Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 022, folder 42: Walter Sidney Ruthen

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RUTHEN, Walter Sidney 3rd Div. Box 22, #42

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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 —MIDNIGHT JUNE What is your full name? Walter Sidney Ruthen What is your present address? 22, Marlborough Rd., Norwich, Norfolk Telephone number: What was your unit, division, corps? 1st Suffolk Regt, 3rd Div Where did you land and at what time? Luc-sur-Mer 6 to 6.30 AM What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Pte 23 years Were you married at that time? yes What is your wife's name? Brenda Did you have any children at that time? yes one When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? May 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? The sea was rough, we passed our time playing cards with French Francs 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 such talk on ship, as it was all [quiet ?] Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No need for a diary as I can remember a [last line cut off]

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Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? some were wounded and killed Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? No Were you wounded? yes, not on D Day, Oct 15 on the Dutch-German border How were you wounded? shrapnel from 88mm shell 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? Did not feel anything, as I was unconscious for 5 days. On the landing craft was tea and food, anyone would think we were going to a [picnic - underlined]. 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? When we were in the small landing craft; being lowered over the side of the Battleaxe the [ ?] half way down the pully got stuck, and tipped us on end, we thought he had had it; but it washed out all right. Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? [scratched out: When we landed on the beach]

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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 ?

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?

Address unknown

What do you do now?

Postman

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 0. Isaacs The Reader's Digest

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We moved from a small village called Horndean near Portsmouth on the Sunday down to the town of Portsmouth, and boarded the yanky troopship called the Battleaxe, on the sides of the ship were the small landing craft, which was to take us to the beaches, we sailed that day and should have landed on the 5th of June but was too rough, so it was the 6th June 44 midnight of June 5th, we came up on deck, and about 3 in the morning we could see the light in the sky over the French coast one big glow as they were bombing it to hell, as we stood there one of our destroyers passed us, then it went up, must have been a mine, as it went down in a few minutes at 5 o'clock they told us to get in the small craft, as we had stopped well out maybe 2 to 3 miles from the coast, they began to lower us over the side of the ship with our small craft holding about 32 men, then we set out for the beach, as we got nearer we could see the flames, as the houses on the coast were up in smoke, and what a racket, small landing craft were floating everywhere, with nobody in, as the craft got nearer we saw the men on the beaches and the tanks were on fire, with the shells coming down on the beach and in the sea around us, the marine who was steering our craft had to pass through steel pilings which

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