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For Cornelius Ryan Book about D- Day
THOUSANDS OF MEN, ON LAND AND SEA AND IN THE AIR, PARTICIPATED IN THE INVASION OF NORMANDY BETWEEN MIDNIGHT JUNE 5, 1944 AND MIDNIGHT JUNE 6, 1944. IF YOU WERE ONE OF THEM, PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.
What is your full name ? Benjamin H. Vandervoort
What was your unit and division? 2nd. Battalion - 505th. Prcht. Inf. 82nd. Airborne Division
Where did you arrive in Normandy, and at what time? Approx. 1500 yds. west of Ste. Mere Eglise, France - June 6 at 0141 hrs. ( Was jump master lead plane 82nd. Airborne Parachute assault wave- Division pathfinder elements preceeded us by 30 minutes.
What was your rank on June 6, 1944? Lt. Col. I was promoted from Major to Lt.Col. at the take-off plane.
What was your age on June 6, 1944? 29 yrs.
Were you married at that time ? Yes.
What is your wife !s name ? Nedra Marlin Vandervoort
Did you have any children at that time? Yes. One son born April 13, 1943 - five days before 82nd. Div. left Ft. Bragg, N. C. en route to Camp Kilmer and Casablanca, Africa
What do you do now? I am employed by the Dept. of State having just completed a 3 yr. tour of duty in Lisbon, Portugal
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? When we left Italy and arrived in North Ireland on 9 Dec. 1943, we were aware we would participate in the invasion. That it was to be Normandy was revealed to us in mid-April 1944.
What was the trip like during the crossing of the Channel ? Do you remember, for example, any conversations you had or how you passed the time ? On leaving England in our flight across the channel we flew over elements of the seaborne invasion fleet. There stretched out as far as the eye could see were hundreds of vessels - all without lights - their wakes gleaming in the moonlight as they zigged and zagged in unison - all moving toward the French coast. The mass and magnitude of the coordinated motion gave one the sensation of being part of irresistable force that nothing could stop. Off to the right front we could see flak coming up from the channel islands which had been alerted. As we came in over the Normandy coast we stood up and hooked up ready to jump. Isolated fires were blazing on the ground below. Imagination told us they were aircraft already shot down. We ran into a cloud bank and as we came out of the clouds I could see our aircraft had begun to scatter. Flak in large volumnes was coming up from St. Mere Eglise. Our planes were flying too high and too fast. [insert] (Cont'd below.)[end insert]
What were the rumors on board the boat, ship or plane in which you made the crossing? (Some people remember scuttlebut to the effect that the Germans had poured gasoline on the water and olanned to set it afire when the troops came in ). I was standing in the open door ready to go - checking off the landmarks (highways, railroads, bodies of water) we had memorized during our pre-invasion briefings and studies. Suddenly the green light to go was turned on. I knew where we were and the signal was premature. The crew chief standing by me could communicate with the pilot over the inter-com. I told him to tell them to turn "the G. D. thing off" and wait and come down to the proper altitude and speed. The green light went out. We continued to fly as before. Up ahead we suddenly saw the green lights forming a T of our path-finder team commanded by Lt. J. J. Smith of Long Island, N.Y. As we came over the D. Z. I told the crew chief to tell the pilot to pass the jump signal back to the trailing aircraft. The green light came on again and out we went. The opening shock (due to our speed) was such that it tore off my musette bag and snapped blinding flashes in front of my eeyes.
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We were too high ( perhaps 3000 feet ) and drifted away from our Drop Zone. As I came down I selected a small field with a clump of brush in the center and slipped my chute toward the shadows of the brush to be able to conceal myself while getting out of my harness. The brush was growing in a slight depression hidden by the shadows. I landed on about a 45 degree slope - hit hard and felt my ankle snap and knew at once it was broken. I got out of my chute in the shadows. I was alone - and crawled over to one corner of the hedgerows surrounding the field. The ankle hurt and I shot myself in the leg with a morphine syrete carried in our paratroopers first-aid kit.
I then began to shoot up the green flares that were the visual assembly signal for my battalion. Troop-carrying aircraft continued to pass overhead. A bundle containing ammunition came down without its chute and exploded about 50 yards in front of where I sat. Troopers began to drift in in response to my flares. Among them was Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway who had jumped with my battalion- leading his entire division in the best paratroop officer tradition.
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- for Cornelius Ryan 2 - Your name B. H. Vandervoort Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No. But I had my battalion do so and have a copy as well as a scrap book kept by my wife. I am also enclosing as an attachment the first 11 pages of a draft of the 505 Normandy campaign prepared by our regimental staff staff shortly [insert] after the invasion.[end insert]
Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? Yes. Many.
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? No.
Were you wounded? Yes. See above.
Dc 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? See above.
