Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 007, folder 34: Denver Albrecht

DENVER ALBRECHT (continued) -4-

Mr. Ryan: You could see it burning in the water

Albrecht: No, well, six or seven days later I seen the plane with the tail still sticking out water... Later on I found out there were still a number of parachutes still in the plane. That must have been the plane I seen burning going down as I was jumping

Ryan: Well this wasn’t the (can't make out sentence)

Albrecht: No I don’t know... me I never

Ryan: You no doubt (can't make out)

Albrecht: No, no one ever said anything about it later... we were so darned mixed up Some of us were on one side of the river and some on the other and I think it was three days before we ever really got together.

Ryan: What happened, by the way Sir where you’re from

Albrecht: My home town is Duluth, Minnesota

Ryan: Duluth - when you come down - when you land - what was the first thing you remember when you landed

Albrecht: I landed right in the water in the middle of the causeway - it looked like it was a wheat field - I was up in the air about trying to land it looked like a wheat field and I didn’t realize it was water until I hit. It was right up to my nose that I recall... right up... I could just barely keep my head above water. Of course I had to throw my equipment loose. I felt like throwing my rifle away but fear I had to need it. I could still stand on my tiptoes and walk and suddenly I think... decide and I have to start swimming I tried to get out which direction to go - I couldn’t figure it out

DENVER ALBRECHT (continued) -5-

So I seen machine gun fire coining directly after the parachutists Belt 1 - cluster - can't make out They were using... the parachutes that were draped over these obstacles as aiming points and they just opened up the machine guns at these points... well I picked the direction where it was least activity... The shelling, shooting the... the air force had been in Chet-du-Pont before evidently it was Chet-du-Pont because up in the air that was the closest town I was to and there was a few buildings burning - if it wasn't Chet-du-Pont it was Pont Elbe in this area, building burning machine guns fire coming up and the planes are coming over and machine gun fire coming up at the parachutists that are coming down... It looked like a good 4th of July... the... Well, anyway I landed in the middle of a swamp and I tried to walk and swim and finally I got ashore... close to a couple of hedgerows... fell over an other hedgerow and I seen a German machine gun... at a distance... It was still dark... getting dark and I apparently came right to the right of that machine gun when I cane out of the water. I threw a gamin grenade at it and moved out. A gamin grenade you know is a grenade that...

Ryan: Plastic

Albrecht: No, its made out of C-2 (sounds like)

Ryan: Its very powerful

Albrecht: Its... all it is, is a sock with a cap on it... a can with a cap on it... the cap is a... hits the deck (sounds like) in it and C2 is produce, split below the grenade...

Anyway he didn't shoot. AFTER that I didn't stay around to find out what happened. And the soonest I... contacted anybody, anyone, was about at least a half hour later. In the middle of the field there was... some one in the middle of the field. I wasn't sure who it was so I said well I'll throw a grenade at least

DENVER ALBRECHT (continued) -6-

Ryan: Now let's back track for just one little more. You land about what time roughly what time its about 2 in the morning

Albrecht: It got light around that time about 4:30 in the morning

Ryan: Yep, thats right

Albrecht: As I recall it stayed light pretty late

Ryan: In other words how long would you be in from the time you land

Albrecht: I figured back... An hour here, an hour there moving through these fields - I should say 2:30 - three - it It has to be somewhere around 2:30

Ryan: Yeh - would it be fair to say that it took you an hour out of that swamp - I mean by the time you divested yourself of the parachute

Albrecht: No - thirty minutes would be the time

Ryan: Thirty minutes

Albrecht: the time

Ryan: And were you under fire in the swamp

Albrecht: Yes

Ryan: All this time

Albrecht: Well, not all the time

Ryan: Well not all... but sporadic fire

Albrecht: As soon as I got out of that corner machine gun fire it wa to find that the parachutes draped over these obstacles, I hadn't been shot at again until I got out of the swamp but it was the first five or ten minutes I was right near the corner fire from the beach...from the back Ryan: So by... you get out of the swamp - you cross the field - you see a German machine gun - you throw a gamin grenade - now whats the next thing that happens after that - you're now down about two hours by this time

DENVER ALBRECHT(Continued) -7-

Albrecht: No, no - just about an hour or even less, 45 minutes if I could get there right away

Ryan: Have you any idea where you are

Albrecht: No.. no I haven't and I couldn't figure out which direction to go to the DZ

Ryan: Yeah

Albrecht: And my only thought then was to get a couple of more hedgerows between me and this machine gun and real fast and which I did and thats when I ran into this sergeant - ran into this man in the middle of the field and I didn’t know who he was - but he knew who I was

Ryan: Now what do fellows like that say at a tense moment like that - what do you say

Albrecht: Well, I foggotten the password by this time - I think - says - "Who’s there who is it - words to that effect and he came back Sergeant.... and I’ve forgotten his name now - Well I said "come on over" well... thats it. We moved out from that hedgerow and I says "you got any idea where we are - he said "no". So I said well the best thing I can see is to move to a few hedgerows and get away from this swamp - this is a place of activity and I said I don’t know where the DZ is so we’ll keep moving up the swamp anyway or up the... through the hedgerows and...

Ryan: And you were trying to find your platoon

Albrecht: Well I was trying to find the DZ really because I... it was...been impossible to find it. The DZ and men is what I was looking for

Ryan: Sure

Albrecht: And I couldn’t find anyone else There wasn’t anyone else in the area. The sergeant and I both moved through many a hedgerow until we finally got to a ... it started getting light. We got to a corner of a road - rather road junction or crossroad and by this time we’re hungry and I had - didn’t have any rations and the sergeant still had his so I said well "I’ve got to eat” so by this time a German patrol came through - well we said let’s shoot them

DENVER ALBRECHT (Continued) -8-

Albrecht: and I counted the men and I think there were 7 men in the patrol and I said "No, we’ll let this one pass” and...

Ryan: When you say a German patrol came through cant they - were they walking single file close to the hedges - the column

Albrecht: The column...right down the road... right down the road - right in a column

Ryan: No idea that this business of...

Albrecht: Well, they evidently knew something was going on. They were shooting around the area. There was a German machine gun up to our front. I didn’t estimate the distance... I see for 88 yds I heard opened up and I heard an American machine gun - you can tell the difference between the fire. Well, I thought we’ll go towards this American machine gun - there’s bound to be some Americans there. Well, this patrol changed that idea because they were cutting right across in the same direction. So I said well now we’ll go down the hedgerow to the right. I look down the hedgerow and I still don’t know which direction we were going and finally ran across a Frenchman. I thought well its best to get out of here now that this Frenchman knows we’re here... this has been... this is a heck... about 2 hours... so we continued moving from hedgerow to hedgerow figuring we’ll come to another road somewhere off to our right which... we knew... we could hear the firing from the beaches. We hear the air, air...bombardment and naval guns fire on the beaches, well, we knew that the St. Mere Iglese or chet du pont (sounds like) we knew just what areas those towns were and we had an idea where we were generally. We knew we were in a big swamp which was the river near chet du pont (sounds like) this side of St. Mere Iglese. At that time I still wasn’t sure which side of the river I was on

Ryan: Yes, I see