Merokean recalls capturing Nazis, freeing prisoners of war from Germany

Nazi fighter planes suddenly swooped in, strafing the ground with machine-gun fire, as U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Frank DePergola raced a Jeep through a forest in Luxembourg as the end of World War II approached, with a lieutenant in the passenger seat.

Seemingly out of nowhere, mortars rained down, exploding across the rutty, battle-scarred landscape. “I had to get away from the mortars,” said DePergola (pronounced dee-per-GO-la). “The mortars kept coming in.”

One struck the ground near DePergola’s Jeep. He cannot recall much of what happened next. He and the lieutenant were thrown from the vehicle, he believes, and shrapnel tore into DePergola’s left knee. He was bleeding profusely, but he survived.

Now 92, DePergola, of North Merrick, cannot remember the exact date when he was injured. It was sometime close to Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945. He does, however, recall the pain he felt that day. He was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries suffered in battle.

A little more than 70 years have passed since DePergola marched from France to Germany, engaging in brutal warfare for nearly three-quarters of a year in the Allied campaign to free Europe from Nazi Germany’s 12-year reign of terror. Little would one suspect that he is a bona-fide American hero. Like so many of his generation, he is humble about his accomplishments.

“I was doing my duty to the government and myself to make sure we beat these Germans out of here,” he said. “That was my job. I was a soldier. That was one of my duties to do.”

Medics removed the shrapnel from DePergola’s knee and bandaged his wound. He could walk, even run with difficulty, so he returned to battle, fighting across the heavily fortified “Siegfried Line” into Germany, where he helped liberate prisoners of war. “I went back, sure,” he said. “I wanted to go back to my unit.”

The horrors of war
DePergola was born to Italian immigrants on May 11, 1923, in Chinatown, and was raised in Brooklyn. He joined the Army at 19, in February 1943, serving with Company F of the 5th Infantry Division, 10th Battalion. He landed at Utah Beach, in Normandy, shortly after the D-Day invasion, which took place on June 6, 1944.