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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 — MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name? MARTIN VANHEEMS
What is your present address? 47/48 BERNERS ST. LONDON W. 1. (Business)
Telephone number; LANgham 1500
What was your unit, division, corps? See narrative
Where did you land and at what time? "
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Lieutenant, R.N.V.R, Age 29
Were you married at that time? Yes
What is your wife's name? Margaret
Did you have any children at that time? Yes, three.
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? About a year before.
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? See narrative
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.)
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? Good heavens no. Haven’t you ever heard of security ?
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Were any of you friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day?
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties?
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 out- of-place?
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else?
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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?
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?
What do you do now? I mind my own business, House of Vanheems Ltd. Ecclesiastical Outfitters since 1793.
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
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Martin Vanheems
D. Day - June 5th/6th 1944
The 100th L.C.T. Flotilla was part of Force S, under Rear Admiral C. A. Talbot, a sub-division of the Eastern Task Force, under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Philip Vian. The Flotilla consisted of eight Mark V L.C.T.s. These were American built, 112 ft. long by 32 ft. beam, about 100 tons displacement, powered by three 500 H.P. Gray Marine diesels, and mounting two Oerlikons. They were slow, and the accommodation wretched, but they were reliable and sturdy craft. Our numbers and Commanding Officers were as follows: 2433 Lieut. Townsend, 2432 Lieut. Constantine, 2334 Lieut. Davis, 2191 S/Lt. Rowney, 2123 Lieut. Gibbons, 2052 Lieut. Woodham, 2042 Lieut. Aitken, 2012 Lieut. Vanheems, all R.N.V.R.
We had been briefed on June 3rd, and returned aboard with great sacks of operation orders and photographs which would have taken a week of hard reading to get through. We glanced through it all: most did not concern us directly. Now we were ‘'sealed", not allowed to go ashore, and the operation was due to start on 4th June. However, in view of the bad weather it was postponed for 24 hours, which we spent pitching uneasily at our buoy in the anchorage.
At 0800 on June 5th we singled up, and at 0830 were ready to slip. Owing to the heavy lop on in the Solent our mooring wire had jammed, and we were unable to free it. Eventually the First Leituenant used the emergency axe, and cut the wire. We were some ten minutes late, and using full revs. it took us about half an hour to get into position. The Flotilla was travelling in line ahead in two columns disposed abeam to port. Each of us was carrying a Cromwell tank manned by Royal Marines, and a huge bulldozer which came aboard with inches to spare either side. Our job was to act as support to the A.V.R.E.s, a number of peculiar-looking vehicles like pre-historic monsters which were coming in Mark IV L.C.T.s to clear the beaches of mines and obstructions in preparation for the main assault. We were to deploy on either side of the A.V.R.E.s, and if necessary to stay on the beach with out tanks firing or to move round acting as mobile forts. Immediately ahead of us was that bank of heroes - the minesweepers, which later laid [crossed out]down[end crossed out] dan buoys right through the swept area, marking clearly the safe passage.