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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUN 5 -- MIDNIGHT 6
Acts 2/7/58
What is your full name? EDWARD BEAUMONT CUTLACK What is your present address? 'Rustlings' 47 FARM ROAD CHILWELL NOTTS
Telephone number: BEESTON 25-7855 (Office LONG EATON 700).
What was your unit, division, corps? Royal Naval Reserve.
Where did you land and at what time? 'Swept' the Canadians over but did not actually land.
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Lieutenant Commander R.N.R. 34 years.
Were you married at that time? YES
What is your wife's name? BETTY DOREEN
Did you have any children at that time? one son.
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? some months before
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 weather - making minesweeping station keeping rather difficult. Some conversations were remembered - I was on the bridge in command the whole trip across.
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.) No
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No.
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2. 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 out- of-place? Yes. We, the 9th minesweeping flotilla, sailed from Cowes Roads at 1255 on 5th June (from my note book) and swept channel No 7. We were (and so were two other m/s flotillas) in sight of the enemy coast long before sunset and steaming towards it - but for reasons quite unexplained, there was no enemy action against us - although we must have been clearly visible - perhaps 'they' thought we were 'trailing our coats' as we had done about a year before off Toulogue.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? Perhaps, the simple Church Service we held on our quarter desk after we had left Cowes - Prayers - including the one used before going in battle - so far as I know everyone turned up.
Also the thrill we all have when we hosted our "battle ensigns" - in addition to usual ensign - which had not been flown before although many of us have done years of minesweeping off the enemy coast.
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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? I believe it was within these 24 hours, when 'things' were 'exciting' - we continued sweeping over the other side all D day & there after - that the Chief Coxswain asked if he could speak with me a moment - he was also in charge of provisions - only to tell me that he thought we had not enough bread a board! -
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? Other Fleet mine-sweepers - "the spear-point of the spear-head - I can recall the names of the Commanding officers of the 9th m/s - but records should be [crossed out] avaible [end crossed out] available for them, I suggest.
What do you do now? Chief Instructor for the East Midlands Gas Board in charge of their Training Centre.
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."
(attached)
Cornelius Ryan Joan O. Isaacs The Reader's Digest
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I was the Commanding officer of H.M.S. 'EASTBOURNE' - a Bangor class fleet mine-sweeper - and attached to the 9th M/S Flotilla - (Senior Officer Commander R.W.B. Thomsan in H.M.S. 'Sidmouth').
We left the day before D day to 'sweep' about half-way across and then to return in our bit swept channel until we met the on coming invasion barges and then again turn towards the landing beaches and complete our sweeping.
We were - lucky many of us had swept in these waters together - but this was especially tricky - in the dark - with a strong tide and wind. Also we had during the run over, to change our sweeps from one side to the other - when the tide changed direction.
The ship ahead of me - (Com. Officer Betts) had a mine field in his sweeping gear and had to draw out of line - all in mined waters - it was about the top of high water at this time, so this may well have meant that the mines were sufficiently below the surface for our shallow draft.
The ships Company were all grand - it was, I suppose, extra exciting as it all meant so much - and so many of our friends were [illegible] - also it meant that should there have been a ship of the flotilla mined, she would have been left to do the best she could, whilst others pressed on. Under normal m/s conditions a ship would have been detailed to stand-by her - but these were not normal conditions - this impression still remains vivid with me.
[Edw B Cutlack] (Attached to questionnaire by EDWAR .B. CUTLACK)