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2nd Ranger Bn.
STIVISON, William J. Pa 1
Box 10# 53
2nd Rangers
Pointe du Hoc

Prior to coming in (underlined)
(crossed out)"I watched what was probably the greatest display of fireworks
ever as the Navies and Air Force opened up on the beaches." (End crossed out)

Coming In (underlined)
" I was to give Capt. Harald Slatter the work SPLASH when the
duwks hit the water from the LCT over the radio (53G). I was
then to give him ERASE 1,2,3, etc. when and if any duwks were put
out of action. One was hit. As I started to say ERASE ONE,
his operator was saying 'we're sinking, we're sinking, we're
sunk.' They were in a landing craft. NOTE. See Kerchner's file for same story.
"The men going in sat & watched machine gun slugs hit the water
a few feet from the duwks & a couple of 20mm's hit the
ladders above their heads. All were as calm as if they
had been just running another problem."
During Day. "Frank Orapala and John Gillhoulley were with me
on a patrol on our right flank to see if we could get an
emplacement - which we did not get. On the way out
we ran into Sgt. Pyle of E Co. hit in the eye. He had done
a fair job of patching by himself .... We continued, running
into a minefield with barbed wire. We were held up
by Germans moving in between us & our own lines.
We were in a shell hole. We saw 3 fellows that had
to surrender to a group of Germans. One had a machine
gun. I took a head on him, squeezed the trigger, the
gun went off & the German & his buddies stood there
as though nothing had happend. The rifle I had was
not ejecting & I had to step on the ball each round
to operate it."
Mentions John Gilhouby - so does Stein.