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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY
D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 — MIDNIGHT JUNE 6 [*Ack 5/6/58*] What is your full name? DONALD JOHN ROBERTSON
What is your present address? 46 WILLOW HEY, MAGHULL (NR LIVERPOOL) LANCS.
Telephone number: BUSINESS HOURS L'POOL CENTRAL 5049 HOME MAGHULL 1900.
What was your unit, division, corps? 22nd DRAGOONS
Where did you land and at what time? LION-SUR-MER QUEEN WHITE BEACH 6:30A.M.
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? LIEUTEN NT 22 YEARS.
Were you married at that time? NO
What is your wife's name? MARY PATRICIA ROBERTSON.
Did you nave any children at that time? NO.
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? DECEMBER 1943.
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? EXTREMELY ROUGH. SEE PARA 1 OF RIDER ATTACHED.
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. SEE PARA 2 OF RIDER ATTACHED.
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No but my recollection of events in their order is still very vivid.
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2.
Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? YES. 3 TANK COMMANDERS IN MY TROOP WERE KILLED. ALL BEFORE 11 A.M. 2 BY SNIPERS AND ONE BY DIRECT HIT ON THE LANDING CRAFT I HAD JUST LEFT.
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? NO.
Were you wounded? NOT ON JUNE 6TH. BUT AT A LATER DATE.
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? THERE ARE NUMEROUS INCIDENTS WHICH SPRING TO MIND FOR WHICH I WOULD REQUIRE TIME TO RECALL
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else?
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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?
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?
What do you do now? SOLICITORS MANAGING CLERK.
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
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RIDER
PARA.1. Although the initial attack had been very thoroughly rehearsed, and we had studied models and photographs of the beach area we did not recive [?an?] actual maps until we were on board the landing craft and had set sail
The first two hours were spent in marking our maps and transposing the informatin we already had.
I cannot recall at this date the precise conversations we had but I well recall the feeling of relief when we sailed, an overwhelming feeling of confidence, and the realisation that we were at last to put into practice what we had trained for unremittingly for so many months.
There is no doubt that this feeling was engendered by the fact that every man knew precisely what he had to do, what his particular tank crew had to do, and what every larger unit had to do in the operation. He also knew the quality of the opposition he had to face, and "the unknown" had been reduced to a minimum. Three hours after sailing these feelings had in almost all cases been superseded by the feelings which accompany seasickness - and these feelings need no description.
I was fortunate in that we were in the flotilla leaders craft, and as he did not require his bunk on the night of the crossing he offered it to me, and I consequently slept well from about 9 P.M. till 4.30 AM on the morning of the 6th.
PARA.2. The detailed knowledge which all ranks had concerning the operation discounted completely any rumours which might have circulated. Rumour can only flourish where there