Box 023, folder 50: Colin N. Brebner

- for Cornelius Ryan 3 - Your name BREBNER. In times of great crisis, people generally show either great ingenuity or self-reliance; others do incredibly stupid things. Do you remember any examples of either from D-day?

Where were you at midnight on June 5, 1944? Crossing French coast Where were you at midnight on June 6, 1944? Prisoner in Troarn. - East of Caen, in prisoner of war clearing station wounded Coy(?) Do you know of anybody else who landed within the 24 hours of D-day, June 6, as infantry, glider or airborne troops, or who took part in the air and sea operations, whom we should write to? Donald J Wilkins - mother still lives on - Pricefield Rd, Toronto, Ontario I believe. -previously in Toronto last rumour Oakville, Ont. Fraser Eady - unknown. John Hanson MC ([? Maj. ?]) - now has apartment in Montreal, Que - last heard from. - an unusual character this one.. Please Interview him 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;" YOUR NAME AND VOCATION OR OCCUPATION WILL BE LISTED.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.

Cornelius Ryan

Frances Ward Research, The Reader's Digest

PHONE: Office 241 HOME 1734 Capt. Colin Nichol Brebner, now a surgeon in Kirkland Lake, Ont. Age 31 on D-Day, second oldest in Battalion, married with 2 children. A Medical Officer of lst Canadian Parachute Battalion, 6th Brit. Airbourne Div. We met Brebner in front of Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto where he is taking his certification exams in surgery the first of October where he stuck out his hand in a warm, firm shake and a calm, friendly smile. A very likeable, self-possessed gentleman, with [crossed out]a[end crossed out] light reddish hair and a few freckles near the temple, he knows the score. He's about 5 ft. 9 or 10, light complexion, with a left hand still not in good working condition since he broke his wrist on D-Day. An example of the way he would react was that from the instant he jumped from the plane, he knew exactly where he was, and said to himself on the way down, "Isn't this dandy," because he could recognize the chateau and the town which were on his maps. His batman who landed 15 or 20 ft. from him had no idea where they were. Brebner likes to talk and does it well. On the way over, Brebner worried about the fact that their planes didn't have self-sealing fuel tanks. Thus, if they were hit in the fuel tank, they didn't have a chance. Their plane was hit in the wing -- a sharp bang -- by anti-aircraft, but it didn't matter. The bad jokes he referred to in his questionnaire were remarks like, "How am I gonna get this damned bag to the door." The bags were attached to their right foot, about 70 pounds, and they cut it loose as soon as they bailed out. There were little round openings in the plane, but they were so loaded down with equipment they didn't peek out. Through the opening in the floor (through which they were to bail) they could see a calm channel below. There was an almost full misty moon, and Brebner saw one plane go down in flames away off. He was amazed at the tracers that looked so lazy coming towards them and then zipped by so fast. When they were hit, they didn't seem at all lazy. It was the first time he'd seen anti-aircraft. Weren't so worried about the Germans going over because knew noone would land where they were supposed to anyway, and they would all be scattered and have the Germans as thoroughly confused as they were. Half of his stick jumped, but one man got tangled in the line that held them all together (could dimly see him struggling to get free in back of plane) so didn't get out by the time the red light went on. The pilot had to circle around again and let the rest of them out. Felt grateful to the pilot who was probably in a big hurry to get home. The lad tangled up went back to England with the plane, Didn't see much of him because the jump is so automatic and so fast, even when you circle around again, that you don't notice much except a dark form in the rear of the plane. As far as he knew Brebner landed on top of a high elm tree about 200 feet from the Chateau at Varaville. He drifted into the tree backwards and his chute caught on a branch. He went through the routine of tearing [crossed out]him[end crossed out] the chute loose, and trying to reach a branch below him that could s tand his weight. Tried to make a rope of his rigging lines but in the process of getting out of the chute dropped without support about 50-60 feet. (Took 10-20 seconds for all this to take place.) Landed hard -- on his feet as he'd been trained to do -- knowing he had a broken wrist, since the bone was sticking up out of his arm. But when he tried to stand up after landing, he fell

