Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 022, folder 36: Cyril Raffaelli

RAFFAELLI, Cyril

British - SWORD 3rd Div.

Box 22, #36

Ack 29/5/58

THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY

D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 — MIDNIGHT JUNE 6

Mowry 30 7:30

What is your full name? Cyril Raffaelli

What is your present address? 4 Plympton Rd. Brondesbury London NW6

Telephone number:

What was your unit, division, corps? 2nd Batt Royal Ulster Rifles 3rd Infantry Division 9th Brigade

Where did you land and at what time? Queen Beach - 7:30 AM app

What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Cpl - Age 30

Were you married at that time? No

What is your wife's name? Rosina Raffaelli

Did you nave any children at that time? No

When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? We trained for the invasion from Summer 1943 in all parts of Scotland.

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? We did not go direct across but out into the Atlantic for the first few hrs and as we were on very small craft everyone was sick myself included. The first hint we had was that it was the real thing was the handing out of maps and the pamphlet enclosed.

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.) No

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No

2.

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? I had two in my section killed by mortar fire on the first day.

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? No

Were you wounded? Yes

How were you wounded? I was shot in the face while helping to clear a wood just outside CAMBS, a small village, the Battalion Casualties were very heavy there.

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? I certainly remember what it was like The bullet entered my face just below the left eye passed by the back of my nostrils and lodged in my Right Upper jaw, All I remember was that it felt like being hit with a hammer a gush of blood from my mouth and then Blackness till I came to in the middle of a tank Battle

Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that semms funny now, even though it may not have seemed amusing at the time? Or anything unexpected or outof-place? When we landed we had folding cycles on our Backs and it was our job to get to [illegible] the same night. We all had plenty of self heating tins of Soup. After a couple of hrs we were engaged and when it was over we went back for our Cycles only to find a tank had gone over the lot.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? Im afraid there were no hero's in my plattoon myself included.

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? I think in such instances as those [illegible] men are possessed of great fear, not of the enemy but just of themselves my prayer was for the courage to do what I had to and so I think did lots of others. I remember a young German boy who had just been Killed on the Beach and our platoon Sgt Miller propping his cycle up against him to pump up his Rear tyre.

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? No

What do you do now? I am at the moment employed by London transport as a Bus [?Con?] living in one Room and kitchen with my wife and five children. A great finish!!!

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

P/S Would you please return Pamphlet as It has sentimental Value.

Interview 23 MAY 1958 Q2. 23/5/58

4 Plympton Rd. Brondesbury LONDON N.W.6

Wed

Dear Sir, I happend to notice your ad in this evenings News, I landed at 7:30AM D.Day morning with the 2nd Batt Royal Ullster Rifles, any information I can give you would be available if required, Yours, Mr. C. Raffaelli