Do you remember seeing- or hearing anything that seems funny now, even though it did not, of course, seem amusing at the time? The most amusing incident I remember was when I thought I'd been killed and I woke up in heaven. At the end of the third day of almost continuous fighting we were approaching exhaustion. It was just before sunset and my C. P. was being shelled by a German 88. I issued orders for the C. P. to move and fell asleep in my fox-hole. The next thing I knew I was waked by beautiful music. I looked up and saw beautiful blossoms above me. I knew I had been killed and was in heaven and thought "What a lovely place it is'." When they moved the C. P. my troopers had been unable to wake me and poured me into a jeep and then a fox-hole under one of the Normandy apple trees which was then in full blossom, The music was BBC broadcasting over a small portable radio one of the troopers had carried in with him. It was early morning and no firing was going on at that time.
Dc you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, which struck you more than anything else? One of the most heroic incidents that I recall involved Lt. Waverly W. Wray of Batesville, Mississippi. It occured on June 7. Wray had assumed active command of D Company when it's C. O. had injured his leg. Wray came to me to announce the Germans had overrun half of their position and had penetrated St. Mere Eglise. He asked for instruetion I told him to counter-attack. His counter-attack took the form of personally and all alone [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] going around the lt. flank of the enemy battalion and penetrating their position from the rear. He entered the German Bn. Command C. P. and shot him and 7 membersof his staff. This led to the withdrawal of the German Bn. When Wray returned to me his cartridge belt had been half ripped off his waist by a bullet. Two large bullet nicks were in his rt. ear- dry blood streaks ran down his neck and onto the collar and shoulder of his jump jacket. I said "They’ve been getting kind of close to you haven't they Waverly”? He replied “Not as close as I’ve been getting to them", There is much more detail to this incident - I still feel that Wray merited the Congressional Medal - however, he was given the D. S. C. Later he was killed in the fighting in Nimegan, Holland.
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- for Cornelius Ryan 3 -
Your name B. H. Vandervoort
In times of great crisis, people generally show either great ingenuity or self-reliance; others do incredibly stupid things. Do you remember any examples of either ? I recall an incident of German ingenuity in closing on our position. During the night gliders had also come in. One landed in our area with a jeep and 57 mm. anti-tank gun. I had sent the 3rd. platoon of my D Co. north to Neuville Au Plain to outpost the area and delay the enemy. I joined them shortly after noon on June 6 with the jeep and anti gun. Just before my arrival an English speaking civilian on a bicycle had come down the road from the north and told the platoon that other troopers had captured a large number of Germans and were marching them south on the highway toward Neuville Au Plain. Soon they hove in sight. A solid mass of men with tanks and self-propelled guns. Individuals moving on their flanks were waving orange colored cloths — our D-Day recognition panels. It looked too pat to be true. When the head of the column was about 1000 yds. off, I instructed a machine gun to fire a burst into the field to their right. The supposed prisoners took cover on both sides of the road and opened fire supported by the cannon of the leading self-propelled gun. Our war was under way. The 57 anti-tank gun set fire to the first 3 vehicles on the road. The D Co. platoon delayed 2 reenforced bns. of the 1058 Inf. Regt. of the 91st. German Div for 5 hrs.
Where were you at midnight on June 5, 1944? In the aircraft crossing the channel bound for Normandy.
Where were you at midnight on June 6, 1944? We were closing with the enemy at §t. Mere Eglise
Do you know of anybody else who landed within those 24 hours (midnight June 5 to midnight June 6 ) as infantry, glider or airborne troops, or who took part in the air and sea operations, whom we should write to ? Lt.Col. Wm. J. Hagan III - Peter Pan Rd., Lookout Mt., Tennessee who commanded 3 rd. Bn. 505 after the Bn. commander went in aid station at St. [insert] Mere Eglise[end insert] Major Eugene Doerfler - 11 th. Airborne Div. Augsburg, Germany S-2 of 2nd. Bn. - excellent source of fact. Lt. Col. Clyde Russel - G-3 Section, Hqs. 7th. Army, Stuttgart, Germany Capt. Charles Sammon - 460 Seminary St., Napa, California Lt. Col. " Red ” Pearson - Sun Oil Co., Savannah, Georgia. For a fascinating tale of a paratrooper captured by the Germans and who later escaped. . Col. A. A. Maloney - CINCPAC Staff - -Box 15 - San. Francisco, Calif (F.P.O.)
PLEASE LET US HAVE THIS QUESTIONNAIRE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, SO THAT WE CAN INCLUDE YOUR EXPERIENCES IN THE BOOK. WE HOPE THAT YOU WILL CONTINUE YOUR STORY ON SEPARATE SHEETS IF WE HAVE NOT LEFT SUFFICIENT ROOM, FULL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WILL BE GIVEN IN A CHAPTER CALLED "WHERE THEY ARE NOW; YOUR NAME AND VOCATION OR OCCUPATION WILL BE LISTED.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP,
Cornelius Ryan Frances Ward