Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 019, folder 38: Arthur John Blackman

BLACKMAN, Arthur John Int. Royal Navy Release BOX 19, #38

Dead File

Ack 16/5 THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6

What is your full name? ARTHUR JOHN BLACKMAN

What is your present address? 8 PONTEFRACT ROAD, BROMLY, KENT.

Telephone number: -

What was your unit, division, corps? ROYAL NAVY L.C.I. 376 "ATT" TO THE 51st HIGHLAND "DIV"

Where did you land and at what time? SOUTH OF CAEN A PLACE CALLED TROVILLE AT 0640 DDAY.

What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? LEADING STOKER. ( COMBINE OPPS)

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? We went to the U.S.A. inJune 1943, and commision L.C.I. 376 on Portsmouth Virginia, we were specially train for the invasion

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? It was fine weather for a sailor, but O my, the poor Army chaps. I remember [crossed out] of [end crossed out] one poor chap was seating on the ramps of our landing craft feeling pretty sick, he said, JACK, I wish I could jump over board, take a deep "breff" and run, towards London, I had many other conversations, you might find interesting

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.) To be quite truthful, the soldiers we had on board were the Highland and Argyl, Highlanders, never had time for rumours, the were playing swing music on the bagpipes, the were well [?trained?] soldiers

Did you by chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? Diary were not allowed

2.

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? On my ship none, "thank God"

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties?

Were you wounded? NO

How were you wounded? NO

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? NO

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? As I have said in my letter, we were the first invasion craft to land on the beach, and before our troops had time to get off to Germans soldiers ran up the ramp and gave them self up, they were frighten but of there lives

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? The most [?touching?] thing I remember, on the eve of the invasion all the invasion craft were lined up, lines after lines of them, the sun was going down and you could hear the singing of the troops, right down the solent

2.

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?

What do you do now? I was born in GOSPORT Hants, at 18 - I joined the Navy. I am now employ as an engineer on the London Docks.

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

ARTHUR JOHN BLACKMAN... Royal Navy E NAVY Leading Stoker on LCI 1376

NOTE Doubtful character. Said he landed 51st Highland Div., but they didn’t go in until D plus. Also said he brought two nursing sisters over the Normandy on D-Day; they were taken back to the Solent on return trip.... No other reference anywhere to women in first days of invasion. The value of this interview is chiefly in his description of the troop spaces going over, the one or two phrases used on landing.. Mostly atmosphere material. Factual stuff very suspect.

I was a leading stoker on LCI 1376 which I had bought from Virginia to Portsmouth - 31 days of hell. We didn’t know exactly when the invasion would be, even on June 5th we weren’t sure, though the atmosphere gave the game away. Officers had been sealed for weeks.

At about 10.0 p.m. we started warming up the engines. It was about then that I knew it was the real thing. I was pretty scared. I remembered Salerno and Dieppe: At Dieppe they chased us right back to our own front door. At it turned out, D-Day wasn’t half as bad as either of those two trips.

We left from South Parade Pier, Southsea and sailed out into the Solent. My family lived just at the end of the pier, I knew the bay well, I had fished in it hundres of times... I culd see my home from the ship, and with binoculars could even see my parents. As we steamed out the men began to sing ) "Maggie May” - Tipperary - She's a Tiddly Ship, etc. even the people on the shore could hear us... but they quietened down as we began to draw away.

We had about 160 men aboard.. 50 to each "troop space". Quarters were pretty cramped and it was very uncomfortable. Being a flat-bottomed boat she rolled like blazes... men were very sick.. One soldier was sitting on the ramps, looking pretty miserable, green and unhappy. I said to him "What's the matter, chum?" He said "Jack, wish I could jump overboard, take a breaf (cockneys have difficulty with ’th’) and swim back to London."

The men were playing cards, gambling with the French money they had been issued with... "Co-op cheques" they called it... Mostly they played solo. Some wrote letters home, others were cleaning their equipment, sharpening knives etc... Some were noisy, boisterous, bragging about what they would do over there, women, etc., others were quiet, reserved, etc. Men were cadging cigarettes from each other and rum from us. We had a good stock of rum in Coca Cola bottles in our lockers, which we issued and shared among the soldiers.... Some weretoo sick to take it - "it killed them".

Some talked about their "little-uns" back home, some about their new babies. Others wondered about the bombing and the secret weapons. Men were ragged for saying their prayers. One or two men, Catholics, lay in their bunks saying the rosary... "Why don’t you make your will while you about it, chum?" they ragged...

The smell was awful. "I admired them blokes, poor devils." They were nearly all sick.. It was just the rolling, it was the smell of diesel oilthe ships seams were leaking, and our 'intake' had been damaged so all the smells of the galley permeated the ship.... The men were shut below, all hatches down, and with the oil, the food smells, perspiration, and sickness (when the vomit bags were full they were put in a bucket and later taken up) "it was ’orrible."