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-For Cornelius Ryan 6 -
Your name Ulrich G. Gibbons

In times of great crises, people generally show either great ingenuity or self-
reliance; others do incredibly stupid things. Do you remember any examples of
either?

I will take the liberty to indicate my own first reactions to combat. I think
it is pertinent to mention these factors: I had never been in combat, and every
soldier, professional or "duration,” wonders inside himself how he will measure up;
I was a Lt Colonel within a time-span that, when I graduated, would have advanced
me to 1st Lieutenant; I was a West Pointer, upon whom rests a great imperative to
set the military example, above all in battle. I am not a prayerful man, but if I
said any prayers on that interminable channel crossing, one of the strongest was
that I should prove able to do my part under combat stress. With this concern, it
was pure relief to find that under the shelling of my first 20 minutes of combat —
the worst I have been under in two years, WW II or Korea, the first year — I retained
my ability to think, act, plan. My reaction under this first shelling, therefore,
approached exhilaration. (With time and increasing "sophistication” I came to a considerably more rational view. Now I particularly dislike mortar rounds: you
can't hear them coming in, and they are real "grass-cutters.")

Where were you at midnight on June 6, 1944?

In-shore, across the flooded area behind Utah Beach, in an apple orchard of
Normandy. As we pulled into the area about sunset, there were paratroopers of the
101st Airborne Division riding Normandy farm horses around. One of them, who had
found Calvados too, said: "Colonel, do you want to see one of these damn German
potato-mashers go off?” It was in the mood and temper of that day that I said
"Why not?” so we walked a few yards off the road and spent 10 minutes throwing
German grenades into the marecage behind a farmer's barn. This was only a "pause
in the day's occupation,” however, and by midnight Operations, 4th Division
Artillery, was in full swing: communications established to our Artillery Battalions,
firing charts setting up, operations reports being prepared, fire plans for the next
day 's combat. 4th Division was operational on the Continent of Europe, headed toward
Cherbourg.