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THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY
D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name? William Richard Fowler
What is your present address? Motor Yacht "Cherokee" Cubitts Yacht Basin, Chiswick, London, W.4.
Telephone number: Chiswick 7565
What was your unit, division, corps? H.M.S. Halsted.
Where did you land and at what time? Landfall at Arromanches.
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Lieutenant. 31 years
Were you married at that time? Yes.
What is your wife's name? Doris Alexandra
Did you nave any children at that time? Yes
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? One week prior approx.
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?
From a Frigates angle it was a comfortable crossing when compared with the Atlantic. I passed the time watchkeeping and sleeping, but most of us and the Ships company were up and about during the night, mainly commenting on the number of aircraft about bound for Normandy. About 0100 we altered course for Normandy and most agreed with me that they had a low feeling in the stomach, mainly because theexperience was new. We were at action stations from 0100.
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.) Time was too short for the rumours to reach the officers, but there must have been plenty, we all heard of your suggestion, but as we [crossed out] re [end crossed out] were not actually landing, it was just another convoy to us, but with a different flavour.
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No - it was all so much quieter than we expected. I wrote about it afterwards but it does not disclose anything exciting. We escorted 17 L.S.T. and 20 L.C.T.s.
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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? N. A.
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? No.
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? A signal received by us at the point of altering course for Normandy, appe[crossed out] ar [end crossed out]ed funny at the time, but not now. " From Royal Naval Film Corp. Rosyth [crossed out] [illegible] [end crossed out] Halsted. Film Programme No. -- urgently required by Halstead has been despatch by train today, request it my be delivered immediately". This to us appeared funny on the greatest day in history.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? No.
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In times cf 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? No.
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? No.
What do you do now? Sell empty spaces for a Shoe and Leather paper.
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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My answers to your questionaire I am sure willbe of no use atall, because none of the escort of the various convoys went ashore at Arromanches. H.M.S. Halsted left Sheerness on the 3rd of June andproceeded to Southend where [inserted] we [end inserted]anchored in company with many Merchant Ships and I went ashore to collect signals that evening, walked along the front and returned to the pier expecting to sail that evening. As we all know the convoys sailed the following evening in rather sticky weather. The weather to us was nothing in comparision with the North Atlantic where we had previously been employed, butto the ships in convoy it was not so pleasant.
As we left Southend and passed between lines of Troopships, I remember playing Scottish tunes on the loud hailer,as we passed Scottish regi[crossed out]n[end crossed out]ments, and American tunes as we passed Americans. The passage down the coast with our Landing Ships Tanks was uneventful except for the droneof Aircraft. Turning the ’’corner" at O[crossed out] 2 [end crossed out][inserted] 1 [end inserted].00 provided no excitement and it was rather an anticlimax on sighting the coast to find no opposition. For sometime we could find noone to take over our convoy and they were rather left to themselfes, they got lost anyway in the maze of shipping. The visability was none too clear, but bombarding by the Battleships and Monitors was in progress. Through the glasses there appeared to be no activity on the beach, just a long empty stretch with one outstanding house is how it appeared to me. Throughout the day we lay off the beach remaining in communication with the Headquatter ship, name of which I cannot remember - an occasional Spitfire was heavily fired upon by our own ships in error. At 1700 the same day we were orded to return to Sheerness.
Our excitement, fight with E Boats and eventual torpedoing or mining happened during the next convoy three days later and that has nothing to do with your story.
I shall understand if I do not hear anything further, for I realise that the stories of the men who actually landed are required - anyway their stories of a channel passage in uncomfortable conditions [crossed out] for them [end crossed out] and the actual landing are likely to be more interesting than a routine job like ours.
I have since writing the above found some notes of D Day but they are merely about the ship and what happened on the way over.
W R Fowler