Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 020, folder 39: Bryan Ettridge

Release - Int. Brit. ETTRIDGE, Bryan 24th Lancers Amusing Fishing? Gold Box 20, #39 GOLD Dead

THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6 Ack 19/5/58 GOLD What is your full name? Bryan Ettridge What is your present address? 28 Lime Grove Twickenham Middlesex Telephone number: ----

What was your unit, division, corps? 24 Lancers . The unit was transfered from 11 armoured div. to the 1st Div. of the 4 div. I have forgotten which one. It only happened just before D Day.

Where did you land and at what time? Arromanches. Between 5-0 pm. & 6-0pm. What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Tpr. 35 years old.

Were you married at that time? yes. What is your wife's name? Constance Evelyn Ettridge

Did you have any children at that time? no

When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? About six weeks before at first we were going in D + 21 But then the reg. was transfered. (for extra armour) to D-day.

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? Smooth we were on a American tank landing craft & mostly the conversations were about, they were glad it had started at last & getting it over quickly & then back home. How many of us would ever see England again. we wondered what the folk back home would think & say when they heard the news in the morning. we put our names on the stretchers on the walls of the craft booking passage back. I had a cod line & hook & with a freind named Axtel fished a good part of the way. we didnt catch anything though

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 rumours. A few I wonders. you see we even knew by photos which field we would be in & practically which bush we would camp for the night.

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No. we had no time for diaries & besides that it would have been dangerous if it had fallen into enemy hands.

2.

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? not on d.day. but on D+1 plenty of action & casualties

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? I Remember one conversation it struck me as being very good & summed up the whole feelings of us all. My freind was badly burnt from his brewed up tank & as we took him back out of the fighting we put him on a stretcher & he looked up thanked us although in very great pain & said well at least I will be seeing Hamersmith Broadway before any of you.

Were you wounded? yes.

How were you wounded? Burnt & small shrapnel wounds. face & hands badly burnt when our tank was knocked out from a direct hit by a german 88 mil & we brewed up.

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? It was like being in Dantes inferno. We were advancing down the side of a wood Just in front of Fontenay & we were being fired on all the time. we reported back to that effect & had orders to advance slowly forward we were covering Honey tanks. I looked up & said we've had it & at the same moment the tank was filled with fierce - crackling flames. we were completely immersed in them. I put my hands over my eyes & thought this is it. I must get out. Then I realized there was no pain while I was burning. The flames were soft & feather like. But all my skin was honey combing like crazy paving. I was the wrong size of the 75 H.L gun & therefore the last out.

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. although it was not funny really - you will remember the air cover was Typhoons & they were painted white & black stripes - the air was full of black low clouds & there was a roar of aeroplanes overhead. we were all trigger happy at that time & had our guns trained on the noise. & aeroplanes dived out of a break in the clouds & we were so surprised we couldn't fire. It was a German plane. However following it out was a Typhy (Sorry Typhoon). & being all on edge everyone blazed away - Before we recognized it our plane dived strait down to earth & the Gerry got away.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? I saw one of our best sergeants blown completely in half. After going back to his Brewing up tank, to retreave Maps & codes & as he slid down the side of his tank with the papers a solid shot from an 88 Mil gun took his legs from his body just above the hips. When we ran to him he was still able to talk & said I should never have left them we pumped all our morphine into him. I also remember lying beside my tank D-Day night & watching the finest display of fireworks going up in the air from the boats or thats what it looked like. (Tracer Bullets).

•3 In times of great crisis, people generally show either great ingenuity or self-reliance 5 others do incredibly strange or stupid things. Do you remember any examples of either ? I remember seeing young men lying screaming on the ground from fright + brave men lying on the bottoms of three tanks + they couldnt even fire a gun from fear a man who shot himself in the leg an officer who was a bit of a (B) over here jumped his tank + laid there days in a ditch when a big battle was going on we were up against tigers + panthers + there was a bit of a panic going on an officer walked through shot + shell with a walking stick + gave us all courage + stopped the rot

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? Mr Thomas Woods 22 Green Lane Whitby (he was airborne + captured)

What do you do now? I am with firestones of the great west rd. tyre manufacturers development dept.

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 n Where They Are Now ” Cornelius Ryan Joan 0. Isaacs The Reader's Digest

The D Day Landing we did not land normally from the tank landing craft being driven close in shore + the bows opening + the tanks pouring out the captain of the American craft said the tide was turning + he did not want to lost his craft so we had to disembark our tanks about a mile + a half off the french coast The front of the craft did open but on to a thing called a Rhino Raft Hundreds of big tanks joined together with chains that bobbed up + down all the time connecting this to the craft was a very narrow bridge just wide enough for a tank to pass Each Rhino took 10 tanks I was driven consequently we were driven in shore sideways + had to take off in deep water all the tanks were of cause sealed + were completely immersed for a few seconds on the way to land we were manning the point 5 + 30 machine guns + blazing away skywards at enemy aircraft who were bombing us to the left of us was a rocket ship blazing away with broadside after broadside of rockets to the right a heavy battleship was blazing away with all it big guns + I remember watching the plumes of smoke hanging in the air further again to the left a troopship was burning fiercely after direct hits from bombs I could see burnt out tanks + bodys on the beach + a white taped strip landing up off the beach this was the path cleared of mines we blew off all the sealing fabric as we landed + were ready for action (I felt sick) I could go onwriting about it indefinately but perhaps you will let me know if you would like to hear anymore yours sincerely B. Ettridge