Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 014, folder 25: Joel F. Thomason

29th FA Dead 7:30am

Had [unclear] aboard LCT Lost it when he deboarded

Amen. Int (CO) THOMASON Joel F. (29th FA Bn 4th Div)

Box 14, #25

Col. Joel F. Thomason, 40, M, Bernice ("Nernie"), C, 2, son Tim 17, G Catherine 14.

Was 26 at D-Day, born 26 Dec 1917.

29th Field Arty Batt of 4th Div.

Direct support bun for 8th Regt.

was with Col Van Fleet on LCT5 -Laney Lasevr & Bob Landry -also aboard

Was Lt. Col. the, he grabbed himself a bunk among the rations. All most immediately he began to develop a touch laryngitis - nose & throat. He remembers telling his Lt. Bill Sydnor & Lt John Causland. (Now in State Dept for Ser in Germany)

Told him "John you're going to have to talk for me." This was on command boat

Revr'd of btn was on 5 LCT's

59 per firing battery 240 men in the assault eschelon, remainder was in Eng. About half landed in the nieve scheduled to land.

B battery was lost, hit naval mine - about 30 more killed outright - only 5 got back-

3 firing batt A, B, C, & HQ batt (50 calm etc)

60 rounds per Howitzer Supposed to fire from LCT but never got close

-would have hit our own troops or even the airborne so Col Thomason decided against

Landed at bout H + 1 hr in LCT Med about 20 with Col was 2 Lt. Senior Officer was Col Steiner, Exec Reg Comm who was later killed during war.

Low fog or smoke from guns - saw no finie at them

main prob was keep warm & dry

Huddling under a shelled half because of spray no idea that B had blown

up. Major Frank Duda (now Lt. Col.) was exec of Btn was behind B battery that blew up Batt Comm was football player, boxer type Capt. Burns lives in Birmingham Alabama his exec was Lt. Frank Loway.

Burns was coach - lost one leg had 15º twist in the other.

Thomas is tall, quiet spoken type wears glasses wavy black hair = blue eyes

AG's office - Dist Unit cit for 29th F. Arty. Btn.

C Batt Comm: Capt Albert