Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 022, folder 29: Farndale Phillips

[file folder] Phillips, Farndale British - Gold Royal Marines

Box 22, #29

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

[in margins] Should have [letter?] from CR reg: thank you ack 2/6/58 Telephone [/marginalia]

What is your full name? Major General Sir Farndale Phillips What is your present address? The Old Vicarage Northorpe Gainsbrorough Lincolnshire

Telephone number: [Scotter?] 218

What was your unit, division, corps? 47 (Royal Marine) Commando

Where did you land and at what time? Near Le Hamel About H + 100 [minutes?]

What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Lt. Col 39

Were you married at that time? [Yes?]

What is your wife's name? [checkmark]

Did you have any children at that time? [checkmark]

When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? Some months before hand

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? Good Yes

Were there any rumours aboard ship? (Some people remember hearing that the Germans had poured gasoline on the water and planned to set it arire when the troops came in.) No

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? Yes

2. Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day?Yes Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? -- Were you wounded? No 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 out- of-place?

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

3. In times cf 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? No

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?

My Second-in-command Major P.M. [Donnell?] Signal Officer Capt [Trevor?] Hughes

Addresses from Royal Marine Office c/o Admiralty What do you do now? President British [illegible] Federation

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 Readers Digest

Note - I haven't the time or the inclination to write answers at any length, especially to questions of the nature of the last two on the preceding page

I did keep a fairly full diary and I am prepared to answer questions of fact, verbally, if a time, date and plan can be arranged to suit us both

Farndale Phillips

0830 Gold Le Hamel 47th RM Commados Dead Brit

5th August, 1958.

Major General Sir Farndale Phillips, Tho Old Vicarage, Northorpe, Gainsborough, Lincs.

Dear Sir Farndale Phillips,

I felt that I should personally write to thank you for the wonderful contribution you have made in the preparation of the D-Day book which I'm writing. The material in the questionnaire you sent me has been a great help in filling in many of the details of the work done in Normandy that day by members of the British Services.

It will probably & a full year before tho book is completed and on its publication in The Reader's Digest under the story "The Longest Day", it will give us great pleasure to send you a copy.

Yours sincerely, (Cornelius J. Ryan)