Box 025, folder 09: Jack Raich

Raich, Cpl. Jack CAN [?INF?] Juno

Box 25, #9

Jack Raich: BRIEF DESCRIPTION- INTERVIEWED BY NANCY BASHANT

Rather tall, dark, alim, almost gangling, with dark round eyes, a bit sunk in. Inclined to get carried away with war exploits. He was only 28 at the time and tells it as [crossed out] [fi] [end crossed out] if it were fun and exciting. Mostly he remembers the drinking in the French wine cellars, the thrilling fast rides of the reconnaissance through the towns, the flowers bestowed upon them, and the leaves in Paris. Very friendly, looks you straight in the eye, and is so happy to have someone to listen to him about it.

Cpl. Jack Raich (rank during D-Day - think a Sergeant now)[inserted] maybe more E [end inserted 4726 Grosvenor Hunter 84288

Was with Reconnaissance for Third Division - Age at D-Day, 28, unmarried

His division was split up on D-Day going in, and they went in with an assigned unit to operate as an independent network. (Each unit consisted of an officer, an NCO, and 2 operators.) [crossed out]] the [end crossed out] He went in with the [crossed out] Scottish Brigade [end crossed out Canadian Scottish Brigade from Vancouver, the 7th Brigade.

He was wounded in Holland in Feb. '45 by a mortar shell on the shoulder, but was back on the front in about a month. He got a French medal of honor-- [inserted] Croix de! [end inserted] Quadaguerre (sp?). wouldn't say why. he got it They volunteered for D-Day about 6 months before. During those 6 months they worked 18 hours a day, catching up w ith the others, learning signals, how to land, how to operate the radio equipment on sleds and so forth.

Two men were wounded on the way in with him, but he wasn't with them at the time, and since they went on the LCTs with men they hadn't known previously, he doesn't know their names or what happened to them.

[crossed out] Around 8 p.m. on June 5th they pulled out of England [end crossed out]

He first realized the importance of it all when they began to get real information and organization about a month prior to D-Day. They had been inspected throughout the time, by more and more important men as time went on. When Eisenhower inspected them, they were very impressed with his matter-of-factness about it all and his great confidence. Then they realized they were really in it and something was definitely going to happen.

Around 8 p.m. on June 5th they pulled out of England. On the way over he wasn't sick and didn't sleep. About a third of them men were sick, and it was VERY rough. Many tossed dice. They were given rumrash and seasick pills, which made them punchy and helped a lot.

Rumors on the way over were that the Germans weren't going to take any prisoners, but would kill all they got. Raich, I would guess, is Jewish, [crossed out] and [crossed out] so this would have special meaning for him. But he didn't believe it-- at least didn't allow himself to believe it, or anything unpleasant for that matter. They'd also heard about the SS -- the unit of very young,illegitimate children of Germans, whose parents had been killed. These were the ones to look out for --these were the ones who committed the atrocities. These were the dare-devil fighters to whom they should show no mercy.

On the way over, he remembers they played with the cannisters of cocoa. You lit a match fuse to warm it up. They lit the fuses under their coats, and then drank the awful-tasting stuff. They thought it was a tremendous invention, and one guy was planning on making a mint after the war celling it to supermarkets.

They could hear the planes taking the paratroopers in, going over their heads,and they were glad it wasn't them. They were wondering, and worrying what it'd be like. It was a split

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personality kind of thing, he said. You were scared stiff and wondered why you volunteered, but you were glad you did volunteer, because you'd been fed up with doing nothing in England. And the 6 months had been interesting, you thought now, working against time. You felt great confidence in the way the men had been built up physically and mentally -- you'd watched the paratroopers go on all night marches, and come back to work the next day looking refreshed. You felt as if you were being built up to a great symphony -- or the greatest football game of them all. You were almost glad to be in on the show.

