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Sword / Ack 16/5
THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 ~ MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name ? Henry Jennings
What is your present address? 72 Sidcup Road Lee London SE 12 Telephone number: Lee Green 2512
What was your unit, division, corps? 89th Field boy Royal Engineers 9th Beach Group 8th Group: G.H.Q. Where did you land at what time? King Green Beach Ver: Sur Mer Approx Zero Hour Plus 40 mins. What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Sapper age 30 Were you married at that time? No What is your wife' s name? Did you have any children at that time? When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? I knew we were going to be part of an invasion force when we formed a beach group No 21 in Sept 1943 but did not know where or when until we opened our secret orders on ship June 5th 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? ’ The sea was very rough and choppy which resulted in more casualtys + mishaps than we anticipated We passed time mostly playing cards etc because we embarked on the 3rd June from Southhampton The conversations were mostly about what was waiting for us but we were never despondent very cheerful and confident 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.) I never heard any such rumours about this and if I had I should have ruled them out because I dont think they had the information of our landing or any particular part of any coast - our ariel photographs showed very small troop movements
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? Yes events I entered in a small book which I intend to transfer to my diary which was packed away with my
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2. Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? Not to my knowledge
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties?
Were you wounded ? No 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 out- of -place? Yes we saw floating objects and someone thought they were blocks of wood with faces painted on them but to our horror later found they were men floating out to sea injured or dead when I actually landed I was confronted with a collection of P.O.W.s among them Japanese and men in uniforms of a Balkan type
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? yes. German prisoners attending to our wounded also we past a man in the water calling for help and someone intended to throw in a life belt but was forbidden by the Lt of the LC I often wonder if ever he was saved and several others also in the near vicinity
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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? I found great comradship and williness to help one another But the most thought wether down at heart or in good spirit was to get dug in + brew up and get the job finished
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? yes Try and contact A.J. Caldow 24 Linzee Road Hornsey N I can obtain several but not at so short notice who also landed with me
What do you do now? Joinery and sub contracting
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 0. Isaacs The Reader's Digest
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1) We did several large scale exercises on the south coast and knew someday we would be part of the landing force. this took place from the begining of 1944 prior to that; combined operation training at HMS Dundonald and January Scotland in the last part of 1943 from September onwards 2) The most funniest thing I saw was our personal rations that was for our gang which we collected and scrounged or bartered before we embarked We were in a sealed camp in Hampshire and our gear consist of a small handcart which contained our mine detectors explosives etc and which we completely filled with rations tea sugar white bread butter and finally waterproofed and when we boarded our LCT hitched our handcart to our section lorry But alas on landing our lorry entered the the water from the ramp and disappeared with a shell hole the driver diving through the cab window in very quick time and we watched the handcart turn over the rations float and the small canister containing our wordly possession the tea float out to sea the bread followed and all our personal belongings leaving us with just what we stood in. On landing my mission was to make for detailed destination clear mines from lanes leading to fields to accomodate the following infantry I had no gear and one party was reduced to four owing to the mishap on landing we proceed to our destination picking up mine detectors ect on the beaches from others not so fortunate as us I also pick up a 21 wireless talky set That evening we were held up through sniping and just us four and an infantry officers slept the