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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY
D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name? RONALD WESTON
What is your present address? CRE Caribbean Area Up Par k Camp KINGSTON JAMAICA BWI
Telephone number: N/A
What was your unit, division, corps? 233 Fd Coy RE, 69 Bde, 50 Northumbrian Division
Where did you land and at what time? St Riverie H+45 mins
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? ✓ L/Cpl 26 years
Were you married at that time? Yes
What is your wife's name? Grace Weston
Did you nave any children at that time? No
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? We knew that we were destined for the Second Front when we left Sicily in Nov 43 but we did not know details until we were briefed a few days before we left. we had done a lot of training.
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 roughish. It is too long ago to remember any conversation but we got to know the Marine coxwain of our LCA who was a Londoner like myself.
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.) I cant remember any rumours. Normandy was our second invasion as we had been in on D Day on Sicily. In factI consider that Sicily was worse than Normandy as in France the Allies ha d supremecy in the air but not in 1943.
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No.
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Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? None of our platoon were killed on D Day, one was wounded, but in 3 Platoon they had quite a few casualties, all of them being good friends of everybody. Names evade me now.
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? No
Were you wounded? Not on D Day. I was wounded in the Western Desert in 1943
How wore you wounded? By a German S Mine which deposited 6 pieces of shrapnel in me, two of which I still retain in my pelvic area
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 thought, that someone had set fire to my leg and I gently sat down. I did not feel much pain at all but I remember that a Padre was first in the minefield to get us out. We travelled by ten tonner for miles along the coast road to the CCS. After an operation we were flown down to Cairo to the 15 Scottish Hospital.
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? Please see attached brief story of my experience on 'D' Day.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? No.
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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? 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 next door neighbour was in the [crossed out] 5 Bd East [end crossed out] [crossed out] illegible [end crossed out] 5 Bn. East Yorks who were in 69 Bde of 50 Div. He is now in the 1 Bn Worc. Regt who are in Jamaica at present. L/Cpl Widdett G. 1 Worc Regt. Up Park Camp Kingston Jamaica B.W.I.
What do you do now? I am Chief Clerk in a R.E. Stores Unit. in Jamaica. Still in the Army although I was demobbed in 1946, I returned to the Army in 1950.
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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We sailed from Southampton on a LSI (Landing Ship Infantry) and after a few hours on board we had [crossed out] a [end crossed out] messages read to us by our officers and written by the Commander of 50 Northumbrian Division and General Eisenhower.
On the morning of the 6 June we were directed by the Tannoy to proceed on deck and we then were loaded into the LCAs. The coxwains were Royal Marine Sgts. Lest I forget , we all had a good drink of Navy Rum before we embarked. The LCAs set off and we seemed to cruise around for hours while the flotilla formed up. We could see the cruisers and destroyers shelling the targets ashore while planes flew over our heads towards occupied France. It was a wonderful sight.
What with the choppiness of the sea and the rum I had drunk it was not long before I was violently sick and I thought to myself "I will be b..... glad to get ashore". We approached the shore between shell bursts and we could see the shells and mines stuck on top of poles to prevent us landing. Our coxwain deftly steered his craft between the mines and landed us dry foot on the beach. We were lucky as after I heard of chaps being landed in 6 ft of water.
Due to the instructions we had received in the camp when we were briefed before sailing we knew that we should turn left along the beach until we got to the gap in the minefield and then proceed up the road. This we did. The gap was wreathed in smoke from a nearby fire and we went through leaving the beach with its floating dead bodies, knocked out tanks and LCAs. Shelling was still going on from inland somewhere. Again, in our briefing we were told that we would proceed up the road, past a knocked out gun site and by a big crater in the road. Lo and behold , all these things came to pass, except that some tank commander had seen fit to put a small bridge across the crater. The gun site was a bit of a shambles and we could see that the guns had been "mucked about a bit", although whether by the RAF or the Navy I dont know.
We passed through a village and an old man came out and offered me a drink of cognac. I refused it as I had some doubts as to whether the drink would be poisoned. Further on we came to a big house and a young girl and boy about eighteen spoke to me in perfect English "Thank you. You are our Liberators".
We came to some cornfields and walked through the golden corn. We saw a small group of dead Germans who had been manning a Spandeau. Soon we got back on the road and walked through another village. The children were outside and the soldiers were handing over their sweets and chocolate to them. Away at the other end of the village the infantry were house to house fighting and the splash of mortars and the rattle of Bren and Spandeau filled the summer air. We stopped half way through the village and brewed up some tea and eat an oatmeal block. As RE our services were not yet required.
We pressed on to a field where we made camp although there were snipers around. Soon my mate (an ex Coldstream Guardsman) said he had been sniped at and swore that there were snipers in the Church tower. He raised his Bren and gave the tower a burst. Another chap got behind his PIAT and fired a mortar at the tower. A little later a tank arrived on the scene and on being informed of the trouble the gunner sighted his 17 pounder on the church tower and fired. I myself did not investigate but I was told later by people who went into the tower that there was no sign of any sniper. But there were snipers in the woods just outside Crepon which was the name of the village. On the following day we were called upon to report further up the road. This road ran alongside the wood where the snipers were although we did not know at the time.