Page 3

- Purnell 2 -

with bangalore torpedoes. There the dead had fallen in clusters--
many men were shot at the makeshift exits. Beyond the beach and
the wall was an area thickly mined and marked with corpses, so
that men coming ashore in later waves had to stick [crossed out] close [end crossed out]to the
road. And on the road at the Vierville exit an incoming tank
had run over a pile of dead men.

Lt. Col. Purnell had crossed the Channel in an LCI with other Hq.
personnel. In southern England, the previous summer ( '43) , [inserted] he [end inserted] had
had first certainty that 29th would be part of invasion--when a
truck from a QM outfit drove in and asked where/to deliver the
Mae Wests. Official notice and official briefings came months
later--but Mae Wests had told the story; Purnell and other bn.
commanders initiated amphibious training immediately. Troops were
sent to resort area of Torquay for swimming lessons-- in battle
dress, in icy water.

At start of another summer, during first couple of days in June
'44, Division Hq. group boarded LCI at Plymouth. Sat until 5 June
in Plymouth Harbor, with others of invasion force including Bradley's
command ship Augusta, which pulled out late in the afternoon of June [inserted] 4 or [end inserted] 5.
All along the southern coast of England, [crossed out] that day [end crossed out] [inserted] on June 4 and 5 [end inserted], as far as could be
seen from Plymouth Harbor, came a long line of ships headed for
Normandy.

LCI carrying Hq. group of 29th left Plymouth Harbor late in evening
of June 5. Part of double row of LCI's following command ship. In
the Channel, passed long line of dead ships moving slowly towards
[illegible]