Page 4

- for Cornelius Ryan 2 -

Your name Ernest R. Blanchard

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day?
Yes I did. I have a few incidents that took
place in it.

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?
We lost a lot of men in the
air when we dropped, also men were
shot while hanging in trees in their
chutes.

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?
It all happened so quick that it was
over before I knew what had happened.

Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even
though it did not, of course, seem amusing at the time?
Yes another
trooper and myself were in a [illegible] large
Jerry foxhole in a position that we
had taken and we were really catching
some hot fire from mortar's & 88's when
all of a sudden this trooper jumped into the
hole with us. He said they are all zeroed into my foxhole.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, which struck
you more than anything else?
An instance of a trooper climbing into a
tree in our forward positions. to give fire
orders back for the artillery to fire on
enemy positions that were on our necks.
with there dreaded 88"s. He certainly did
a fine job and their positions were
[crossed out]nuetralized[end crossed out] completly destroyed.