Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 020, folder 41: Edward Walker Fletcher

FLETCHER, Edward Walter British 24 Beach Recovery Sec. BOX 20, #41

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

What is your full name? EDWARD WALTER FLETCHER

What is your present address? "THE NOOK" STATION RD PANGBOURNE BERKS.

Telephone number: PANGBOURNE 50

What was your unit, division, corps? 24 BEACH RECOVERY N° 9 BEACH GROUP

Where did you land and at what time? VER - SUR - MERE TIME H plus 30

What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? RANK. CRAFTSMAN ARMY AGE 20 1/2 CIVILIAN AGE 19 1/2

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? [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] I THINK 5 OR 6 WEEKS BEFORE. THE ACTUAL BRIEFING I THINK 1 OR 2 WEEKS BEFORE

What was the trip like during the crossing of the Channel? Do you remember, for example, any conversation you had or how you passed the time? WEATHER GOOD. SEA CHOPPY MAY BE THE FLAT BOTTOM BARGE, MADE IT SEEM ROUGH. I PLAY CARDS, and WON QUITE A FEW FRANCS. THEN EVERYONE SEEMED TO BE LOOKING A BIT ROUGH. THEY HAD THERE ANTI-SICK PILLS HANDY ALSO ANTI - VOMIT BAGS, AS WE WERE TOLD NOT TO THROW ANYTHING OVER BOARD. AFTER THAT [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] I REMEMBER SITTING ON TOP OF MY D8 TRACTOR EATING HARD BISCUITS and BULLY BEEF IT SEEMED LIKE HOURS BUT I WAS ONE OF THE VERY FEW THAT DIDN'T FEEL SICK. MAYBE IT WAS THOSE HARD HARD BISCUITS

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.) THERE WERE RUMOURS ABOUT WHERE WE WERE GOING TO LAND, ON THE BRIEFING I DONT THINK WE WERE TOLD WHERE WE WERE GOING TO LAND WE JUST HAD LAND MARKS + THE GENERAL VIEW OF WHAT WE WOULD SEE; OFF HAND I CANT REMEMBER THE RUMOURS TOO CLEARIM NOW.

Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? I TOOK A DIARY, BUT NEVER GOT ROUND TO WRITING ANYTHING IN IT, MAYBE I DIDN'T HAVE TIME OR JUST FORGOT.

2.

Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? YES. A SERGT. PATTERSON, I THINK THAT WAS HIS NAME WAS KILLED, ON LANDING THE SAME TIME AS FRANK and MYSELF I ALSO REMEMBER ANOTHER CHAP WHO WAS KILLED BY A MINE IN A SMALL TRENCH HE HAD DUG. I THINK HE HAD TO DIG IT DEEPER AND HIS PICK STRUCK A MINE. I THINK THAT WAS D-DAY BUT NOT TO [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] CERTAIN.

Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? NOT WITH PATTERSON AS HE WAS ON ANOTHER BOAT BUT I DO REMEMBER SOMETIME BEFORE WE WENT OVER THAT HE TOLD ME HE WAS GOING TO SEND HIS GOLD RING. (WHICH HIS GIRL HAD GIVEN TO HIM, WHO WAS A NOTHAMPTON GIRL) BACK TO HIS GIRL TO LOOK AFTER FOR HIM AS HE HAD A FEELING THAT HE MIGHT NOT COME BACK, OR THAT SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN TO HIM [crossed out] TRYED [end crossed out] I TOLD HIM NOT TO BE SO SILLY BUT HE DID SEND IT BACK.

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? ONE OF OUR CHAP LOST HIS FALSE TEETH I THINK IT WAS ON THE BOAT. I CANT REMEMBER WHETHER HE LOST THEM OVER THE SIDE, OR IF HE BROKE THEM EATING HARD BISCUITS - ANOTHER WAS FRANK COOKSEY, [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] WHO WE ALWAYS CALLED GEORDIE. NEVER SEEMED TO TAKE OFF HIS TIN HAT HE LIVED IN IT IF WE WENT FOR A WASH HE KEEP IT ON IF HE WENT IN THE SEA HE KEPT IT ON. HE WOULD TAKE ALL HIS CLOTHES OFF BUT NOT HIS TIN HAT.

Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? A SAD THING YES. SERT. PATTERSON I THINK IM RIGHT IN SAYING THIS. WAS ACTUALLY WOUNDED IN THE STOMACH. SOMEONE FOUND HIM (A MEDICAL CHAP) and GAVE HIM AN INJECTION OF MORHINE. AS LATER WHEN I SAW THE BODY HE HAD A TAG ATTACHED TO HIS UNIFORM SAYING HE HAD HAD THE INJECTION BUT I THINK HE DIED FROM DROWNING. WHAT HAPPENED HE HAD HIS INJECTION and TRYED TO GET BACK ON A BOAT AND PERHAPS FELL INTO THE WATER AND WAS DROWNED IF HE HAD STAYED PUT HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN ALIVE TODAY

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?

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 KNOW QUITE A FEW NAMES BUT CAN'T FIND THE ADDRESS

What do you do now? FOREMAN MECHANIC

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 J oan O. Isaacs The Reader's Digest

Edward Walter Fletcher

Please forgive the delay in writing. As you will see by my address I have recently moved from Lichfield to this new address, your letters have been delayed, and also I have been very busy.

Frank Cooksey and I have recently met. Quite a few things he has said I can correct and quite a few things he hasn’t told you which after all this time one is apt to forget. At the time of landing we were known as 24 Beach Recovery Section, the 875 Heavy Recovery Section we formed into later and we landed at Ver-sur-Mer, King Red Beach; I remember on the boat the Captain, was most disappointed with the shower as he called us, as we had no heavy weapons about the largest weapon was a Bren Gun, the vehicles carried no weapons. Most were beach vehicles, tractors, tanks made for recovery, jeeps, etc. I think he called us a shower with a load of prams and not a decent gun between us.

I am afraid I can’t write this as it actually happened. There is quite a lot, and I just don't know how to put it to make it sound right. To tell it to someone is one thing but to write it down and make it sound the same is another.

On the way to beach we passed under the big guns of a battleship. Would it be the "Black Prince"? I could see the shells landing about the same place as we were supposed to land. I could see the lighthouse or Tower which was shown to me on the briefing. Everything I saw from that barge I had seen before in that tent. in the Camp at Harsley just outside Southampton. The noise was terrific, boats everywhere, some coming, some going. On the barge Frank was first or second off the barge and I followed Frank when the barge door went down. It landed on a mine or shell and was blown back up. I believe it put a hole in it. I didn’t stop to look. I seem to remember a big roll of Summerfield Tracking being laid down from a vehicle in front of Frank and I. It was supposed to help wheeled vehicles over the strip of grey mud down the middle of the sand, but when Franks and my tractor went onto this matting we just ripped it up. On our left there was a breakwater wall. In it had been dug an 88mm. gun and he was still firing his gun. I saw him hit an R.E.'s Churchill Tank which must have been loaded with T.N.T. It went up with a terrific bank. I think the largest piece that came down was a back sprocket. The funny thing is no one seemed to take any notice of the 88. Then some time after they came out and gave themselves up. They had no shells left. After that things happened that fast. It is hard to remember anything clearly. Then there was the Churchill tank which got stuck and it was one of the very few which we didn’t get out. In the end they filled it in with sand and left it and as far as I know it may still be there. Frank was trying to remember the name of an officer who used to come and help us. I think he was the Beach Commander with a name something like "Lepson".

As the time went by Gerry Prisoners were sitting on the sand very unhappy. They seemed either very young or very old. They were the very first we captured. I believe the C.S.M. of the Green Howards was later awarded the highest French award for his action on D-Day. The Howards were our defence troops. Then the Sherman Tank which was going through the minefield thrashing the ground with its chains and all of a sudden its track was blown off. I think it was D-Day when we stopped for a cup of tea and someone took a shot at us from the woods. He wasn’t a bad shot. I heard it whistle not far over head. We thought it was a French woman as we had been told French women were doing a bit of sniping. It's funny, I can’t seem to remember any of my unit except Frank, as he and I were very good friends.

I hope this will be of help to you. I think to talk to someone from your own unit, one is apt to remember more with the cross talking, what one doesn’t remember the other does, and so on.

Still I hope this will help you a little and I wish you every success in your book and believe me, the Beach Recovery Section did a grand job of work. When you see it on paper it all looks very easy but i can say at the