Box 024, folder 03: James Percival deLacy

2nd wave [crossed out] 7:30 [end crossed out] JUNO [underline] Delacy [end underline] about [underline] 0800 [end underline] 3rd Canadian Beach Control Group

Evacuated from Dunkirk iX

Come out, you bastards + fight us now Oh the bastards anything to drown me -- etc

[illegible] 1St Brit deLACY, James [illegible] [?per?] 3rd [underlined] Canadian [end underline] D In D-DAY BOOK Div.-- [underline] Juno [end underline]

Release [?wil k?] PG, Box 24, #3

[underline] THE ASSAUDT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY [end underline] Ack 3/6/58 D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 — MIDNIGHT JUNE 6

What is your full name? James Percival deLacy

What is your present address? 49 Southlands Ave Orpington , Kent.

Telephone number: -

What was your unit, division, corps? 8th (Irish) Bn The Kings Regiment. no 7 Beach Group. Att. 3rd Canadian Div Where did you land and at what time? Courseulles approx 6.40AM

What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Sgt. age 38. Were you married at that time? no What is your wife's name? - Did you have any children at that time? -

When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? 1943. For the actual Landing on [crossed out] at [end crossed out] board L.S.T.

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? Rough. Usual Soldiers Conversation and leg-pulls - played cards.

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 did not hear of any rumours.

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? no.

2.

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? yes.

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? One of the wounded was one of the Company Cooks. (a favorite with all ranks) happy go lucky individual, who about 10 mins before getting wounded, came out with his favorite remark. "Roll [inserted] on [end inserted] 1944, a wooden leg and a big row of medals. I heard one officer say to another. I know some thing is going to happen to me today, within the 1/2 hour he was killed

Were you wounded? yes. But at later Date in the Campaign

How were you wounded? I was wounded in Holland - Oct'44 and as this is a later date than the period at present covered I will not give details.

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 outof-place? 1/ One of the landing craft sprung a leak and returned to England, on board were our mine clearing party, and this job fell to other troops 2/ Most amuzing scene, was to see one of our senior officer , go to a French family saying " JE PARLE FRANCAIS" I speak French, I was in the last war. His manner was so abrupt that he scare the French family Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? 1/ One Sgt went aboard a landing crfat which had been hit and drove 3 lorris off, went back for the 4th and was killed 2/ a C.M.P chap stood up in a landing craft and was shot dead. 3/ A Private of the Canadians, whose body I found, evidently went down fighting. One could easily reconstruct the scene. Besdie him were 4 dead Germans, he had a bullet graze above his right eye (Continue' on separate sheet)

[inserted] 2-300 [?jas?] [underline] in [end underline] [end inserted] And he evidently Stopped to dress it, before [crossed out] doing so [end crossed out] [inserted] doing so [end inserted], he must have decided to have a cigarette, there were a packet laying beside him and he had a cigarette in his mouth, his field dressing was opened between his hands, ready to apply to the graze. when a unseen German shot him in the back of his head. Even in death he had a smile on his face. [crossed out] [underlined] 3 [end underlined] [end crossed out] 4 One of my Company were using a mine detector on a hill sloping down to the beach, when he got a buzz, on searching the ground, he found a metal frame, which cover the entrance to a tunnel. This was reported, and the usual precautions were take, prior to it been entered. When it was entered a dead German sniper was found. He had food for several days. The frame over the entrance to the tunnel was on hinges. Sniper just rise it, took aim at his victim, fired, lowered the frame which was camouflaged, lay low, and repeat the same thing later. No doubt he was on of the snipers which had been causing us trouble most of the morning. [underline] 5 [end underline] A funny instance, [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] was to see about 12 German prisoners average height 5ft 6ins been marched to the beach by a cocky Liverpool Irish Infantry man whose height was 4ft10ins [Underline] 6 [end underline] A Sergeant on Jumping out of an assault craft, landed in a shell crater on the seabed In a rich Irish voice he shouted the B------- are going to drown me, before I get a shot at them

3. In times cf 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? Yes. The self-reliance of the Traffic Control Section of the C.M.P. who kept the traffic moving as it arrived on the Beaches, often under fire from sniper

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? Unfortunately this Battalion was disbanded, and I was transfered to 53rd Welch Inf Div, and I have lost trace of them. Most, live in Liverpool

What do you do now? Clerk in Travel Agent. and now serving in A.E.R (M.C.) Royal Engineers. This is my 34th year with the army.

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