ryan_box018-tld_f24_03

- for Cornelius Ryan 2 -
Your name Leland B. Kuhre

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day?

No, but I kept a complete file of all documents. Still have them, including
plans, orders, maps, photos, and so on.

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or
during the day?

Yes. It. Col. Clarke, the G—2 of our headquarters. Killed.

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became
casualties?

No, he landed from another ship and I did not see him before he was killed.

Were you wounded? No.

Do you remember what it was like--that
felt any pain or were you so surprised
is, do you remember whether you
that you felt nothing?
-------

Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even
though it did not, of course, seem amusing at the time?

After dark, the evening of June 6th, as General Shingler, Col. Mulligan and
I were returning toward the beach from a reconnaissance to the front, the
ships offshore let loose a sustained anti-aircraft fire. The xxxxxxxxxxxx
trajectories of the tracer bullets seemed to be pointing right at us. We xxxx
hit the ditch by the side of the road. But nothing happened. We got up
rather shamefacedly with some amusement at our reaction to an optical illusion.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, which struck
you more than anything else?

The density of the line of dead on the beach at the highwater mark. One of
them I’ll always remember: He had a guitar beside him and a packet of letters
which had fallen from his person beside him. The incongruity of the guitar
at a time like that coupled with realizing the effort it had cost him to get it
with him that far conveyed his optimism about his part in the landing. That he
would not now play his guitar seemed to make his death stand out more than the
rest.