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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
ack 23/5/58
What is your full name? BERTRAM DEAKIN
What is your present address? 140 ARBURY ROAD, STOCKINGFORD, NUNEATON, WARWICKSHIRE
Telephone number:
What was your unit, division, corps? 1st BUCKINGHAMSHIRE BATTALION OX AND BUCKS; LGT INF.
Where did you land and at what time? LION - SUR - MER CLOSE TO OUISTRAM LOCK I BELIEVE IT WAS 5 - 6 A.M. JUNE 6th
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? PRIVATE (AGE 29)
Were you married at that time? YES
What is your wife's name? FREDERICA MARY.
Did you nave any children at that time? ONE
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? HAD GOOD IDEA WHEN TRAINING STARTED, CANNOT REMEMBER DATE
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? [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] ROUGH, DO NOT REMEMBER ANY NOT MUCH TIME
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 THAT I REMEMBER
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? NONE THAT I LANDED WITH
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties?
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? WHEN I GOT OFF LANDING CRAFT I STEPPED INTO HOLE AND WENT UNDER, AND AS I GOT TO END OF LIFE LINE SAILOR SAYS THIS IS IT CHUM GOOD LUCK. I SAID YOUR A BIT SHORT CHUM AS I HAD TO WALK A GOOD DISTANCE LOADED, WITHOUT ANYTHING TO HOLD ONTO.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? LOST HALF MY SIGNS AS THE SEA WAS PRETTY ROUGH IT WAS EITHER THEM OR ME
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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? I DO NOT KNOW ADRESSES OF ANY OTHERS BUT LOT OF THEM CAME FROM BUCKINGHSHIRE. BATT HEADQUARTERS WAS AT AYLESBURY DRILL HALL
What do you do now? BOOT AND SHOE REPAIRING
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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140 Arbury Road Stockingford Nuneaton Warwickshire [illegible] 15MAY1958
Dear Sir, I was in the 1st Buck's Battalion which was part of the 2nd Beach Group, our party landed after and took over the Beach from the 1st Kings Battalion, I believe it was Red Beach. If I can be of any assistance I will but as it is now 14 years later it is a job to remember names but they would come back with a bit of prompting, I do remember one name, Major Brocklehurst and his batman Pte Page, hoping to hear