Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 020, folder 15: Frank Cooksey

COOKSEY, Frank Sword, No. 9 Beach Group Int. Release BOX 20, #15

SWORD Finished

Sword Ack 2/6/58

THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6

What is your full name? FRANK COOKSEY

What is your present address? 84 SUMMERFIELD RD LUTON BEDS.

Telephone number:

What was your unit, division, corps? 875 HEAVY RECOVERY SEC. No. 9 BEACH GROUP.

Where did you land and at what time? H HOUR PLUS 30 MINS. KING RED BEACH. LUC - SER - MER'

What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? CPL. 24YRS.

Were you married at that time? NO

What is your wife's name?

Did you have any children at that time?

When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? I WAS BRIEFED JUST OUTSIDE WINCHESTER IN AN ARMY CAMP. WE HAD TO STUDY PHOTO'S OF LANDING POINT, BUT [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] NO NAMES.

What was the trip like during the crossing of the Channel? Do you remember, for example, any conversations you had or how you passed the time? PLAYED THREE CARD BRAG. ALL NIGHT, OFF NEEDLE'S AT SOUTHAMPTON. AS FOR THE CROSSING, I WAS JUST [?ICTHING?] TO GET ON LAND. REASON I WAS AS SICK AS A DOG. THE L.C.T. ALLMOST BROKE IN HALF.

Were there any rumours aboard ship? (Some people remember hearing that the Germans had poured gasoline on the water and planned to set it afire when the troops came in.) CAN'T SAY I CAN REMEMBER ANY RUMOURS PERHAPS THE ABOVE RUMOUR WAS A [?HANGOVER?] FROM OUR OWN PRE - INVASION PLANS. BACK DURING THE BATTLE OF BRITIAN.

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? NO, BUT I NOTICED FOR THE TIME ALL THE BLOKES WITH ME WERE OF THE SAME TYPE REASONALBY TOUGH NOT WELL EDUCATED. HATERS OF BULL, HAPPY IN SCRUFFY OVERALLS WORKING ON AWKWARD REC. JOBS.

2.

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? FIRST KILLED SERGT JOCK PATTERSON. LIKE MYSELF, HE WAS DRIVING AN ARMOURED-BULLDOZER, AND THE L.C.T. HE WAS ABOARD WAS NECK AND NECK WITH OURS.

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? JOCK WAS MY FRIEND, HE WAS UPSET BECAUSE HE HAD LOST THE SIGNET RING HIS GIRL HAD GIVEN HIM. OUR RESPECTIVE BOATS WERE ABOUT 25yds APART ON LANDING AT HIGH TIDE. HE WAVED TO ME. IN HIS HAND WAS A FLAG WHICH HE HAD TO PLANT AT A PRE-ARRANGED SPOT THAT WAS JOB THAT KILLED HIM. ONCE HE DISMOUNTED TO RUN UP THE BEACH. HE STOPED ONE. THE NEXT TIME I SAW HIM WAS 2HRS LATER WITH A NOTE ON HIS CHEST SAYING HE HAD BEEN INJECTED WITH MORPHIA. ONLY THEN DID I FEEL THE IMPACT OF THIS FANTASTIC OPERATION.

Were you wounded?

How were you wounded?

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?

Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even though it may not have seemed amusing at the time? Or anything unexpected or outof-place? YES. A SMOKE SCREEN HAD BEEN LAYED ON TO PROTECT SOME BIG SHIPS JUST OFFSHORE. SOME OF OUR CHAPS WERE JUST COMING IN FROM ENGLAND. NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS SMOKE SCREEN AND ARRIVING AT DUSK ALL KEYED UP. SOMEBODY STARTED COUGHING. SOMEBODY, ELSE JOKINGLY SIAD "GAS" BIG PANIC LOOKING FOR MISLAID GASMASKS. BUT JOHNY WALKER UNIT COMEDIAN COULD NOT FIND HIS. WAS ADVISED TO MAKE WATER IN A BLANKET SEVERAL OF THE BOYS HAD TO HELP OUT POOR JOHNY [inserted] Walker - [illegible] smoke screen [end inserted] HAD THE UNPLEASANT TASK OF HOLDING THE BLANKET TO HIS FACE. BUT HE SURVIVED. ANOTHER BLOKE LOST HIS FALSE TEETH, AND HAD A HELL OF A JOB EATING THE "CONCRETE" BICUITS. HE GOT THE "M. M." HE DESERVED IT

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else?

3.

