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LT. GENERAL JAMES M. GAVIN [inserted] - 11 Cliff Rd. Wellsley Hills, 82 MASS [end inserted]

I'm Lt. General James M. Gavin. I was a member of the 82nd Airorne Division during the
Normandy operation. As a matter of fact for a year or two [inserted] before [end inserted] and afterwards. At the time
of the operation, I was the assistant division commander. The division after finishing
the Sicilian [crossed out] Sulano [end crossed out] [inserted] Salerno [end inserted] operation went to Northern Ireland and then to England to ready itself for
the assault. I went up to London to be the airborne advisor to the supreme allied commander
for the plan of the operation. Our plan went along in rather normal fashion. We had to
make changes from day to day as the close steady which we were making of the intelligences
information suggested changes had to be made. The dya of the operation I went around
visit all the old veterans and our unit commanders to talk things over. The prospects that
we had we thought were not bad at all although some people Air Marshal A. Mallory particularly
advisted againsted the operation to the supreme allied commander. He anticipated very heavy
losses. We didn't at all. [crossed out][iillegible][end crossed out] We thought having enough strength behind us to on which
to base a judgment that losses would not be too bad, although it was going to be a pretty
rough show. Everybody readied themselves and wrote the usual letters home and all that
sort of thing and we were about ready to go. In my own case I took an M one rifle 156 round
of ammunition for th episot 45 and equipped with ammo and 4 fragmentation grenades, a few
days rations, toothbrush and comba dna raincoat. As a matter of fact that was about the
load of the average individual. The [inserted] SOP [end inserted] [crossed out] opinion [end crossed] of the division was that if you wanted
blankets or heavy clothing or better messagerget it form the Germans. They had lots of it
and there were lots of them over there. It was a pretty good logiscal plan. As a matter of
fact, psychologically it was pretty good too.
The eschelon that I took off with was the 508 Parachute Infantry. The 505th went in first
and jumped generally in the vicinity of Ste [crosse dout][illegible][end crossed out] Mere Eglise. I went with th 508th
and we took off from Carter's Morn in the midlands of england went right on schedule
as planned. As we flew over England the navigation lays that had been planned were
clearly in evidence. The airplanes were flying V of Vs 9 across about 36 to 45 airplanes
in each flying group, and it was a very reassuring start, I must say. We left the southern
shores of England, went out over the ocean and began to turn the corner around Normandy.
The islands, [inserted] [illegible][end inserted] that we had been expecting showed up out of the mist. Soon the flak begin to
come up from them and burst in plumes of smoke and flames just short of the plane and the