ENPages
Page 6
June 27, 1968 Mr. Paul Ousa Mr. Vincent E. Kozel, Jr. Veterans of Foreign Wars Pittsburgh 36, Pa.
Gentlemen:
Thank you very much for your letter of June 24. I have just to Mr. Welsch, who address you sent me, and I hope very much that he will be willing to help us. We really need his story. The tale of Company A, 116th Infantry is surely vital to us and surviors are sadly scarce.
It was kind of you to take thetrouble to write concerning Mr. Welsch. We should certainly welcome any further suggestions which you might be able to offer. Thank you again.
Sincerely yours,
Frances Ward Research Department
Page 7
June 27 1958
Mr. Woodrow Welsch 918 Lebanon Avenue Pittsburgh 34,Pennsylvania
Dear Mr. Welsch:
A book about D-day, June 6,1944, is being written by Cornelius Ryan. It will appear in The Reader's Digest and will be published by Simon and Schuster on the fifteenth anniversary of the Normandy invasion next spring. With the help of the Department of Defense, we have been able to make contact with many men who went into Normandy between midnight June 5th and midnight Juno 6th. Since the book will deal with those 24 hours as men lived them and remember them, we can only go to the people who were there and seek to share their memories.
I can well imagine that that is not a day which you liko to remember. The story of Company A, 116th Infantry is a terrible one, we know. Still, it is a vital part of the D-day picture. So I hope very much that you will agree to help us. Messrs. Gusa and Kozel of the Pittsburgh VFW suggested that I write and ask your assistance. Mr. Kenneth Crouch of Bedford, Virginia has also helped us. Mr. Ryan will travel both south and west when he returna to this country after his present work on the book in Europe. I should therefore appreciate your letting me know whether or not you could see jim in Pittsburgh during the month of August. In the meantime, it would help me if you would complete the enclosed questionnaire and return it to me at your first opportunity. This is not our lazy road to a story--obviously, the picture it gives it incomplete--but the only means we know of making intelligent preparation for interviews. Perhaps it will help you too, by indicating the sort of material which we are seeking.
I will look forward very eagerly to hearing from you. Please help us if you can.
Sincerely yours,
Frances Ward Research Department