Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 019, folder 21: Michael Aldworth

ALDWORTH, Michael Juno Marine D Day

Box 19, #21 Release WPG

JUNO

0800 St. Aubin 48 RM Commando

X Finished

[crossed out] Also remembers Lt. Geoff Curtis & stomach wound [end crossed out]

Capt Mike Reynolds leading A Troop with both arms broken by m.g. fire

Landing Craft Sunk coming in so hailed an outgoing LCA "rather like hailing a taxi in Bond Street"

Note: It was Aldworth's Mortar unit which shot off the tail of the Spitfire D. Day evening. See Flunder interview

THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY

D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6

What is your full name? MICHAEL ALDWORTH

What is your present address? FLAT 35, 6 HALL ROAD, LONDON N.W.8

Telephone number: CUN 8261

What was your unit, division, corps? 48 COMMANDO, ROYAL MARINES

Where did you land and at what time? ST AUBIN (Nam Red Beach) at about 0830

What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? LIEUTENANT RM. 22 years 2 months

Were you married at that time? NO

What is your wife's name? -

Did you have any children at that time? -

When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? About January 1944, we were in Italy. We were suddenly taken off the job we were doing and shipped home from Taranto in early February.

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? Rough. I was sea sick, but oddly enough slept surprisingly well on the upper deck wrapped in a blanket. As soon as the events of the day began, I forgot my sea-sickness! Our craft, LCI (s) was highly unsuitable for assault landings, as they were designed for raiding.

Were there any rumours aboard ship? (Some people remember hearing that the Germans had poured gasoline on the water and planned to set it afire when the troops came in.) The only rumour was a firm intimation [crossed out] [illegiable] [end crossed out] that we as an assault unit would be sent back to UK as soon after the landing as possible. Actually we soldiered on for the rest of the campaign.

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happed to you that day? No

2 .

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? Yes Many By the end of D+1 the unit was reduced to a strength of 223 all ranks [inserted] from 450 [end inserted]. My 3" Mortar Section lost 5 killed & 2 wounded, including all NCO's out of a strength of 12.

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? Lieutenant Geoff Curtis had been wounded in the stomach in Sicily. On returning to UK, he found his wife had badly let him down. I think he went to Normandy hoping to be killed, and was in fact mortally wounded again in the stomach by a shell from a British Landing Craft.

Were you wounded ? NO

How were you wounded? -

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 may not have seemed amusing at the time? Or anything unexpected or out- of-place?

Captain Mike Reynolds, [crossed out] commanding [end crossed out] [inserted] leading [end inserted] A Troop with both arms broken by machine gun fire, dripping blood, advancing smoking cigarettes one of his troop had lit for him. The joke was that he normally didn't smoke.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? I recall sailing down the Solent, and looking across to Eastney Barracks, the HQ of Portsmouth Division, Royal Marines my spiritual "home". The evening sun was shining on it, and I thought of the many thousands of marines who had marched out of the gates to man HM Ships and to take part in all sorts of wars & campaigns and of the many who did not return. I hoped that I would!

3. In times of great crisis, people generally show either great ingenuity or self-reliance; others do incredibly strange or stupid things. Do you remember any examples of either? My craft was sunk on the run in, with a number of casualties. We hailed an out-going LCA [crossed out] [commandeered] [end of cross out] rather like hailing a taxi in Bond Street. The Coxswain came alongside & embarked us, took our wounded to a Canadian Destroyer, and then landed us on our beach, where I was greeting with a tin of self-heating soup. It was v. welcome.

Do you know of anybody else who landed within the 24 hours (midnight 5 June to midnight 6 June) either as infantry, glider or airborne troops, whom we should write to? Major-General J.L Moulton CB. DSO. OBE AWHQ Whitehall S.W.1 Major D.J. Flinder MC. VRD RMFVR Berg Cottage Barkway Herts. W. Blyth. (ex Sergeant) "Walcheren", Pecks Hill Nazeing Essex Captain P.G. Cowper 7 Westbury Road Moor Park, Northwood Middx (he commanded the Royal Marines detachment in LCF37) Arthur Thornton 15 JERDAN PLACE LONDON S.W.6

What do you do now?

I work on the advertising side of "The National Builder" am a captain in the RMFVR

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."

Cornelius Ryan Joan O. Isaacs The Reader's Digest

The Reader's Digest THE READERS DIGEST ASSOCIATION LIMITED TELEPHONE: CITY 4342 7 OLD BAILEY LONDON EC4

CABLES: READIGEST, LONDON

INTERVIEW WITH LT. MICHAEL ALDWORTH

Lt. Michael Aldworth was 22 years old in 1944 at the time of D-Day and was a member of the 48th Commando of the Royal Marines. He landed at Juno beach at St. Aubin at about 8 o'clock that morning. Aldworth was in charge of the three inch mortar crew and he had twelve men in his unit. By the end of that morning some idea of the casualties can be appreciated from the fact that he had only four men left. He came in in an L.C.I. which carried approximately 70 men. He was sea-sick the whole way over, but oddly enough he slept surprisingly well on the upper deck, wrapped in a blanket, during the night. He noted that the L.C.I. was highly unsuited for an assault landing, they were originally designed for raiding only. The only rumour that Aldworth heard on the way over was an intimation that because they were in the initial assault waves they would be withdrawn after a few weeks and returned to Great Britain. Indeed, he understood that they were expected to be brought back to Great Britain as soon as possible after the landing. He was later to learn, however, that this rumour could not be true; they fought on for the rest of the campaign. On the way over one of the troop's lieutenants, a Lt. Jeff Kurgess, who had been wounded in the stomach in Sicily, had seemed preoccupied. He had made up his mind that he would be killed in the Normandy campaign. Aldworth never quite knew why, but he suspected that Kurgess had had some sort of domestic difficulties because on several occasions he had told him that he didn't care one way or the other whether he was killed in the landing or not. It so happens anyway that he was mortally wounded again in the stomach by a shell, and oddly enough a shell from a British landing craft.

DE WITT WALLACE, U.S.A. LILA BELL WALLACE, U.S.A. LUCIUS F. CRANE T.G.M. MARMAN MANAGING DIRECTOR