ryan_box018-tld_f20_03

- for Cornelius Ryan 2 -
Your name William Swain Keck

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No -
As I recall, diaries, address books, letters, etc., were disposed of before leaving
England. All future use of such was discouraged - reasons seemed obvious at the
time, but there may be reason to question possibility of security leak, etc.

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or
during the day? Yes. I recall of two of them that were killed, and several
who were wounded or became mentally incompetent. One of my best friends was killed
by falling scrapnel from our anti-aircraft defense. He was lying in a fox-hole
during a raid D-day night, and a long sliver of steel went through his neck.

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became
No - nothing that pertained to the invasion. I don't even remember
talking to either of them after leaving England, except as noted below.

( I might add that I could mention names concerning the above, but would prefer
that I not be quoted.)

The friend of mine that was wounded by our own scrapnel became paralyzed, but did
not die until the following day. I was permitted to see him before he died, and
although I tried to convince him that he was not paralyzed and would live, he was
positive to the extent that he asked me to look up his mother in Brooklyn and tell
her of our close friendship, and how he was thought of as a soldier. I am rather
ashamed to say that I was so moved by the discussion that I couldn't have written
down the address he gave me if I had had a pencil and paper.
Nome?
Were you wounded? No

Do you remember what it was like--that is, do you remember whether you
felt any pain or were you so surprised that you felt nothing?
N/A

Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even
though it did not, of course, seem amusing at the time? I remember a Jewish
boy who it was told had lost his parents by Nazi action in Germany. Prior to the
invasion most of the enlisted men felt that this boy could not stand the pressure
of combat, but the results turned out to the contrary. I recall one incident
where he called an unwounded Lieutenant to his feet to help carry a litter - and
he got responseI Seeing officers and men lying behind the gravel dune of the beach
was not unnatural, because fire power was coming from our battleships over our head
as well as from the German artillery. The blast from the battleships firing sounded
so very similar to the German artillery that it wasn't at all unusual to find your-
self hitting the beach when either one sounded. [crossed] illegible [end crossed out] One sergeant
who became irritated with himself for being fooled by the firing battleships, said
"to hell with it" and remained standing. Very shortly thereafter he was wounded
in the arm by flying scrapnel - which was not at all scarce1

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, which struck
you more than anything else? I shall never forget the quietness when we first
a arrived on beach. It seemed as though the Germans waited until the beach was
loaded before opening up with everything they had. We had [crossed out] illegible
[end crossed out] amphibious brigade insignia painted on the front of our helmets with a white
arc above it, and red cross brassards on our arms. In addition, the officers had
their ranks painted on their helmets. The backs of our helmets had horizontal lines
on non-coms and verticle lines on officers. With all of this identification on his
helmet, a Lt Col Medical Officer calmly walked upon the top of the dune, while hundreds
of unwounded lay behind it. The response was terrific I It wasn't until this time
that the troops understood that danger couldn't be feared. Infantry men moved on,
leaving only the wounded or dead behind. - - It is certainly not unmentionable about
how many anti-personnel mines were removed from the beach area on D-3, after troops
had constantly walked through them for two days. The explanation concerned rotted
wooden parts in the mines that caused them to be defective and ineffective. - - -
One of the best ’’dummy” tricks I ever hope to see worked two ways - The German Army
had left some see-saw type poles over barrels pointing out to sea. Our air-force
must have bombed them considerably, using the bomb craters as evidence. Upon arrival
upon this scene, the poles were see-sawed the other direction [crossed out]illegible[end crossed out] pointing in-
land. You can imagine the reversal of the bombing action.