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

three sides of the top, they were all along the beach about 15 ft apart; the ramp dropped then we went, with the water up to our waist. Heading for the shore, a sight I shall always remember, we ran up the beach to the sand dunes, where we stopped to get the men together. then all hell let loose as they shelled us with everything, everywhere men were laying about killed and wounded, we left the beach, past the sappers who were clearing for mines, over the road into the fields and on, as we layed in the hedge we heard what we thought was a train, I looked up and saw a ball of flame coming towards us, it past and exploded in the next field sending its oil and flames everywhere, we called them the sobbing sisters. We got to the village and made our way to the place that we had to take, then we saw it, great concrete bunker with 88mm guns, one of the Germans held up a white flag and that was that; they moved out with their heflmets on their heads, we moved in and stopped a few [hours ?] in the meantime we were getting shelled and sniped at, while we were there we found a dugout full of champagne that was alright, as I needed it, at last we moved up and all along the roads were trucks on fire with the dead Germans laying there as the rocket flames were doing a fine job blasting the { ?] to hell, we stopped on a hill and could see the beach, it was full of ships as men still coming in, the Battleaxe was firing and we could hear the shells above our heads going further inland, everywhere was aflame, we sat in our dugout watching the dog fights as the sky was full of spitfires and German planes, then we headed out to sea, and saw a black cloud coming in, then the [?] noise of planes, as they were the glider boys coming in, time 7-15 PM it was a [ ?] sight. the [ ?] cast off the tow-rope then they glided in past us, then the flack started at them, some ended up in flames and fell to the ground, in the meantime they were dropping the [ ?] parachutes with their [ ? ?] guns. The battle started once again, with everything the [ ? ? ?] on the hill till midnight.

Mr. W. Ruthen 22 Marlborough Rd Norwich Norfolk stamped: 15 May 1958, QS - 16th May Dear Sir I was in the Normandy Landing, sailed on June 4th, 1944 with the 1st Suffolk Regt. 3rd Div, we landed at Luc-sur-Mer at 6-45 AM on June 6th, 44. Thank you. W. Ruthen

11th July, 1958. W. S. Ruthen, Esq., 22, Marlborough Road, Norwich, Norfolk, Dear Mr. Ruthen, I felt that I should personally write to thank you for the wonderful contribution which you have made in the preparation of the D-Day book which I am writing. Your questionnaire was so complete that I did not think it would be necessary to ask you to come to London for interview. The account which you gave was precisely the sort of thing that I was searching for and I feel confident that I will be able to use extracts from this as I am writing the book. As you must well appreciate, we are dealing with several thousand people, and in the book's final edited form, we shall probably be lucky if we can do more than give each participant a few lines. It is the sum total, however, of all these accounts which I hope will give the book its accuracy and unbiased presentation. I have one more request to make of you. In order to extract some material from your questionnaire, I will need your signature to the attached release. A stamped and addressed envelope is attached for your use. It may well be a year before the manuscript is published in The Reader's Digest, but at that time we will duly send you a copy of the issue with the story "The Longest Day". Yours sincerely, (Cornelius J. Ryan)

I hereby agree that Mr. Cornelius Ryan has all rights whatsoever in the questionnaire and letter from me regarding D-Day. SIGNED W. S. Ruthen DATE July 14th 1958