Al Robbins
Al and Lea Robbins on their wedding day in January 1939. They have been married 71 years. / Courtesy of Al Robbins
AL ROBBINS
Age: 96
Born: Aug. 7, 1913
Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Army; 28th “Keystone” Division; 112th Regiment, Company I
Years served: February 1944- February 1946
Rank: Corporal
Medals: POW Medal, Purple Heart, two Bronze Stars, awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross by the state of New York.
Family: Wife Lea; two children, Daniel Robbins of Las Vegas and Errol Robbins; two grandchildren; three great-grandchildren.
Al Robbins during World War II. / courtesy of Al Robbins
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U.S. Army infantryman Al Robbins was captured and taken prisoner by a German SS officer while fighting on the front lines in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest in November 1944.
He served six months as a prisoner of war.
“I was 30 years old when I was drafted,” he said. “I was married five years and had a son, 5 months old.”
Robbins, a welder, was working for the U.S. government at the Brooklyn Navy Yard at the time.
“I worked on all of the ships,” he said. “When I was drafted, I said I'd like to go into the Navy. They said, ‘We'll put you in the Army because we're short of soldiers.'”
Robbins was sent to Camp Wheeler near Macon, Ga., where his rifle-handling skills earned him the designation of “sharpshooter,” and a spot on the front lines in Europe as a member of the 28th Infantry Division.
When Robbins landed on Omaha Beach in late July 1944, he was greeted by a haunting sound.
“You could hear the animals crying,” he said. “Cows, horses — they were all dying from the bombing.
“Buildings were still burning, there were dead (German) soldiers all around,” Robbins said.
Robbins fought in the hedgerows of France, the dense hedges the Germans used to their advantage while attacking the advancing American troops.
“They were scary because the Germans hid behind them,” he said. “We were losing a lot of men. The hedgerows were terrible. A lot of our own boys were lying around (dead). I'm glad I wasn't one of them.”
Robbins and the 28th Infantry participated in one of the most important victories during the war in Europe.
“We helped liberate Paris,” he said. “We paraded through the streets of Paris.”
But the celebration was short-lived.
“We went into the attack the next morning to fight the Germans,” he said. “All the guys in the rear echelon had all the fun — the whiskey, women, hotels, good food. We had rations.”
On the day he was captured, Robbins was fighting the enemy from behind the walls of a house that was still standing in the war-ravaged city of Schmidt, Germany.
“The last I remember, I was firing at the Germans” from a window, he said. “I woke up and I was lying on the floor on my back.”
But as soon as he awoke, he was in a panic.
“I don't see my right arm. I see my rifle over there. I thought I lost my arm,” he said.
He was lying on his right arm.
As soon as he saw that his arm was still attached, he realized he'd been wounded.
“The shrapnel went through my shoulder into my lung,” he said, displaying the scar above his right clavicle, close to his neck.
“An hour later I was captured,” Robbins said.
During his six months in captivity, Robbins, who is Jewish, was subjected to forced marches to six different prison camps. He lost 55 pounds. He was liberated on Mother's Day 1945.
He doesn't understand how he made it out of World War II alive.
“A guy up there was looking after me,” I guess. “I knew how to dodge the bullets. I was lucky.”