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flat. His batman came running to him asking where they were. Brebner knew exactly where they were, and he loaded his batman with all of his equipment the batman could take and told him how to get to the rendezvous. They landed at 1 a.m. or so, and Brebner was alone on the ground until about 6 a.m. During this time he wondered how the others were reacting -- expecting to be frightened and not sure even if he was really afraid at any time. He was conscious of uncertainty and keyed up -- waiting for fear that never really came. left 6 or 7 am wrist broken so couldn't turn it over to see his watch (wh. was probably broken anyway) Toward morning the numbness wore off his wrist and the fractured pelvis (he didn't know yet that's what it was) and he reached into his pack for the serrat (like a toothpaste tube) each man carried [crossed out] in [end crossed out] (about 1/2 [crossed out] grade [end crossed out] [inserted] grain [end inserted]) [inserted] of morphine[end inserted]. A needle was attached. He couldn't move his left arm at all and he tried to open it with his teeth. He cursed himself for not thinking to ask his batman to give it to him. He thought he'd gotten it, though, and jabbed himself in the arm, but the morphine spattered all over the area. [inserted] & he didn't get any [end inserted] He could see bodies around him but not who they were, Around [crossed out] 6 [end crossed out] or 7 a.m. he could see men creeping up and knew it was the 6th Airbourne Field Ambulance who were to set up a Regimental Aid Post nearby. (It was light and he could reconize them.) He scared the pants off them by letting out a [crossed out] terrific [end crossed out] yell and they all hit the dirt, thinking he was a German. Ok Around 9 a.m. they were bombed[inserted] [end inserted] by the RAF, right along where their line of march was to be. When the bombers came over, all the group hit the ditch leaving the wounded, including Brebner, out. Noone was hurt. One bomb landed about 100 feet from him, and after the dirt came up from all over and was cleared, the RAMC M.D., Capt. Nelson, getting up out of the ditch and brushing himself off, said to Brebner, "Sorry, Breb, old boy, self-preservation you know!" Capt. Nelson decided to take a look around and then move on. He gave Brebner morphine and Brebner slept. When he awoke, he saw a German patrol in the process of dropping guns into sacks and telling everyone to be on the march. Nelson still hadn't come back and the boys didn't tell [crossed out] him [end crossed out] the Germans Nelson had gone to take a look at the chateau, since they hoped he could escape capture. Someone found a trellace and lifted Brebner on it. They left two wounded, and Brebner thinks the reason they carried him was because he'd helped train the lads and they felt attached to him. Didn't see this told to him by Nelson However, as the Germans marched past the chateau, Nelson stuck his head out the door and one of the Germans shot at him. Just as he shot, he noticed the Red Cross on Nelson's head and raised his gun just in time so that the bullet hit the wood over Nelson's head. The splinters came showering on top of Nelson's head and he thought he was dead. They captured him also. Brebner woke up again when the boys came upon a container with a stretcher in it and lifted him on it, discarding the trellace. These cannisters were dropped at various places by the aircraft along with the men, containing medical supplies and food. He woke up briefly again when they found a two wheel trolley [inserted] affair [end inserted] later to carry him on. They carried him [crossed out] a total of [end crossed out] about 5 miles in all.

- 3 - Brebner About 3 p.m. in the afternoon, they captured another RAMC surgeon from the 6th Airburne Div, and he gave Brebner pentathol and set his wrist. "hey were headed toward Troarn, where the British and Germans were fighting heavily. Nelson told Brebner later that when they got to the edge of town, the Germans were going to put the prisoners ahead of them through the town. But Nelson refused. Said shoot me if you want to, but we're not going. So they didn't have to go. They arrived at Troarn just as the British were pulling back, and they waited on the edge of the town until about 7p.m.