In times of great crisis, people generally show either great ingenuity or self-reliance; others do incredibly strange or stupid things. Do you remember any examples of either? ONE THING SHOOK ME. WAS HOW AFTER ONLY FEW HOURS MEN WENT ABOUT THERE JOBS SOMTIMES STEPING OVER THE BODIES OF THERE COMRADES WITH OUT SO MUCH AS A CLANCE. AND BODIES LAY AT THE WATERS EDGE COVERED IN DIRTY SHIP'S OIL FOR WHAT SEEM LIKE HOURS. NOW IT SEEMS HOW COULD WE HAVE BEEN SO CALLOUS.

Do you know of anybody else who landed within the 24 hours (midnight 5 June to midnight 6 June) either as infantry, glider or airborne troops, whom we should write to? EDDIE FLETCHER, TRENT VALLEY HOTEL LITCHFIELD STAFFS. A TRUE PAL WHO ONCE STOPPED [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] "MONTY" CROSSING OVER A WINCH ROPE. SO MONTY HAD TO GET A "BUNK" OVER THE EDGE. THE PLACE.: "MONTY'S" H.Q AT BLAY, NEAR BAYEAX. " JOB THE TRANSPORTION OF THE "TIGER TANK" CAPTURED INTACT. SENT BACK TO ENGLAND.

What do you do now? AIRCRAFT FITTER.

Please let us have this questionnaire as soon as possible, so that we can include your experiences in the book. We hope that you will continue your story on separate sheets if we have not left sufficient room. Full acknowledgement will be given in a chapter called "Where They Are Now."

Cornelius Ryan Joan O. Isaacs The Reader's Digest

Cooksey Sword

FRANK COOKSEY

R.E.M.E. Heavy Recovery section. Worked on D.A. Caterpillar tractor, waterproofed up to 9ft. high. Landed R.E.M.E. tanks from LCT, carrying 100 men, mostly infantry.

Crossed the channel with Eddie Fletcher. He was the same age as me and had a Caterpillar. We were briefed together at Warminster, so well briefed that when I landed I felt I had been there before.

We were sea-sick most of the way over.. both of us were happy-go-lucky types. I carried a piece of coal for good-luck -- came from Newcastle on Tyne.. Spent most of the time losing all my money playing Brag. Found the cook came from the same town as me, Chester-le-Street , so I got some special priveleges.. slept in the galley and instead of eating iron rations got the sailors' food. Didn't do me any good, though, cause I was sick pretty soon after!

Most of us were pretty confident going over, thumbs up sign.. but mood changed a bit when we started to rev up machines. Blokes had different look on their faces, lips tightened.. those who normally took no notice of you offered their fags, others who never spoke to you, came across and chatted. Some began talking too much from nerves, others quietened down. Everything seemed so big we couldn't grasp we were part of it.

Coming over thinking about home, etc., I fell in love with "Dot" (Dorothy)..... Back home used to go out with a friend of mine, Peter Humphreys, with two sisters, Peter liked one and I the other... never thought much about her until D-Day, though. She was the first girl I send a card to later in the afternoon from the beach.

One little incident happened lust offshore as we were coming in. There was a little boat about 50yards off the beach - a rowing boat - bobbing up and down on the waves (it was quite rough) with two men in it: one had a bren gun, the other was lying in the bottom of the boat. They were being systematically machine-gunned from a house on the shore... machine-gunner getting closer and closer until it was only a matter of time before they got hit... Suddenly out of nowhere an American gun boat appeared: pointed its naval gun.. fired and the house disappeared. "By God," cried the bren-gunner, "this is a bloody marvellous gun!" Didn't see American ship, thought he had pooped Gerry himself!

As we came up to beach there was a concentration of fire from the houses on the front.... My sergt., Jock Patterson, was driving an armoured bulldozer.... we cameein in two landing craft, neck-end-neck... He was meant to plant a flag (green and yellow, Cooksey thinks) at a pre-arranged spot... He waved to me just as he was about to beach: then jumped into sea... suddenly a sniper got him and he crumpled up. The whole scene was so unreal, even the people seemed unreal too.. . Later somebody came over to me and said "Pat's up there." He was lying high and dry, wrapped in blankets, with a note pinned on his chest by the medical people. We buried him on the beach temporarily but later he was taken to the cemetery at Bayeux..

My job was to have been with Patterson. He was my friend... He was very upset before we left England because he had lost the [crossed out] engagement [end crossed out] [inserted]signet[end inserted] ring his girl had given him. He got a NAAFI girl to go out and buy him another.

As we came in we could see POW's on the beach, some on their knees praying.. We had been told that initial resistance wouldn't be from first-class troops. They were right.. for these POW's were 'Ruskies'.. prisoners came in like drifters all during the day. They were completely demoralised.