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- for Cornelius Ryan 2 -
Your name John Polyniak

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?
We were fortunate as we had but one injury on the
landing, a gunshot wound of one of the fellows in the knee, and later
in the morning a artillery shell burst in the air and hit a few more but no
one killed the
1st day.
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became
casualties?
Yes. We had a few boys from my home town, and we
discussed that whoever was fortunate to get thru all this firework
was to deliver the messages home and tell of the
occassion.
Were you wounded? Yes.
Do you remember what it was like--that is, do you remember whether you
felt any pain or were so surprised that you felt nothing?
I had been shot in the
right hip and it felt like a pin prick. Then the right leg began to
get numb, but it was more of a surprise than anything else before
I realized that my injury was serious.
Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even
though it may not have seemed funny at the time?
oDo you recall any incident, sad or heroic or simply memorable, which struck
you more than anything else?
The 1st evening on the beach as we came inland we were digging in
for the night. My buddy and I were digging in, and I dug
in the 1st turn and I lied down from exhaustion on my back
as my buddy was digging I --- kept looking in the hedgerow
above us and it looked so green and full, and I wondered
didnt say anything to my buddy, but got my gun with bayonet
and probed into the hedge and to my surprise 2 Germans
itting there with plenty of ammunition, they could have destroyed
both of us but they didn't. Just by faith they didn't, and I
made sure that they got safely back to our prisoner of war
camp at the beach.