Box 025, folder 34: Donald J. Wilkins

WILKINS, Donald

Canadian 1st Can. Parachute 6th Brit. Airborne

Box 25, #34

Major Donald Wilkins age 29 on D-Day, married Feb. prior to D-Day 64 Garfield Avenue EMPRIE 3-1303 (OFFICE) Toronto Now in Investment Business

Was with 1st Canadian Paracuhute Battalion, 6th Brit, Airbo[crossed out]u[end of crossed out]rne Div.

Now has nice house in suburban Toronto with 3 kids and noisy, almost hard, wife. He is quiet, soft-spoken, pleasant, unassuming with a reddish complexion. Seems still to be young and innocent, although he definitely isn't. He smiles and swears a lot, but quietly. He was wounded on June 8th at 2:30 p.m. in his left temporal region and kept command until two days later when he lost his speech. He now has a deep scar on his head, which is balding now. Probably was a blond.

[crossed out] His wife was in Southern England at a base working in a canteen on D-Day. She is a Canadian but spent 20 years in England. She said that on the night before D-Day, they saw hundreds of planes overhead with their lights on. This was unheard of in wartime England, so they knew that the big invasion must be on. She knew her husband was in it because he'd been put in confinement 10 days prior to D-Day near Cirencester. Her husband said the planes turned their light off after they left the coast.[end of crossed out] [illegible] Mrs. Hilborn

The night before D-Day, they had dinner, and left for the airport just after dusk. They were loaded with their equipment at 9:30 and sat down to wait. It didn't bother them because the army consists of always waiting for something. They emplaned about midnight and tried to sleep before and during the ride because they knew it would be along time before they slept again. He said the feeling going over was typical of the one he had every time he jumped -- wanting to go to the john every 10 minutes, and many many butterflies.[crossed out]2[end of crossed out]

They jumped about 1:30 a.m. and were to land at Varaville, about 2 miles inland, north of La Dives river and were to blow the bridge over the Dives. There was a chateau to the west of Varaville which an assault company was to take about 1/2 hour before them.

Don landed in an orchard and had no idea where he was. It takes about 10-15 seconds to go down -- chute opens automatically [crossed out] at [end of crossed out][inserted] AFTER [end of inserted] 75 feet. The rip cord was pulled automatically as they left the aircraft, and all they had to do was to release the equipment attached to their right leg. The equipment would drop down before them, but still be attached so they could find it easily. Americans dropped their equipment separately and had a devil of a time finding it.

They were dropped at about 500 feet -- the moon was watery and blacked out. Don went through a tree and his sten gun gave him a helluva bang on his knee -- the tender part.

It was a still night and the channel appeared very calm from the air. There was no firing as you bailed out, but you could hear small arms fire in the distance.

The big worry going down was [crossed out] find [end of crossed out] trying to locate yourself. You worried that you were away from the dropping zone, and Don was 2 1/2 miles away. Problem was to find your zone, which you'd studied from the air[crossed out] p [end of crossed out] maps, and then blow up the bridge.

- 2 - Wilkins

Don's batman dropped right close to him, and they went out to a road they'd noticed on the way down and then on to a road junction. The junction had signs, but they didn't know which direction was which. Thoroughly confused, with firing going on to the west of them, they decided to go toward the firing, figuring this was the assault group that had gone in before them.

As it turned out, it was a glider dropping zone. They walked toward it in the ditch along the road and tried not to make noise. Their boots had tin heels and were very noisy. Ditch was about 2 feet deep. Came across a small barn and went inside and lit a match to try to figure their position from the maps. No luck. They could see tracer bullets in the distance, and a few hours later, when they got to flat land, they could see the gliders.

While walking along, around 2 a.m., Don came to a quarry -- a factory where they make garden figures. Don said he was sneaking by the factory when suddenly he saw those "bloody figures" on the lawn and he thought they were Germans and hit the dust damned fast. [crossed out][illegible][end of crossed out] Then, when they didn't move, or fire, he had a good laugh on himself.

Around 3-4 a.m., they began to hear the heavy fire of the invasion. And there was terrific bombing in the morning -- a whale of an attack. It was like fireworks at their noisiest point. And as the day progressed, the noise increased, with a steady crescendo. He remembers seeing a bomber hit way in the distance and it suddenly become a mushroom of flame.

Germans were around the glider zone - - 2-500 yard range, firing at the gliders. There was a glider pilot with each of the gliders, and Don asked one of them, "Where the hell am I?" The pilot showed him his map, and told him where he had to go. The glider pilot was going in the same direction (glider pilots are evacuated as soon as possible since they're so valuable) and Don decided he'd progress to their second rendezvous, since he'd missed the first and the bridge was most likely blown by now. There were 20-30 gliders in this area-- to bring in heavy equipment, up to 25-pound guns -- as big a DC-6s.

It was about 5:30 a.m. when they started for the second rendezvous. Around 6:30 someone took a pot shot at him, and then this large Polish lad, who had dug himself into a round pothole in the corner of a hedge, jumped up, threw down his gun with arms in the air and shouted, "Me Po[inserted] l [end inserted]ska, Me Po[inserted] l [end inserted]ska." So he was their first prisoner. Don [crossed out] told him [end of crossed out] took his gun and told him to go back to a farmhouse nearby and wait for him there, which he did.

He got to the second rendezvous about dawn and waited there for the bunch to regroup. Spent the day scouting for Germans. Actually the troops there were mostly conscription troops. German[crossed out]s[end of crossed out] mobile reserves, which they met later, were back 15-20 miles.

Sometime in the middle of the morning, Don went back to the farmhouse he'd seen. Inside the house were no Germans, but a fortyish woman who was "certainly no raving beauty." He wanted eggs, since they hadn't seen any fresh eggs for over 2 years. So they had fun testing their French trying to exchange a chocolate bar for eggs. I asked Don how his French was, and he shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Well, we got the eggs."

- 3 - Wilkins

As he was walking back from the farmhouse, he stumbled upon a man in the ditch. He was a man he knew well - - Lloyd Adams from Manitoba. Awfully nice chap, part Indian. Quiet, pleasant. He knew his wife, and the man was dead with a hole straight through his forehead. He had been with the assault group that went in first. As Don cut off the [crossed out] second [end of crossed out] disc from his chest, he could see the chain of events as the news got back to his wife. There was noone else nearby; Adams had been alone.

Around lunchtime, they had gathered 20 or so men at the second rendezvous, and Don learned the bridge had been liquidated.

At suppertime they rounded up the food hampers the planes had dropped and passed food out. They nibbled all day on chocolates

Interviewed by Nancy Bashant

March 25, 1959

Mr. Donald Wilkins 64 Garfield Avenue Toronto, Canada

Dear Mr. Wilkins:

Some time ago you were kind enough to give us information in connection with a book on D-Day which is being prepared by Mr. Ryan for publication in the Reader's Digest in book form.

Due to the overwhelming response to this request, we have been deluged with material and have not had a chance to write to each and everyone as yet. However, we do want to thank you for being patient with us and to tell you how deeply grateful we are for your cooperation.

In order for us to edit your material for use in the book, it will be necessary for us to have your signature on the attached release, which we would thank you to return in the enclosed self-addressed envelope.

Again many thanks for your help.

Sincerely,

for Cornelius Ryan aw encl.