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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6 N
What is your full name ? WILLIAM HUBERT BIDMEAD
What is your present address? 8. BLERIOT RD, HESTON MIDDLESEX.
Telephone number: /
What was your unit, division, corps? N°4 COMMANDO.
Where did you land and at what time? OUISTREHAM ABOUT 0545 hrs
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? PTE. 20 YEARS OF AGE
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 A MONTH PREVIOUS
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? RATHER CHOPPY - CLEANING WEAPONS - SINGINGS - WHAT OPPOSITION WE WOULD MEET ETC. SHARING OF TROOP FUND - LARGEST SHARE GOING TO ONE WHO KILLED MOST GERMANS
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.) NONE
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? YES
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? THANKED ONE FOR HELPING ME OUT OF [crossed out] BO [end crossed out] LANDING CRAFT, AFTER BEING BOMBED IN AFTER HITTING UNDER WATER EXPLOSIVE. [?SLIGHT?] ARGUMENT WITH ONE ABOUT ME READING NEW TESTEMENT.
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? ONE MAN GETTING SHOT IN THE BACKSIDE TRYING TO RESCUE OFFICER PINNED DOWN BY MACHINE GUN FIRE. WHITE TOWER SUPPOSED TO BE MASS OF RUBBLE WHEN LANDING, TURNS OUT TO BE STRONG POINT
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? THE CLEARING OF BEACH OBSTACLES MACHINE GUN POSTS ETC BY N°4 COMMANDO WHICH ACTUALLY WAS NOT OUR JOB. TORPEDOING OF ESCORT DESTROYER.
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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? ONE VERY FRAIL OFFICER FIRING AT MACHINE GUN POST WITH .45 COLT UNTILL EVENTUALLY HIT BUT REFUSED TO BE EVACUATED. INFANTRY DIGGING IN ON BEACH
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? CONTACT HENRY BROWN SEC. COMMANDO ASSOCIATION 36, WHITEHALL
What do you do now? BRICKLAYER
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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No 4 Commandos main objective was 1 1/2 battery and (illegiable) at (illegiable) on D'Day. The assault infantry (?) landed about ten minutes before (illegiable) to clear kill boxesand lay guide(?) (illegiable) of beach but failed in thier task as No4 Commando had this to (illegiable) with as well but succeded will (illegiable)
W.H. Bidmead