Pages That Need Review
Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 021, folder 18: Stanley Elton Hollis
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- 5 - charged the wall with his AVRE, crashed over it and routed the enemy. Tanks of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards followed up swiftly from landing craft to support the assault. On of them, making its way along the beach to the exit, was held up by a broken-down Jeep. As no time could be wasted the tank drove straight on, crushing the Jeep, much to the annoyance of its owner. The tanks soon made contact with the Green Howards, and began to push inland, meeting a few Boche infantry in a brisk encounter which gave them the opportunity of warming up their machine guns. In Crepon men of the 6th Green Howards encountered a field gun with its crew armed with Spandaus, and were held up. C.S.M. Hollis, previously mentioned, was put in charge of a support group to cover the attack on the gun, but the attack could not make headway. Seeing this, the SergeantMajor pushed forward to engage the enemy with a PIAT from a house only 50 yards from them. He was grazed by a sniper, and the field gun then fired into the house at point blank range. To avoid the falling masonry, he moved to another position, and shortly afterwards the gun was destroyed/ Discovering that two of his men were still in the demolished house, he went forward with a Bren gun, and, although he was under constant fire, he engaged the enemy until the two men got clear. For his unparalleled gallantry throughout this day C.S.M. Hollis was awarded the Voctoria Cross. The advance was held up at Creully, where the Germans flooded the area, and the only road forward was well covered with fire. Typhoons were called in, and the enemy was forced to retire. Snipers were troublesome, but were finally dealt with, and the advance went on against stiffening opposition.
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-6Men of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers ( R.E.M.E. ) landed with the first waves, and quickly established beach recovery sections and workshops. The workshop, formed from 30 Corps Troops Workshops and 7th Armoured Troops Workshops, with certain specialist personnel attached, were capable of dealing with all types of equipment. The beaches were under fire and for the first 48 hours they worked without a break under most unpleasant conditions. A particularly gallant action on the part of one of the R.E.M.E. was that of Corporal R.R. Gale of 25 Beach Recovery Section, who cleared a blazing ammunition lorry from a beach exit. He was subsequently awarded the Military Medal. R.E.M.E. had contributed substantially to the success of the assault landing and the subsequent build up.
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Delighted you are able to help us with D Day book. [crossed out] Could you possible would it be possible for you to would you be grateful if you [end crossed out] Could you possibly telephone me at Mayfair 8144 reverse charges so we can arrange interview. M Thanks. Joan Isaacs
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69 Brigade 6 Green Howards "Gold" 50th Northumbian
J.E. Hollis 33 Henry Taylor Court Old Ormesby Middlesbrough Yorks. 8th June '58
Dear Madam, Re your letter of 2nd June '58 I would be pleased to give you any information regarding the happenings on the 6th of June 1944 that I am able to, if you could give me two or three days warning, I would be pleased to meet any of your representatives, I need a little warning as I may not be able to be at home at the time you require me, this can be arranged however if you would let me know in advance when to expect you, as I am a shift worker. Yours Sincerely
J E Hollis
Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 021, folder 45: John Thomas Manners Mason
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Ack
13.5
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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY
D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 — MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name? John Thomas Manners Mason
What is your present address? 48 Priory Road Kew Richmond Surrey
Telephone number: Richmond 7012
What was your unit, division, corps? No 4. Commando ISS Bde 3. Div on landing 6th Airborne on crossing Orne Bridges
Where did you land and at what time? H + 1/2 hr app. 6th June Ouistreham [for?] the casino then on to to gun battery then to [hanger?].
What yas your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Private 24 yrs old
Were you married at that time? No
What is your wife's name? ENA
Did you nave any children at that time? No
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? I think really from early days of planning although place of landing was not known until we were at sea 4-5th June
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? Pleasant on the parent craft the old 'Maid of Orleans' she was afterwards mined. Very choppy on landing craft Immense pride at being part of the invasion fleet the scene off south sea on the 4th June was terrific A lot of cards were played with new invasion money (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.) Not really. Remember we were experienced soldiers. Some thought it may be "Another Exercise." But even this rumour was not valid after 4th June. We were very anxious that the operation should [underline] not [end underline] be cancelled.
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No.
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2.
Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? Many
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? [crossed out] My troop leader was convinced he would be killed and [end crossed out]
Were you wounded? Not until D + 2 or 3
How were you wounded? Shrapnel - head (not too serious) i.e I'm normal
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? Like being hit on the back of the head with a sledge hammer.
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? The way men who were hit bowled over like shot rabbits. I've never shot at or destroyed an animal since that day.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? As we were embarking on the landing craft from Parent Ship, I saw the little winking lights in the dawn light. They were the lights on the life jackets of sailors whose ship had hit a mine. Nobody seemed to bother but I thought of the tragedy that was being [enacted?]
