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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.