Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 006, folder 41: Bernard J. Morecock, Jr.

April 22, 1958

Miss Frances Ward Reader's Digest 230 Park Avenue New York, New York

My dear Miss Ward:

RE: HISTORY OF "D" DAY, 6 JUNE 1944

My name is Bernard J. Morecock, Jr., former Chief of Section of Battery "A", 111th F.A. Bn., 116th Regimental Combat Team, 29th Division. I am now a member of the Richmond Howitzers, which is the original Battery "A" of the 111th F. A.

By being a member of the above battery, I served in the initial landing on Normandy Beach on "D" Day, 6 June, 1944. I have a diary, scrapbook and pictures which may be of interest to you for your publication.

In one of the prominent Men's magazines sometime ago, there was a story about Capt. Shufford on his review of the initial landing of the 111th F. A. Bn. on Normandy Beach, which lost 11 of the 12 105 MM Howitzers.

Capt. Shufford's duck and my duck were tied together to conserve gas, as we were not allowed ashore until Col. Thornton L Mullins, who was our Bn. Commander, gave us the order to land. We, not knowing that Col. Mullins was dead at the time, were within 100 yards of our landing point, which was known as "Easy Green" of our sector. My duck was machine gunned and shelled, killing 7 and wounding 3 men out of a total of 14 aboard, giving no hopes but to try to retreat to our landing barges which were to our rear out of firing range. Capt. Shufford and I gave word to pull back out of range until the Navy could shell the pill boxes that were still active at the time. Capt. Shufford's duck did start and back off, as mine was hit with machine gun bullets and would not start. We set there taking all the Germans could throw at us. The only thing that was left to do was to abandon the duck and the 105 MM Howitzer, as the tide was coming in very strong and pushing us towards the enemy.

I have further true information of the 111th F. A. landing "D" Day and through "VE" Day. If I can be of any assistance, please notify me.

Respectfully yours, Bernard J. Morecock Jr. Bernard J. Morecock, Jr. Rt. 4, Box 373 Glen Allen, Virginia

P.S. Sorry I'm late in answering.

no card yet

April 30, 1958

Dear Mr. Morecock:

Thank you very much for your letter of April 22nd, and for your willingness to help us with Cornelius Ryan's forthcoming book about D-Day. We have already had the good fortune of meeting General Purnell of the 29th Division in Baltimore, and having heard from him about some of the difficult and terrible surprises of the landing on Omaha Beach, we are especially interested in your description of the difficulties encountered by your battery of the 111th Field Artillery Battalion. Mr. Ryan is now in Europe trying to get the project under way there. However, I know that I speak for him as well as for myself in saying that we will want very much to have your story, especially since we have learned very little so far about the real experiences of the artillery people on Omaha Beach.

As your source of information concerning the project may have stated, Mr. Ryan hopes to meet and interview many of the people who offer us their help. These interviews will very probably take place during the late spring and early summer of this year, and we should like very much to know whether or not you would be available for interview in or near Glen Allen at that time. In the meantime, however, since the project is so very large, we are finding it necessary to keep an individual file on each of the people who offer to help us. We have prepared the enclosed list of questions in the hope that they will help to recall long-forgotten memories and incidents, as well as provide us with a very good basic record on which we can build the interviews which are to follow. If you are willing to help us further, we should be very grateful if you would complete the enclosed record and return it to me at your earliest convenience.

We shall look forward to your reply with great anticipatuion. Though we should be happy to hear from you as soon as possible, please do not feel pressed with this, for we do have at least a couple of months in which to complete our research in this country. We are very grateful for your good will, and for any further help which you can give us.

Sincerely yours,

Frances Ward Research Department [crossed out] no copy yet [end crossed out]

Mr. Bernard J. Morecock, Jr. Route 4, Box 373 Glen Allen, Virginia

P.S. If you would be willing to send us [?yr.?] diary, scrapbook, or pics. relevant to D-day, we'd be very, very grateful, etc.