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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 ~ MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name? Francis William Vickers M.M.
What is your present address? 32. Bow St. Middlesbrough Yorkshire.
Telephone numbers
What was your unit, division, corps D Coy 6th Green Howards 69th Brigade. 50th Division We land on the beach right of La Riviere. Where our 7th Battalion landed.
Where did you land and at what time? We left the landing ship EmpireLance at 5 am on the morning of June 6th formed up and headed for the beach which was about 7 miles away
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? PTE 23 yrs Were you married at that time? No What is your wife's name? Did you have any children at that time? No
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion ? Quite some time previous because of the training.
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? On the landing ship, the usual things. Old times what we would do when we got out. The lucky ones who would come after us. Why the powers that be should always pick 50 did for the dirt. After being through the desert & Sicily, where were the Divs who had been in England all the time.
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 rumours about what Jerry was doing or going to do. The big rumour was we were there to take the beaches for the other mobs to come through then we would be releaved to go home to train others.
Did you by any chance keep a diary of wha£ happened to you that day? No. I kept a diary or I should say diarys from the beginning of the war. They were in the pocket of my overcoat stolen by some dirty dog we picked up when we broke P.T.O.
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Out of Mersah Matruh on the way back to alamein in June 1942. I was that fed up at losing them I never put down another word.
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2. Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? Many of my pals were killed and wounded I lost my best pal that day L/Sgt W.A. Hill one of the best liked and bravest men in the battalion. Rufty Hill was his nickname. I am sorry to say he was drowned as a result of our crew of the assault craft not landing us on the beach.
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became riff casualties? The most of our casualties were on the beach so I had no time to talk to no one in particular. When the the ramp went down, I give my mates the thumbs up and shouted see you on the beach. I was seventh man off in the first section the Sgt was first. I never saw him again.
Were you wounded? Yes.
How were you wounded? We were advancing through the cornfields, coming on to the road that led into Villers le Sec. Then when I finished in a ditch my arm was hanging down I had been hit with shrapnel in the top muscle of my right arm. I could feel that alright. But I didn't feel the piece in my back.
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? I knew I was going to get hit. Because I felt it before, I said to my No 2 on the bren. I am going to get the knock just now and I did in the very place I had the feeling I will explain this more fully on the other sheet. I have heard it said many times you don't hear or feel the one that gets you. I did and boy did it hurt. I had been hit before out on the desert.
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? I remember what was left of our section were coming into the village of Crepon. There was some sniping. My No 2 a PTE Defuse saw the shutters of the windows upstairs of a house move. So he lobbed a 69 grenade but it hit the shutter and bounced back going off filling his face and hands full of bits of bakelite. We had a good laugh. I dug them out with a jackknife.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck * you more than anything else? Yes I do. One, when we reached the beach and going forward further along a tank of some sort blew up and one of the wheels a big one that drives the tracks came bowling in a straight line straight along the beach I stopped and watch it bowl past and so did lots of others right till lit fell over luckily it never hit no one while I was looking. 2. The young German officer firing the gun he was on until Sgt. Scott of our coy shot him with his tommy gun. This was This was a battery of guns about half mile inland. Sgt Scott was wounded later in leg.
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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 was in action many times with men from many parts of the country and who had been transferred from other regiments. I found that discipline and the mucking in spirit holds men together and no matter what happens they will lshare each other's food cigs and even secrets that they would never part with in civvy street. I never smoked but have gone out scroungeing under fire for cigs or tobacco for those that did. One lad Charlie Elmer would go out for grub but if he had of been ordered he would of acted up.
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? You could write too Ex-Sgt Major Stanley Hollis of my company he got the V.C. on D.Day. S. Hollis 33 Henry Taylor Court Old Ormesby Middlesbrough Yorkshire Sgt. W. Woolston. He is still serving with our 1st Battalion in Hong Kong. He was in a section in our platoon. He was wounded I think this will find him. Sgt. W. Woolston 1st Battalion The Green Howard Hong Kong B.A.P.O. 1
What do you do now? I am a stevedore on the riverside wharves on the river Tees. Having no trade this was the highest paid labouring job I could find.
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