In her father’s words [The Salina Journal, Kan.]

July 04--Just before Thanksgiving 1942, 23-year-old American soldier Sgt. Leland C. Atkinson, stuck in the middle of a New Guinea jungle, scribbled on the back of an empty cigarette carton.

"Here in the jungle, I sit up on the edge of my slit trench to escape several inches of water in its bottom. I look at my watch, mentally trying to slow the hands as they move toward zero hour. My breathing is shallow and more rapid than normal. I am conscious of every heartbeat. A pencil of sunlight pierces the dense overhead and glistens momentarily on the razor-sharp edge of my bayonet."

He records a young, inexperienced soldier nearby sobbing, "his anxiety overcoming his emotions." Atkinson wonders if this boy -- and he, too -- will survive the battle ahead:

"Zero hour is at hand, wish us luck. Will I survive? How much time will be granted the boy on my left to experience his new manhood: minutes, hours or many years? Only God knows."

Last summer around the Fourth of July, Salinan Loralee Kranzler was cleaning out her parents' home in Appleton, Wis., when she came across her father's wartime journals.

Her mother had died in February 2011. Her father, Leland, who had Alzheimer's disease during the last five years of his life, had died Sept. 15, 2005, at age 86.

Picture where he was

Kranzler knew her father liked to write, but it wasn't until she found his World War II journals that she realized just how well he expressed himself on the page.

"I can picture where he was, what he was feeling," she said. "His senses were so acute."

Atkinson belonged to the famous Wisconsin-Michigan 32nd Red Arrow Division, which helped open the Army offensive in the South Pacific in 1942.

New Guinea was one of the major military campaigns of World War II, strategically important to the Japanese and the Allied Forces because of its proximity to Australia and its large land mass that made it ideal for land, air and naval bases.

The fighting on New Guinea was intense and brutal. While on his tour of duty, Atkinson contracted malaria and was sent back to the U.S.

He eventually returned home to Wisconsin, where he married, had children and built his career in the insurance business. But he never forgot the trauma of his war years, his daughter said.

Never talked about it

"He didn't like to talk about it, but he could never get those things out of his mind," she said.

Yet Atkinson was intensely patriotic throughout his life and always put out his flag on major holidays such as Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day and the Fourth of July, Kranzler said.

"If we didn't salute when the flag went by, we would be called on the carpet," she said. "We had to show respect for the flag."

Other than his war years, Atkinson lived in Wisconsin his entire life. But when Kranzler found his war writings, she believed they had a universality that would resonate with people in other parts of the U.S., including her adopted hometown of Salina.

"It's something that everyone can understand, no matter where they're from," she said.

On his cigarette carton journal, Atkinson wrote about the sound of battle:

"The sound of our aircraft is now overhead, mixed with the sound of exploding anti-aircraft shells. Occasionally, a puff of smoke is visible through the overhead cover as shells burst. I hear the soft hiss of falling bombs, now thunderous explosions, and the earth convulses and quivers as though liquid. Artillery and mortar shells commence humming overhead toward the invisible enemy. Another episode of 'Hell on Earth' has just begun!"

Convinced he'd die

Kranzler said her father was convinced he was going to die in battle and wanted to document his innermost thoughts.

"He had a love of expressing himself, and he wanted to show that as terrified as he was down in those trenches, he still could write," she said.

Atkinson was born July 10, 1919, on a farm in rural Crawford County in southern Wisconsin, in a family of six boys and a girl. His family boasted a long line of veterans going back to the Civil War. His mother, Lura, was a cousin to famed World War II General George S. Patton.

In 1939, while attending college in Platteville, Atkinson joined the National Guard. When World War II broke out, he was called to duty and sent to the South Pacific in 1942.

While overseas, he would write his mother constantly, Kranzler said.

Dedicated to mothers

"The dedication young men had to their mothers was incredible," she said. "Dad was very dedicated to writing letters to his mother, so she'd know where he was and what he was doing."

Life in New Guinea wasn't always "hell on earth." During Christmas 1942, Atkinson wrote another journal entry:

"For some reason, everything was quiet on Christmas Eve -- no firing from either side. Suddenly, out of the darkness came soft harmonica music playing 'Silent Night.' A 20-piece orchestra couldn't have done it better. Now it was indeed Christmas Eve."

He loved July 4th

Each July, when Kranzler and her siblings reunite for a family reunion at a summer cottage in Pella, Wis., they remember to fly the American flag high on July 4, Kranzler said, in tribute to their father.

"My father always loved the Fourth of July," she said. "Whenever I think of Flag Day and the Fourth of July, I think of him."

-- Reporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by email at [email protected].

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(c)2012 The Salina Journal (Salina, Kan.)

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