Wilfred Adkins

Pvt Wilfred Adkins was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with Company A, 1st Engineer Battalion. On the morning of 6 June 1944, the company came ashore at Omaha Beach near St-Laurent-sur-Mer under heavy enemy fire, with several squads unable to land as planned and pinned down on the sand for hours before the rest of the unit made it in. Despite these losses, a provisional company formed from the unit's own platoons pushed forward, clearing mines and obstacles along the beach and working with a bulldozer crew to cut a road inland through the bluffs toward Colleville-sur-Mer. By early afternoon their effort opened the vital E-1 exit road and the vehicle transit area behind it, allowing men and equipment to move off the beach - a breakthrough achieved at heavy cost, with several men killed, wounded, or listed as missing that day. Pvt Adkins was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.