Box 025, folder 13: Frederick Thomas Saunders

GOLD

Midday Arromanches

1st Canadian but on Gold (?)

Brought in vehicles [?Dubious?]

Finished

Release SAUNDERS, FREDERICK THOMAS

Int. 1st Canadian Army, Gold

Box 25, #13

GOLD

THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY

D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6

What is your full name? FREDERICK THOMAS SAUNDERS

What is your present address? 202 SOUTHCOTE LANE READING BERKS

Telephone number: -

What was your unit, division, corps? 115 COY RASC 1ST CANADIAN ARMY

Where did you land and at what time? ARROWMANCHES (ABOUT MIDDDAY) [inserted] ?Juno [end inserted]

What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? L/CPL 24 YRS

Were you married at that time? NO

What is your wife's name? -

Did you nave any children at that time?-

When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? (ABOUT MID-DAY)

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? TRIP WAS TENSE (MEN TAKING JACK KNIFES FROM OFF THEIR BELTS AND PUTTING THEM OPEN DOWN THEIR SOCK SO THEY COULD GET THEM EASILY) MEN SELECTING PALS AND AGREEING NOT TO PART IN CASE OF TROUBLE.

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.) THE ONLY RUMOUR I HEARD WAS THE BOATS WOULD DROP US AND THEN LEAVE US THERE AND IF WE FAILED WE COULDNT GET BACK.

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? NOT PERSONAL FRIENDS

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties?

Were you wounded? NO

How were you wounded?-

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? WE HAD SOME VEHICLES ON DECK WHICH HAD BEEN CHAINED TO THE DECK FOR THE CROSSING BUT WAS RELEASE FOR QUICK LANDING. WE WERE LAYING UNDER THESE FOR COVER. THE FLAT BOTTOM BOAT WAS TIPPING ALL WAYS WITH THE WAVES AND ONE MINUTE THE WHEELS WOULD BOUNCE TOWARDS YOU AND THEN AWAY ONE MAN LOOKED OVER THE SIDE AT THE BEACH AND SAID THE SAND WAS NEARLEY COVERED WITH DEAD BODIES. WE LATER FOUND THIS WAS OUR TROOPS LANDING AND PRISONERS WAITING TO BE TAKEN ON THE BOATS.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? WE HAD SAND BAGS ON THE CAB FLOORS OF THE VEHICLES IN CASE OF RUNNING OVER LAND MINES, ONE DRIVER WAS SCARRED TO DRIVE HIS VEHICLE OFF THE BOAT BECAUSE IT WAS REPORTED THAT THE SAND ON THE BEACH WAS FULL OF MINES, A LITTLE COCKNEY BOY ONLY 18 YRS TOOK THE SAND BAGS FROM HIS CAB AND GAVE THEM TO THIS OTHER DRIVER FOR FURTHER PROTECTION TO HIS LEGS.

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? I SAW MEN POUR COLD WATER OVER THEIR HEADS, THEY SAID IT WAS TO MAKE THEM FEEL FRESH AND ALERT.? BUT THIS WAS DONE TO HIDE THE TEARS WHICH WAS RUNNING FROM THEIR EYES AND FEAR (I WAS ONE OF THESE) (WE CARRIED TWO JERRY CANS OF FRESH WATER ON EACH VEHICLE FOR EMERGENCY.)

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? NO

What do you do now? (SHIFTWORK) FOREMAN SUPERVISOR IN A POWER STATION.

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

I WOULD NOT LIKED TO BE MENTIONED IN YOUR BOOK AS SOME OF THESE MEN MAY FEEL ASHAMED TO KNOW THAT OTHERS SAW THEM AND THE THINGS THEY DID IN FEAR.

THE MAN I THINK MOST UNCONCERNED LOOKING BACK WAS THE BEACHMASTER. ALL HE SEEMED TO THINK OF WAS CLEARING THE BEACH OF MEN AND VEHICLES TO MAKE ROOM FOR OTHER LANDING CRAFT TO RUN IN. THIS HE MADE OBVIOUS BY HIS LANGUAGE AND SHOUTING ABOVE THE NOISE OF THE TANKS THAT WAS THRASHING THE SAND WITH CHAINS TO EXPLODE THE MINES

BR E [crossed out] [illegible] Gold? [end crossed out] [inserted] GOLD [end inserted] [crossed out] JUNO? [end crossed out]

Lance Corporal Frederick Thomas Saunders - "Sandy" - with 115th Company of R.A.S.C. attached to 1st Canadian Army landed from an LCT containing 6 vehicles and 40 men at Arromanches on Gold Beach about midday. Their objective was to take the six vehicles which were filled with metal stripping and lay an airstrip at a place called Tillyville. However, Tillyville had not been taken by the time they landed and so they were stuck on the beach.

On the way over he saw men sharpening their jackknives and putting them down their socks; men selecting pals and agreeing not to part in case of trouble. As they came in they came under some fire and they were told to lie beneath their trucks. The couplings holding the trucks steady had been released so that they could quickly run off the LCT but now as they lay underneath their vehicles for cover the vehicles would gradually bounce sideways towards them - from one side to another. He rememgers one man looking over [crossed out] his [end crossed out] the side of the beach and saying the sand is nearly covered with dead bodies." He heard men around him saying "Christ what are we getting in to" and then as a landing craft passed them leaving the shore, another man saying "I wish I was going back on that one".

To avoid mines, sandbags had been placed in the bottoms of the lorries. One driver was so worried that he would be blown up, that he was quite distraught. As they came in to land they saw anNaval Petty Officer running along the beach. Suddenly he ran over a mine and was blown up. This really upset the driver and an 18 year old Cockney named Private Pavitt tossed his sandbags across to=the anxious driver and said, "there are you are, mate, if my name is on it, I'm going to get it anyway". They got their trucks on to the beach and then they were told to move them off the beach and line them up by a hedge in the field back of the beach. There they remained all day. They were in the position of having towait until the objective at Tillyville had been taken. Their 3 ton trucks were camouflaged and themen dug slit trenches underneath them, where they sheltered throughout the day. They were shelled, mortared and shot at all that day and Saunders recounts how he saw, "Men crying because of the tension and because of downright fear". Somewhow he said, "the fact that they had to stay on the beach under all this shelling terrified them". "They feared", he said, "that they would be pushed back into the sea". He saw men "pour water over their faces from 5 gallon cans" as he puts it "to hide the tears which were running from their eyes from fear".

Note I don't believe this man, if the above is so, all I can is the whole group of them were cowards.