Searcy man to be
honored in France for role in liberation
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| WWII veteran Lawnie Coffman reaches a hand toward his face at his Searcy home Tuesday as he recalls a troubling memory from his combat service in the little town of Fossieux, France. Coffman and several members of his family will travel to Fossieux Sept. 17 where he will be honored as the town's "hero of liberation." (Philip Holsinger/The Daily Citizen) |
A Searcy
man will be honored as the liberator of a French town at a ceremony later
this month.
Lawnie Coffman will travel to Fossieux, in the Lorraine region of France,
Sept. 17 to attend a celebration of the liberation of their town during
World War II. The celebration is one of many being held in France this year
in honor of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Nazi occupation.
Coffman said he will also attend the dedication of a
memorial to his regiment in Lupcourt about 12 miles from Fossieux.
He is taking five members of his family with him this time, leaving from
Dallas on Sept. 10. From Dallas, they will travel to Paris for two days,
then on to Nancy, the capital of the Lorraine region, for three more days,
arriving at Fossieux on Sept. 17. He said he and his family will be escorted
into the town for celebration by the French ambassador to America.
"They got together and planned for us to go to one day at
Fossieux and one day at Lupcourt," Coffman said.
In preparation for the visit, Coffman prepared an account of his memories
from the battle in Fossieux. He said he was sending the information to the
town as a memorial of how the town was liberated.
Coffman said he was told the town wanted to honor him
about two years ago, but only agreed to attend two months ago.
"They have been wanting me to come back, but I didn't want to go back and go
through all of that again, to see the places where I killed men and my
friends died," he said. "I wasn't sure how that would make me feel."
Coffman saw a lot of action during his service in the
army from 1943 to 1945.
Coffman was decorated many times over for his role in the war, receiving two
Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star. He was awarded one of his
Bronze Stars for his part in the liberation of Fossieux.
Attached to Company L of the 137th Regiment, 35th Infantry Division as part
of a rocket-launch team, Coffman's platoon was stopped by enemy fire on Oct.
8, 1944. An official citation that accompanied Coffman's medal, tells of how
Coffman volunteered to flank the enemy position and, along with another
enlisted man, rounded the enemy and fired a rocket into the enemy's
stronghold. That action allowed Coffman's unit to move forward and liberate
the town.
Coffman said he hopes to get "closure" out of revisiting the town. He said
that he had always felt bad about another incident which happened during the
battle.
He said he thought he had killed a civilian.
As the battle raged in the streets of the town, several buildings and houses
caught fire. Smoke filled the streets as Coffman laid in position to fire on
German soldiers if any appeared.
"I saw a man come out of the burning house and shooting and running the
south across the street," Coffman said in a written account of the event. "I
thought he was another German soldier and so I shot him through the chest
from about 50 yards and he fell hard."
Coffman said a young woman rushed out of the house yelling "Papa," and he
saw later that the man was dressed in civilian clothing.
"There was a lot of smoke and I couldn't see," Coffman said. "He was with
the Germans. I thought he was a German and I shot him."
Coffman said he recently made peace with that incident after Paul Colombies,
Fosseiux's mayor told him the man was probably a German disguised as a
civilian or Nazi sympathizer.
"I think I have accepted it enough that I feel differently about it,"
Coffman said.
Lingering doubts still remain though. Coffman said he is still unsure how
traveling back to the battleground will affect him.
"I won't know until I get there," he said.