn’t like anything about the Army. He saw World War I so his thoughts rubbed off on me. I dreaded going and I was very sad.”

Within a year Perry and his fellow soldiers of the 331st were on a ship, the USS Wakefield, crossing the English Channel in the days after the initial wave of the D-Day invasion also known as Operation Overlord.

“The general told us before we went in we were going in for a clean up,” Perry recalled. “He didn’t know how strong they was. It was a lot more.”

The soldiers of the 331st were shuttled to the beach of Normandy in an amphibious vehicle and are believed to have landed on June 18, 1944. He saw the steep cliffs and marveled at the courage of those who went before them. In short order the 331st was battling the Germans in heavy fighting in the southwest area of Carentan. On July 19 he was shot.

“We decided to withdraw from our line position and during our withdrawal I got hit with a bullet in my shoulder,” he said. “I went to the (medic) to ask him to help me. He said he couldn’t help me, that he was hit in both legs. so he couldn’t. So I went back with the rest of them and as we were going out a lieutenant colonel was leading us. He was taking us out of there. He was in a little path that led out of there. We were right behind him and he run right into the Germans. Right smack dab into them.”

“We were told drop our arms, put our hands up. So that’s what we did,” Perry said.

Perry and roughly 10 or so fellow soldiers were captured and marched off into the darkness.

Life as a POW

“The Germans took us up to their headquarters which was an old house,” Perry said. “I had a couple of pills, all the soldiers did, and if you got hurt you were supposed to take them. You also had to drink a lot of water. So I asked one of the Germans, he had a canteen, I asked him for a drink of water. He gave me his canteen and I took a drink of it and it was cider. It wasn’t water. So I took enough so the pills would be all right.”

The wounded Perry doubted he was going to survive.

“I lost a lot of blood,” he said. “My shoulder hurt so bad I couldn’t hardly stand it and I didn’t have anything to eat for a day or two.

“The next morning (a German soldier) who speaks English asked me if I wanted him to help me up and I said no,” Perry said. “But I couldn’t get up…I’d lost so much blood I was weak.

“He was going to get me a way to the hospital,” Perry said. “Their ambulance was a pickup truck…and we went to a field hospital and the German doctors operated on my shoulder. Gave me a blood transfusion.

I didn’t know whether I was going to survive or not. The Germans that morning wanted to give me cereal to eat. I thought, well ‘they might poison me’ so no I didn’t want anything. Well you need to eat something. So I did eat some oatmeal.”

After a period of hospitalization in Rouen, France, he was first transferred to Stalag XII-A, a prison camp in Limburg, Germany. He remained there for a couple of weeks before being transferred to Stalag VII-A in Moosburg Germany.

Perry was registered as a POW by the Germans. His family in Kentucky spent 20 days questioning whether he was alive or dead. The surgery by the Germans not only likely saved Perry’s life — it also provided a window for his family to receive information that he was, in fact, alive.

What followed afterward were long train rides and10 months of hard labor in Germany as a prisoner of war.

“We had to work,” Perry said. “We worked on the railroad. We went to Munich. It was cold in Germany. It was about zero probably.”

Freedom finally came in the form of the 42nd division rolling their tanks through Germany.

“The 42nd division came through and liberated us,” Perry said. “In tanks. It was a beautiful day. The guards had all left. We were in Munich living in box cars…working all the time….We stayed in box cars for about 10 days to two weeks. Then one day all the guards left. Every one of them. We didn’t have anyone to guard us. So we stayed where we were, About 2 p.m. the American tanks went through with a big star on them and we knew.”

A story to be told

Perry was previously awarded the Prisoner of War medal, the Purple Heart, the Good Conduct Medal and the WWII Victory Medal for his service in France. Now, 75 years after arriving at Omaha Beach, Perry is being recognized for his heroism. He will be awarded France’s highest distinction on June 6 at the veterans center in Wilmore. Consul General of France to the Midwest, Guillaume LaCroix, will present the Legion of Honor medal to Perry in what Brig. Gen. Benjamin Adams, commissioner of Kentucky’s Department of Veterans Affairs, described as a “great honor…we are thrilled that he is receiving this honor.”

Much of Perry’s story wasn’t fully documented until a Kentucky man, Denny Hart, committed to researching and telling his story as well as the stories of countless other veterans. Hart, himself a veteran, found great meaning in chronicling the sacrifices of American veterans. He wrote a book called Soldiers Anthology that includes a full chapter about Perry, whom he described as, without question, an American hero. He also petitioned the French government in 2017 to consider Perry for the French Legion of Honor.

“All of 2017 went by, all of 2018 went by and I thought it was not going to happen. I’d pretty much written it off,” Hart said. “Finally one day on December 21st of last year… my cell phone comes over my speaker on my radio…and it was the French consulate general’s office. They said Mr. Alvin Houston Perry has been approved for the French Legion of Honor.”

Perry said of the award

“It makes me feel bigger and better,” said Perry.

Perry lost close friends in Normandy. He barely survived being shot and being held captive for months. Under such dire circumstances, he said, the key to survival was living “from day to day.”

“It was day to day,” Perry said. “We worked day to day and tomorrow came and on and on. Nothing more than that.”