ryan_box024-tld_f31_03

-for Cornelius Ryan 2-
Your name Ernest A. Jeans

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to
you that day?
No. But I remember rather vividly the
things that happened.

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during
landing or during the day?
No, not any of my personal friends

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before
they became casualties:
No

Were you wounded? No

Do you remember what it was like--that is, do you remember
whether you felt any pain or were so surprised that you
felt nothing?
--

Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny
now, even though it may not have seemed funny at the time?
When I landed, it was, of course, dark and I really had no idea of
where I was to go or any idea of direction. I think the pass-word was
"ham and eggs" and I saw this figure approaching me in the dusk and he
called out ham and I said " Is that you Dan Wright?"- It was - & it
was something we laughed about for a long time afterwards.
I also remember meeting a solider from "C" company of our Bn. which
had dropped as the Pathfinder Company for the whole Brigade & consequently had
jumped 2 or more hours before me. It was their job to capture a stong point

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic or simply memorable,
which struck you more than anything else?
[inserted] in the town of Varaville, either a radar or communications centre,
I asked him if Varaville had been taken yet and he replied, which
shocked me a little, to the efferct that he hadn't ever been to
Varaville.
The confusion of a night drop by so many airborne troops
was nevere repeated again. In the crossing of the Rhine we dropped
in the daylight. [end inserted]