[crossed out]I the [end crossed out] In the early morning, the tank on their LCT began firing rockets. It was the same on all the LCTs, and it was his job to throw the empty casings into the sea. One of our own typhoon planes was coming back, mission accomplished, overhead when the firing started. And suddenly, Raich doesn't know how or why it happened, [crossed out] some of the rockets [end crossed out] the plane [inserted] flew into [end inserted] [crossed out] hit [end crossed out] a barrage of rockets, and it took off his wing like a hot iron--sliced it right off-- and it (the plane) spiralled-- barrelled-- into the sea. There was no fire, no nothing, and it was so quick. Our own fire did it to our own plane. Up till then they'd, been joking, but now they didn't feel very much like it [crossed out] anymore [end crossed out].

He remembers being surprised on the way over that the Germans were [inserted] good [end inserted] firing back. He remembers someone saying, hey what's the big idea, they're supposed to be playing dead over there.

At D plus 90 (minutes) they went in to Berniere-sur-Mer -- probably about 9 o'clock. They were there earlier, but had to wait for flail tanks to clear the mines and the others to go in. They were anxious to go in, as they were a sitting duck on the channel.

Going in, he said, was just as it had been in practice. They went into about 3 feet of water, and brought jeeps out with them. There was a lot of wreckage and burned out vehicles around, plus many men lying around wounded or dead.

On the beach something went wrong with their jeep (which was to carry/ about 6 men) and he went to find Lt. J.O. Borlase. He walked about a half mile, around a church steeple where some snipers were, and in the process of looking around for Borlase, came to a haystack with a soldier and a French girl in it. Doesn't know who the fellow was, or how he got there, or whether h ever came out, but it took a lot of the seriousness out of the day.

The first message that came out of France came from their contact men, and it was eent by Lt. H.R. Turley about 3 or 4 minutes after the first wave. It said, "D-Day tanks have touched down."

They were in three different positions during the day, and their first was near this church steeple around 10 o'clock [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] They thought the Germans were using the steeple as an observation post, and they were waiting for a vehicle to come and blast the top off. (He didn't see it blasted off.)

He remembers being surprised as they went in at how much elbow room there was and at how far the Germans were pushed back.

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While on the first position, in his wandering around looking for various people, he remembers seeing Tpr [inserted] Trooper [end inserted] T. A. Poole on top of his jeep in the middle of the village square, surrounded by about 50 Frenchmen. The people were worried that the attack was temporary, and he, in very poor French, was telling them that it wasn't. So he would say, in this halting French, "A million British ..." (with a sweep of the hand) and the people [inserted] good [end inserted] would cheer, "a million Americans ..." (with another sweep of the hand) and the people would cheer, "a million Canadians .." (with still another sweep of the hand) and the people would cheer "and a million planes..." and the people would cheer.

Around this time he remembers seeing an infantry man, with an arm in a sling, on the oldest white farm horse you've ever seen, telling about 50 Germans to hurry it up. The Germans looked very dishevelled.

For the first few hours their messages were urgent and crucial, but after awhile there was a lull, and since they had their own network, they could catch up then on the news of their friends. They'd been separated in the coming over, so they were anxious to find out those who'd gotten it and who was okay.

Their second position, around 4:30 p.m., was 5 or 6 miles inland (first he said 12 miles, then changed it) -- right behind the infantry. First said they were at Carpiquet airport, then said they were almost there. At any rate, it took them 6 weeks after this to finally take the airport, he said.

Around 7 p.m. they pulled back a little.

At around 7:30 p.m., they felt melancholy when they saw the last of the twin engined bombers heading back to England. It was a nice sunset, and it was a beautiful, but quieting sight. Someone said, "They'll be back in time for tea." And someone else said, "You mean we'll be fighting this war alone?" And at this point they felt very alone.

That first night they stood alert in the shadows-- watching, waiting. They were right behind the infantry, and if the infantry was pushed back, they were the next to get it. There were no planes as he remembers, only the clanking clanking of the [inserted] German [end inserted] panther tanks.

The[crossed out] ir [end crossed out] rockets were terrifying and the night was grim. They were only 3-400 yards away from them [inserted] The Germans [end inserted] that night, you could see fire all over, and messages were coming in and going out like mad. It was too noisy and frightening to sleep, and they had to be constantly watching to know what their next move should be.

The next morning, though, (off the subject I realize) they felt as if they'd been through the worst and nothing could be as bad. The men began shaving, polishing their boots, and adjusting so well to their trenches and new mode of life.

Interviewed by Nancy Bashant