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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? A friend who had a nasty wound - a bullet through his shoulder, saluting his troop leader who was sheltering from mortar fire, with his H.O. around him, and asking for permission to fall out to get his wound dressed.
This friend is an ex public school boy and very [pulha?]. I've given his address below.
We are still very good friends
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?
Eric Bates Briggs Wimborne Stoughton Drive North Leichter
The Secretary Army Commando Old Comrades Association
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Could you mention the [wonl?] of the Pioneer Corps [stretcher?] beavers who landed with the beach groups? They are never mentioned in any book I've read. These men, working I believe, under the direction of R.A.M.C., did a wonderful job without the glamour of belonging to a crack unit like ours on the [parachutist?] The name really also applies to the allies beach groups working on bringing in supplies.
I have vivid memories of R.E.s building a bridge over the Orne under shell fire but this must have been D+2
Tremendous liason between Naval F.O.O and their battle [cousins?] [bringing?] in support of us.
Some landing craft in front of us were badly hit. I saw the naval coxswain of our landing craft sit back in a horror then pull himsepf together for the run in. I think he was only about twenty.
Jon T.M. Mason.
P.S. I shall be pleased to answer any further questions or enlarge the above. Best of luck with the book.
J.M.
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BR E Sword
Private John Thomas Manners Mason, age 24 years old, attached to No. 4 Commando of Lord Lovat's Special Service Brigade. Landed at about 8 o ’clock on SWORD beach near the Casino almost in the centre of Ouistreham. As they were embarking into the landinc craft from the parent ship which had carried the troops over, he saw in the water little red lights winking. At that time he did not know what they were, but as they began their journey into the beach he saw that they were survivors in life jackets from a sunken ship. He did not know then but these were survivors from the Norwegian destroyer Svenner. One man in the water as they passed called for help but they could not pick him up as their instructions were to continue at full speed towards the beach. As they came towards the beach he saw clumps of dead and wounded lying on the sand and he was immediately conscious of the whistle and explosions of mortar shells and machine gun bullets. He remembers the sergeant beside him whose attention seemed to be riveted on the Svenner's survivors in the water, saying "When they hear on the radio back home about all this it will mean alsolutely nothing to them."
He had no time to philosophise as he was thoroughly scared like everybody else. He remembers machine gun bullets rattling on the ramp of his landing craft as they headed in. The young Coxswain sitting up at the wheel unable to take cover like everybody else flinched and sat back for a moment, then he sat up again and to Mason this was very courageous. He wondered how he could sit up there so calmly with people shooting at him. He got in to the beach all right in his landing craft and they dashed off the ramp into about three feet of water. Heavily laden as he was it was hard going to get through the water. To his left as he made his way he saw a man almost submerged who had apparently been wounded. Suddenly this man said "Help me, please help me," and to Mason’s horror he lifted the stump of his left arm into the air. Mason pulled him out of the water and then continued on up the beach. All around him now there was the sound of firing, and as he moved up he remembers seeing what he described as "piles of dead infantry of the East Yorks. In the few minutes that it took him to negotiate that beach he estimated that he passed through at least 100 dead and wounded. How did it happen, he asked himself, and subconsciously he blamed their NCOs and officers because he saw that these piles of dead had not spread out as they attempted to get up the beach, but had fallen in xx great bodies "like nine pins." To a Marine, a perfectionist in infantry attack , the groups of dead told their own story. He reached the shelter of a wrecked villa , threw himself down beside Corporal James Harris, lit a cigarette and said "This ain't no exercise."
After the section had assembled, they moved off on either side of the road and headed towards the battery that they were supposed to capture. As they moved along, they were heavily mortared, and suffered quite a few casualties.
At one point as they took shelter from the mortars , he remembers seeing one of his officers standing at a gate to a little villa talking to a Frenchman, presumably the owner. He remembers how odd it all seemed, in fact it looked like a Sunday afternoon conversation over the gate. Yet while the officer , talked standing up there by the gate, his men were all sheltering by the side of the road and there was the constant crash and detonations of shells. Suddenly a shell hit the edge of the roof of the house and in a sort of a slow-motion way the Frenchman and the officer were both on the ground, the Frenchman lying flat on his back dead on his side of the gate, the officer in a sitting position wounded. It had all taken only a moment.
They had practiced the plan for assaulting the battery against a replica for months previous to the attack, in essence the plan was a classical one which first called for artillery fire - in this case from naval ships lying off the coast , and then an infantry attack. It wasn't necessary to get supporting fire when they made this attack because although there was some skirmishing between the Commandos and the Germans in slit trenches protectin[g] the battery, the position itself was found to have no guns and, indeed, there was scaffolding around the battery indicating that they were still building i[t] as the time of the attack. However, it was during this skirmishing that a Sergeant Major got shot in the rear end, and he said to Mason, rather pensively, "When they take me back, how will I tell them this?"