Edward G. Wilkin

He Took Six Pillboxes and Kept Going

Edward G. Wilkin was born on May 25, 1917, in Burlington, Vermont. His family later settled in the Springfield, Massachusetts, area, and Wilkin eventually made his home in Longmeadow. Before entering military service, he built a civilian life there, marrying Hazel Brayton in 1938. Their son, Robert Jesse, was born in 1941. Wilkin worked for Adaskin Furniture and later for Pratt & Whitney before entering the United States Army in December 1943.

Assigned to Company C, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, Wilkin served as an infantryman during the final campaigns of World War II in Europe. By March 1945 he held the rank of Corporal. The 45th Infantry Division was driving deeper into Germany, where American troops faced the extensive defensive works of the Siegfried Line—fortified positions strengthened by concrete pillboxes, trenches, wire obstacles, and interlocking fields of fire.

On March 18, 1945, Wilkin’s company was stopped by heavy German rifle and automatic-weapons fire from concealed fortifications. Rather than remain pinned down, Wilkin moved forward on his own initiative to find a route through the defenses. He advanced into an area filled with pillboxes and repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire while attacking the fortified positions with automatic-rifle fire and grenades.

When heavy barbed-wire entanglements blocked further progress, Wilkin obtained Bangalore torpedoes and used them to blast a passage toward additional enemy positions. He continued moving ahead while grenades, mortar rounds, rifle fire, and automatic weapons struck around him. During one advance he pursued German soldiers across exposed ground and through connecting trenches, pushing far beyond the foremost American elements despite crossfire from fortified positions.

His actions did not end with the assault. After fighting through the day, Wilkin refused to withdraw simply to rest. He helped distribute food and supplies to other soldiers and then learned that a nearby company had suffered severe casualties. He obtained permission to assist litter bearers and began helping evacuate wounded men from the battle area.

For the following two days he continued those rescue efforts, repeatedly entering areas still exposed to German mortar and artillery fire. Across the three-day period beginning March 18, Wilkin personally neutralized and captured six pillboxes, killed at least nine enemy soldiers, wounded thirteen, took thirteen prisoners, assisted in the capture of fourteen more, and helped bring wounded Americans to safety. His actions played a major role in helping Company C penetrate the Siegfried Line.

The scale of Wilkin’s achievement was remarkable because his heroism combined aggressive infantry combat with sustained efforts to save wounded soldiers. He moved forward when his company was halted, attacked fortified positions at extraordinary personal risk, opened paths through defensive obstacles, and then turned his attention to men who needed evacuation from the battlefield. His conduct during those three days became the basis for the Medal of Honor.

Wilkin did not live to receive the decoration. Exactly one month after the opening day of his Medal of Honor action, on April 18, 1945, he was killed in action in Germany by a German sniper. He was twenty-seven years old. The war in Europe ended only weeks later.

His Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously. War Department General Orders No. 119, dated December 17, 1945, formally recorded the award for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty during the action of March 18 and the days that followed. The citation emphasized not only his attacks against the German pillboxes but also his refusal to abandon the wounded despite continuing enemy fire.

In January 1946, Wilkin’s young son, Robert, received his father’s Medal of Honor during a ceremony in Longmeadow. The moment gave the family the nation’s highest recognition of a soldier who had already paid the ultimate price for his service. The decoration later became part of the collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society, preserving a direct connection between Wilkin’s wartime service and the community from which he had entered the Army.

Wilkin was initially buried overseas, but his remains were later returned to Massachusetts. On Memorial Day in 1948, Longmeadow held an extraordinary ceremony as he was laid to rest in Longmeadow Cemetery with full military honors. General Omar N. Bradley, then Chief of Staff of the United States Army, participated in the ceremonies and delivered a memorial address honoring Wilkin and the generation of Americans who had died in war.

The community continued to preserve his memory long after the war. Local streets were named in his honor, his Medal of Honor was safeguarded as a historical artifact, and his grave became a permanent memorial to Longmeadow’s most highly decorated wartime hero.

Edward G. Wilkin’s place in military history rests on three extraordinary days in March 1945. He fought through fortified positions when his unit was pinned down, captured six pillboxes single-handedly, pressed far ahead of friendly troops, and then spent the following days helping evacuate wounded soldiers under continuing enemy fire. Less than a month later, he was dead. His Medal of Honor ensured that the courage he displayed at the Siegfried Line would not disappear with him, preserving the story of an infantryman whose determination helped break through one of Germany’s final fortified defenses.