Page 6

Statement by:

FIRST LIEUTENANT CLAIBOURNE COOPERIDER
HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 2ND BATTALION, [crossed out]FILE[end crossed out]
[inserted]50[end inserted]5TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY
82ND AIRBORNE DIVISION

Stat[inserted]e[end inserted]ment was taken by a Miss Webb of the 97th General Hospital. The statement begins:

"On the 6th of June nothing unusual happened during the trip across the Channel
and through Western Normandy. There was light resistance on the drop zone which the
2nd Battalion [crossed out]FILE five[end crossed out] [inserted]505[end inserted] parachute infantry landed. We dropped from an [crossed out]ac[end crossed out][inserted[ex[end inserted]cessive
height which increased the difficulty of assembly on the ground as we were so scattered.
As there was no resistance on the —— proper it was not long before we saw the
flare designating the assembly point was seen and everybody headed for it. When I
arrived there, the Battalion Commander sent me and an interpreter several hundred
yards away to a farmhouse to acquire from a French occupant if they had any informa-
tion concerning the enemy and also to find out the precise location or to reassure
ourselves too the precise location. The Battalion's mission was to occupy and to
hold the area we were in which was a mile north and slightly west of Ste. Mere
Eglise at a town called Neuville-au-Plain. I inquired as to the amount of enemy
located and Neuville-au-Plain and asked for the location at this point, conveying the
information back to the Battalion Commander.

"We jumped at approximately 0137 hours and shortly after daylight the Battalion
moved towards Ste. Mere-Eglise which was the objective. We arrived there a little
later in the morning and went into defensive position. Later on during that day
around about noon, the first shells began to fall from enemy artillery in the North.
I was the Executive Officer, Headquarters Company, the 2nd Battalion at the time.
By late afternoon the shells seemed to be falling quite frequently. About dusk
I headed for the mortar platoon to check on their positions and to see if they were
properly dug-in. While talking to the Platoon Leader, who was digging a foxhole,
some gliders began to cut loose from the C-47 planes. Knowing that I was in an open
field and that any of these gliders might land on me, I jumped into a foxhole with