At 7 o'clock they were moved into a house with a courtyard and into a room with others seriously wounded -- a bout 12 people in all. Out in Courtyard About this time someone gave Brebner a cigarette. And when he woke up the whole front of his jacket was on fire, [crossed out] and [end crossed out] burned and charred. That night a captured British major attended them and fed them soup and tea. Brebner asked the Major if he[inserted] [end inserted]was pretty sick and the major said yes. They thought he'd cut across his urinary tract, but as it turned out he hadn't. It never occurred to him that he was in any serious danger, perhaps because of his medical knowledge.

The men on either side of him died as did many others in the room. You'd wake up briefly, hear a shuffle of feet and know they were taking another body out. First thing next, am At 2 a.m. they were moved on mattresses on open trucks to Caen. Caen was on fire and in a terrible shambles. There was terrific feeling there against the British, since they had [inserted] not [end inserted] given the [inserted] French [end inserted] underground [crossed out] no [end crossed out] [inserted] sufficient [end inserted] warning. But they'd had to bomb Caen because of a large German headquarters there. He was laid out about 9 a.m. in a sortof garage, and French people came over to him and found out he wasn't British ("Oh, Canadienne --" and then fast French babble, thinking he was French Canadian) and brought them wine and cognac. He remembers seeing somewhere along the line a man with bullet holes in a line right down his back.-

They were in Caen only 1/2 hour and then taken to a nunnery -- the Little Sisters of the Poor, he thinks, and were there 1/2 day. The Germans were wonderful to him, especially the medical men, when they found he was a doctor and a colleague so to speak, He was treated royally in prison hospitals. Were especially kind to him because he was Canadian & they have a Chapter in Que. Brebner said the only way he could describe his feeling at being wounded was extreme disappointment. You were of course glad in a way, but there was this disappointment too. You'd been training for so long for the big show, and now it went on and you weren't a part of it.

While at these hospitals or houses, Beebner asked for a chart from one of the nurses and began writing down various notes on what had happened to him. It was mostly just jottings for his own information, of no use to anyone else. Then the Germans came and they moved fast, with no time to take any belongings, so this account was left behind. A little French lad he'd become friendly with saw Brebner's handwriting, asked if he could have it, turned it over to an officer in Brebner's group. The officer showed it to the [inserted] Abt. July 1 [end inserted] commanding officer, about 22 "boy scout" working for undergrd,

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(The Officer) asking him if he was interested in something written by Brebner. He wasn't in the good graces of the commanding officer at the time so he said, don't bother me I'm busy. So this friend of Brebner's said to himself, well I know someone who would be interested in this, and that's Brebner's wife. So he just put it in an envelope saying "Dr. Brebner's wife, Kirkland Lake, Canada, and Brebner's wife got it. It was the first news she'd had (ofxikzbiex) that her husband was okay. And although she couldn't make out what it was all a bout, it was his handwriting, and she was over joyed to getit.

There was one man, e. B. Johnson (Brebner remembers his initials because he was always C.B., Confined to Barracks) who was in con -finement with then-on reserve. That is, he wasn't to go unless someone got sick at the last minute. But he decided to go anyway, just lined up with the others for his equipment, got a ride to the airport in a truck saying someone had sent him, and got into the plane without anyone knowing he wasn't supposed to be there. They found out three days later he wasn't supposed to be there at all and he was sent back to England. The way they found out was that an officer asked if anyone knew how to shoot a.? Pie-it gun (not a bazooka, but like it) and Johnson said he did. And when the officer gave him the gun, Johnson rammed the bomb in the wrong way.

[crossed out](Brebner was sure there was at least one Canadian destroyer but the others said no) [end crossed out]

Brebner told about the(British) Brigadier of the(Parachute)Brigade who was hit by a piece of metal in the rear. So his batman carried a pillow around for him to sit on, and he kept right on commanding.

Interviewed by Nancy Bashant