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- for Cornelius Ryan 2 -
Your name William J. Stivison
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day?
only memories
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?
A Lad wanted to go on a patrol with me, I ask him to stay behind. he was killed before we returned.
Were you wounded? not on D-Day
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?
Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even
though it did not, of course, seem amusing at the time?
I was to give captian Harold Statter the words "splash"
when the dawks hit the water from the LC.t. which I did,
over the radio (536). I was then to give him (Erase 1, 2, 3
etc-) when and if any blanks wer put out of actioin, one
was hit and as I started to say Erase One (1) his operator
was saying, we're sinking, we're sinking, we're sinking,
we're sunk. (They wre in a Landing Craft.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, which struck
you more than anything else?
Most incdents, that day was, heroic as far as the men were
concerned, and to me morable, many sad.\The men going in sant and watched Machine gun sluggs
hit the water a few feet fron the dawk, and a
couple of twenty millimeter's hit the Ladders above
there head, all we're as calm as if they would have
been just running another problem.
Frank Orapala and John Gillhoulley were wth me
on a Patrol on our Right flank to see if we could get
an emplacement - which we did not get - on the way out -
- over -