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Juno ack 29/5/58 JUNO E
THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY
D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name? SIDNEY ROBERT BICKNELL
What is your present address? 25A CHALSEY ROAD, BROCKLEY, LONDON . S.E.4.
Telephone number: BUSINESS OFFICE No.: - CENTRAL 8080 EXTENSION 630
What was your unit, division, corps? L.S.T. 410
Where did you land and at what time? JUNO BEACH. EARLY HOURS, AND AGAIN DURING THE AFTERNOON.
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? TELEGRAPHIST (T.O.) AGED 21.
Were you married at that time? YES.
What is your wife's name? JOYCE
Did you nave any children at that time? NO.
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? ABOUT ONE WEEK BEFORE JUNE 6TH 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? ROUGH TRIP. MOST OF THE ASSAULT TROOPS SEA-SICK. NORMAL NAVAL DUTIES DURING VOYAGE.
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.) RUMOUR LED TO ALL NAVAL X ARMY PERSONNEL BEING CONFINED TO SHIP AT ANCHORAGE IN THE SOLENT, FOR SOME OF THE ARMY D.U.K.W. CREWS PROFESSED TO KNOW THE EXACT LANDING POINTS IN FRANCE. THIS HAPPENED TWO OR THREE DAYS BEFORE D-DAY. I BEING THE SHIP'S "POSTMAN", HAD TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN OFFICER EVERYWHERE I WENT WHEN ON OFFICIAL DUTY ASHORE.
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? NO.
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Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? NO.
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? NO.
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 outof-place? ALL IMPORTANT NAVAL MESSAGES WERE PREFIXED WITH CERTAIN LETTERS ACCORDING TO THE VARYING DEGREES OF IMPORTANCE, OR PRIORITY. OUR SHIP, L.S.T. 410, WAS THE RECIPIENT OF A MESSAGE PREFIXED "O-U". THIS PREFIX WAS RESERVED FOR ENEMY LANDINGS ONLY, AND WAS THE HIGHEST PRIORITY POSSIBLE, AND, UNTIL THEN NEVER USED IN SHIP-TO-SHIP, OR SHORE-TO-SHIP MESSAGES. THE URGENCY CONCERNED THE IMMEDIATE LANDING OF CANADIAN H.Q. STAFF. WE CARRIED. Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? TIME DIMS THE MEMORY, BUT I DO RECALL FEELING SORRY FOR THE SEASICK TROOPS, WHO, ALTHOUGH FEELING ILL, WOULD BE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES WITHIN SECONDS OF LANDING.
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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?
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? LOST ALL CONTACT WITH EX - COMRADES.
What do you do now? SUB - EDITOR ON A WEEKLY PUBLICATION FOR CHILDREN.
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
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A Mt [?Mlinuven?] 25A CHALSEY RD. BROCKLEY, LONDON. S.E.4. May 16th. 1958.
19MAY1958 Q S. 19/5/58
Dear Sir, In reference to your advertisement in "The Evening News" last evening. I served in the Royal Navy in the last war, chiefly on L.S.T's. (Landing Ship Tanks.) Our flotilla took part in 3 landings in the Mediterranean (Sicily, Salerno and Anzio) and returned to England in May 1944 in order to participate in the Normandy landing. We carried Canadian