Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 020, folder 09: Jack Cheshire

CHESHIRE, Jack Sword, No. 6 Beach Group Release - Int Box 20, #9 SWORD Finished

SWORD ack 20/5/58

THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6

What is your full name? JACK CHESHIRE.

What is your present address? "VERONA" 105. WALTON WAY. AYLESBURY = BUCKS.

Telephone number:

What was your unit, division, corps? No. 6 BEACH GROUP. 1ST BUCKS BN. OX & BUCKS LT. INF.

Where did you land and at what time? QUEEN BEACH? NR [?OUSTROHME?]. JUNE 6TH. 1944 - ABOUT 7-30 A.M.

What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? SGT. 31 YRS. (SGT OF ANTI-TANK GUNS.)

Were you married at that time? YES.

What is your wife's name? BARBARA EDITH.

Did you nave any children at that time? ONE DAUGHTER. (A BABY 6MTHS)

When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? 18 MONTHS BEFORE

What was the trip like during the crossing of the Channel? Do you remember, for example, any conversations you had or how you passed the time? WE TRIED TO SLEEP IN OUR VEHICLES, WE WERE ON A L.C.T. IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY, A FELLOW SGT WISHED ME "MANY HAPPY RETUR OF THE DAY" I REPLIED "WHAT WITH THESE BULLETS WHIZZING ROUND ME."

Were there any rumours aboard ship? (Some people remember hearing that the Germans had poured gasoline on the water and planned to set it afire when the troops came in.) NO - SPIRITS WERE HIGH, BUT ALL HAD "BUTTERFLIES" IN THE TUMMY.

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? NO. BUT MY MEMORY IS STILL QUITE CLEAR.

2.

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

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

Were you wounded?

How were you wounded?

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

Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even though it may not have seemed amusing at the time? Or anything unexpected or outof-place? DURING THE NIGHT OF 'D' DAY, MY BREN GUNNER HEARD MOVEMENT IN FRONT OF OUR GUN POSITION, I TOLD HIM TO KEEP STILL, AS THERE WERE ONLY 3 OF US ON A GUN, AS I TRIED TO GET A REST I HEARD HIM FIRE A BURST, NOTHING MORE HAPPENED. NEXT DAY A FRENCHMAN WAS SEEN WITH HIS SHOULDER BANDAGED UP. HE HAD TRIED TO SCRAP SOME POTATOES OUT OF THE GROUND IN FRONT OF US, AND HAD BEEN HIT BY MY BREN GUNNER

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? YES, SNIPERS WERE IN OUR AREA ON THE NIGHT OF "D" DAY. STIRLING BOMBERS CAME OVER AND DROPPED SUPPLIES. I REMEMBER SEEING A GERMAN MACHINE GUN FIRED FROM A WINDOW, IT CUT THE TAIL OFF A LOW FLYING PLANE LIKE A KNIFE. THE PLANE CRASHED.

3.

In times of great crisis, people generally show either great ingenuity or self-reliance; others do incredibly strange or stupid things. Do you remember any examples of either? IT AMAZED ME THE WAY MEN CLOSED THERE EYES AND OFFERED SIMPLE PRAYERS. IN MY OWN WAY I ALWAYS ASKED THAT ANY DECISION I HAD TO MAKE WOULD BE THE RIGHT ONE.

Do you know of anybody else who landed within the 24 hours (midnight 5 June to midnight 6 June) either as infantry, glider or airborne troops, whom we should write to? My C.O. and ALSO C. i/c of No. 6 Beach Group was Col. R. D. Sale. Solicitor. Aylesbury Bucks. I think he could help a great deal.

What do you do now? I am a printer. I make the printing plates for Readers Digest.

Please let us have this questionnaire as soon as possible, so that we can include your experiences in the book. We hope that you will continue your story on separate sheets if we have not left sufficient room. Full acknowledgement will be given in a chapter called "Where They Are Now."

Cornelius Ryan Joan O. Isaacs The Reader's Digest

E SWORD Cheshire

JACK CHESHIRE

Went in on Sword beach, near Ouistrehem. Knew exactly what we had to do. At one of the briefings, somebody said "Good God, I went there for a holiday." He wastaken away and we never saw him again - security.

I was platoon sergt. of anti-tank group numbering six. Spent lot of time up on point with private, corporal and the gun... nobody else all around us... Suddenly a German sp. at range of 1,000 yards appeared. Our range was 800 yards, couldn't do anything about it.

Got message back and an sp, gun was sent up to me. Just going to point.. when the gas discharge of recoil of gun gave me a "close shave"... took off my eyebrows, unshaven beard and the nap of my greatcoat...lifted me into side of wall.. "You can't complain... look what it did..." got gerry.

BACK TO CHANNEL TRIP.

This time we were given 50 rounds of ammo...usually it was taken away from us, so we knew this was the real thing. Can remember as it was getting light seeing HMS RAMILLIESon flank and the rocket ships. Another segt...said "Cor, just remember Ches.,happy returns of the day.." "Good God" I said, "don't wish me happy returns of this day."

As we landed saw a dead soldier, with hands over chest.... we turned white.. sergt. called out "I'll kick your backsides if you look at things like that... Had been at Dunkirk.. First German I saw was a dead German, don't remember seeing another on D-Day.

AT NIGHT

Casualties were not heavy.. mostly from mortar fire.... In the afternoon an officer came up to me.. "Thank God you are here... up there with you and take the gun." We had already knowcked out Gerry half-track. We Went up to high ground.. open country all around, cemeteryon [crossed out]lfe[end crossed out] left. Found ouselves plenty todo.. digging gun in on hard ground, tried to blast ground with a Hawkins grenade.. Made friends with people in two or three house nearby.... We made our H.Q. in garage on high ground, cleared it, particularly one corner under wall so we could rest.. We were sniped, bullet went into wheel of gun... Still digging but could only get down matter of inches, just enough to squat. In front was a field of potatoes... Taffy (ToM) Evans from Treadegar and Corporal Kimble were with me. Taffy said "somebody moving out front.." "Keep quiet, we can't do anything" I said. "They're still there." "Keep your fingers off the trigger." He nodded. Again "Shsh"... then "Got the so-and-so." Heard no more.. Next morning we saw a Frenchman moving around with arm in sling... He had obviously tried to get potatoes from field under cover of darkness..

On evening of D-Day there was a big drop of Stirlings.. When they came back low over beach somebody opened up with machine gun... Tail came down and the rest of the plane fell into sea.

On night of D-Day a sing le gerry fighter came over.. he had got a bomb under each wing.. was hit and he jettisoned.. dropped them in ammunition dump which blazed for days. Colonel Sale was responsible for getting vehicles out from burning dump.

NOTE Cheshire had no idea that it was a recce of the 21st Panzer Div. which came passed his gun position on that day........if Gerry had the mind, he could have demolished Cheshire and his little gun party... Cheshire was really frightened when we told him this...