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- for Cornelius Ryan 2 -
Your name Maj Wm R CALLAHAN

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

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?
NO OTHER THAN ORDERS OR INFORMATION
NOTHING SPECIFIC

Were you wounded?
YES

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? I WAS HIT EARLY, AROUND
0730-0800- INITIALLY A HEAVY BLOW ABOVE my LEFT KNEE NOTHING SHARP. I WAS BOUNCED
AROUND A bit AND hit in THE FACE AND hands AGAIN NOTHING SHARP- VERY LITTLE PAIN
I MANAGED TO GIVE MYSELF AID TO A POINT AND GIVE MYSELF A SHOT OF MORPHINE - I
WAS PICKED UP LATE ON DDAY BY A RAF gROUNd REGT EVAC TEAM AND EVACUATED TO AN LST
LATE 7TH JUNE

Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even
though it did not, of course, seem amusing at the time?
AFTER I GOT IN, AFTER BEING HIT ON THE BEACH TO THE BACK of the beach THERE
WAS AN EIGHTEEN TO TWENTY FOUR inch BANK- SEVERAL RIFLEMEN WERE IN MY VICINITY TIRING
"BLINDLY" into THE cliff LIKE HILL to the Right of LES MAULINS. SUDDENLY I SAW ONE OF THEM
DOUBLE up on his sidE AND start JERKING. I THOUGHT that he had BEEN hit bad I MANAGED
TO CRAWL OVER to him- first I HEARD him gurgling These gurgles I FOUND too be CURSES
the SOURCE of his 'WOUND' was sand in the chamber [inserted] of his M1 [end inserted] AND he was holding the muzzle with
both hands and trying to KICK the bolt open to extract the SPENT CARTIDGE- I WAS to SEE this
ACTION REPEATED MANY TIMES- I didn't bother to CRAWL to the NEXT one that I SAW having
This Trouble.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, which struck
you more than anything else?
ONE INDIVIDUAL STAND out. AN ENGINEER SHORE BRIGADE Sgt who was
hit early in the face it LOOKED LIKE ONE EYE AND PART of the bone over the EYE WAS GONE.
THIS NCO WAS CONTINUALLY EXPOSED dIRECTING OTHER ENG TROOPS REPLACING DRIVERS ON
THE BULL DOZER WHEN THEY BECAME CASUALITIES. helping THE WOUNDED SOME FAR LESS
HURT THAN HE, I SAW HIM THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE DAY- FINALLY IN THE EARLY
AFTERNOON he stopped long enough for someone to put a clumsy field dressing
on his terrible looking wound.
I RECALL SEVERAL MEN DYING OF SHOCK WITH FAR LESS WOUNDS THAN
THIS MAN HAD YET HE CONTINUED TO FUNCTION AND TO BE AN INSPIRATION
TO ME AND TO THOSE THAT WERE AWARE OF HIM.