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Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 021, folder 36: Geoffrey John Leach
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2 . Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? No
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties?
Were you wounded? No
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? Yes one of crew of American LST 35 "Snafu Moon II" was detailed for DUKW duty. Was fully armed before leaving ship. His last words before leaving, on viewing his armaments were "when Jerry sees me, its all over. Back tonight boys".
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? Plenty of DUKW 's floating about empty. Eventually one of the "assault boats" picked up by a troopship and around the propellor was a body. When boat in davit of troopship body only seen from other ships. Eventually removed by shooting off from [last words cut off from page]
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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 ? On the boat over to France, all British Troops had American food & drink (coffee), no tea available. Some tank crews scrounged dustbin & filled it with water, stood it on Deck at Stern, & in it put steam hose. after no. of hours it boiled & tea blocks from emergency rations were thrown in & Sergeant Majors' brew was dished out to all & sundry. "IMPROVISATION"
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? Only the lads on the same boat as I was on
What do you do now? Laboratory Assistant Electronics Division Murphy Radio W.G.C.
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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beach, but there was not a sign of him.
Everyone who could get ashore did so, just to be able to say "I've done it - even sailors who were supposed to stay aboard.
Finally, he returned to his landing craft and pulled away from the coast. He believes that the Captain of the landing craft, a man of about 28 or 29 years old, had been notified of the trouble on Omaha and had been recalled to Southampton in order to transport reinforcements to the beach as soon as possible.
In the late afternoon on the way back to England a casualty was brought aboard by davit. He was a leading seaman, the only survivor of a landing craft crew of five or six who had been run over by one of the tanks they were unloading. He had a broken thigh, a suspected broken arm and other injuries, and was unconscious when they brought him aboard. Leach happened to be on duty at the time and it was his job to see him. A small operating theatre had been rigged up behind canvas screens down below, and there was a lot of talk as to whether the doctor should operate or not. The seaman came to during the voyage but only managed to signify that he was pleased to be going back to England. On arrival at Southampton the landing craft was boarded by a Staff Sergeant and dozens of stretcher bearers from the Pioneer Corps. One stretcher bearer, shorter than most, was warned by the Sergeant to take care. "You are being watched", he said. And indeed he was. On shore there were hundreds of VIP's, red-caps waiting for the casualties to come in. Nobody was more surprised than the stretcher bearers to find the landing craft carried only one wounded man. According to the Sergeant, the leading seaman was the first casualty to reach England by sea. He was taken to Netley Hospital, Southampton. By midnight Leach had "got his head down". He could scarcely believe D-Day was over; everything had been so easy and so quiet - His D-Day had been a "real picnic".
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Netley Hospital, Southampton Bulin General Hospital + 8v Couve de benie - pauli on a lettre white bin shack -
73 Hayfever - - bede at orderly louder 70 am - 6v [2 shorthand symbols] over British Infantry 1ST = 35 Carrying DUKW's -- top sect loader arm loud maven type ---
Unload at sea if necesry, or beach - - - - 22 on evy land [sumbol?] craft - - - - American sailors - - - - two every [illegible] full landing - - - - ford [illegible] detrsoyer bay is away - - 10.0 am
No arms only un-corps duties - stand to - bottom of 10% pair up [d----] for guns - rely on orders - over bond.
Snake Wager II [shorthand symbols] Japanese Waters - - - - pick up[?] American [illegible] - some [2 illegible words] came over - - - -
[text scratched out]
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Leading seaman === where unloading tanks flew over crew about 5 or 6 x. broken thigh infection broken arm[?conscious] ---- had [?bar] [?] [?] and chanell- [?D] it over side===
? of ? ? up below saw us ? down below. this after on only when ? ? ? Talk of operating --- pleased to he was going back --- was dangerously ill. Supposed to be first casualty. ? sea from beach --- Pioneer corps men - boots waiting for him ----- biggest reception -
About midnight [?] my head down ---- Amazed it was so easy -----
Tanks [?]worried on shore. [?dude] wants "this better than last --" Saw ? bank -----
Saw "ceiling of American flares "very high ? ? on book over - -
landed new vehicles ? across beach & them yelling move on --- Beach ? ? ? ? -----
"real picnic" on first day ----- went back to England to ? up reinforcements for American beach
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35 BIRCHWOOD CLOSE HATFIELD HERTS.
Extract 14MAY1958 QS 14/5/58 A Sir, In reply to your advert re. Normandy landings. I was attached to an American Naval LST. during the period you enquire of, also for the next few weeks. Trusting I may be of some use to you
Yours Respectfully G. J. Leach. Mr. Telephone
Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 021, folder 18: Stanley Elton Hollis
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Company Sergeant Major Stanley Elton Hollis aged 28 on D-Day was married + had 2 children (boy 10;Brian Elton Pauline girl 5) Been in army since 1939 wife's name Alice married in Feb 1932 address: 33 Henny Taylor Court Old Ormesby Middlesbrough Yorkshire now a sand blaster === saw action in France 1940- evacuated from Dunkirk; fought with 8th Army in Egypt + 11th Africa; than invasion of Sicily and finally D-Day- all with 50th Div
Singlehandedly he had captured gun in Sicily + was mentioned in dispatches He had been wounded 4 times before D-Day Three times he had been asked to take a battlefield commission but it would have meant leaving his 50th div
A tall quiet man of simple tastes he rarely got angry but when he did he seemed to be colder almost oblivious to what was happening around him This generally happened when men of his own battalion- boyhood friend from his town of Middlesborough were killed or wounded He had been known to cry with anger
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He was tough as a Sergeant Major at no time did he think he would be wounded or killed But "I was always able to tell the men who were going to get it I don't know how- but I could sense it 80% of the time I was night" He was with the 6th Batt of the Green Howards He was CSM of D Co The Green Howards in his opinion "were the finest trained group to go in on D-Day but withtin a few weeks their losses were so terrible that the battallion was shot to pieces + the reinforcements weren't the same- it was never the same again"
"Fear is a grand thing for a man It educates you It teaches humility once upon a time I thought I was the bravest man in the world I was big headed But fear taught me humility and in that way God
He's not a religious man although C of E the only time he had been to church during war had been a memorial service in Sicily That day in an open field --- with 700 soldiers a German sniper opened