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The evening of June 6th from the ditch where I sought refuge with my family I heard the battle
drawing closer to us* The two battalions at Neuville au Plain and the first was reformed by
Koller attacked. All night long, the 6th to the 7th the battle was relentless. The Germans
came back as far as the entrance of the town; there was hand to hand fighting. One parachutist
whom I interrogated told me "We are attacking. Reinforcements are going to arrive by sea in
six hours okay.”

In the evening they were still waiting for reinforcements one of them told me "the sea
and while the women were crying and praying, "don’t leave us" one of them made this reply
with a big smile "We’ll never leave we’re staying right here."

An eye witness released to me that he’d seen parachutists straddle horses who arrived at top
speed with men in the town. The bodies of the horses after the battle were laying in the
center of town pierced with dozens of holes.

At the moment when reinforcements arrived from the sea, at that moment when joyously we heard
on the Ravenville road, the rolling of the first tanks, the airborne troops had almost no
ammunition. "Now," they were saying, "We’ll have to fight at close range and make 'em come.
And after that we’ll have our bayonets and knives."

Forty Eight hours after arrival the magnificent work was accomplished by them alone. Two
battalions had been cut to pieces. In the north two battalions, in the south one battalion
an AA unit; in the west two companies of Georgians whose remnants barricaded themselves in a
chateau at Beuzeville au Plain. They had destroyed eight tanks, some cannon and had made
364 parachutists prisoners. The losses of the airborne troops were heavy. Meanwhile the
battalion physician Capt. Lyle B. Putnam cared for our wounded people with the same devotion
as with his own people.

I ask you, Monsieur, the commissioner of the Government if it would not be possible to
request recognition from our great General who recognizes such courage for these tough men
who first of all wrenched from the enemy a piece of French soil, a citation, which gives them

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