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(inserted) Extract marked ack 25/6/58 (end of inserted)
THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY
D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 —MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name? LESLIE ROY GIBBS.
What is your present address? 31 ELGAR CIRCLE ALWAY NEWPORT, MON.
Telephone number: -
What was your unit, division, corps? 2nd BATT SOUTH WALES BORDERERS 56th BDE. ATT 50th DiV.
Where did you land and at what time? ARROWMANCHES at 06.20 hrs.
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? SGT. (24) 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? MAY 1944.
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? The crossing was very rough with a few sub alerts previous to sailing we had an improptu concert on the American L.C.I.
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.) We had a good idea of defences through air photographys, the above rumour was mentioned but dismissed lightheartedly. Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No.
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2. Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? YES.
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? On the way up from the beach while under mortar and shell fire one of the fellows said it was far healthier in Bournemouth which was our previous station and the next second shrapnel pierced his throat. Were you wounded? not on D. Day. How were you wounded?
Do you remember what it was like — that is, do you remember whether you folt 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 out- of ~ place? A women at a farmhouse pointing up a tree and saying boche, I fired a few (Illegiable) into the branches and and there was a scream and a (Illegiable) came down wounded in arm and shoulder, she ran to him and we found out it was her husband in hiding.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable , that struck you more than anything else? A young corporal single handed charged an enemy 88mm gun crew which was shelling us, with a bren gun he killed them off and a sniper in a tree overhead threw a phosphores grenade which exploded in his face badly burning him.
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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 ?
One of the boys going forward on a lone patrol and coming back with a few gallons of milk, he had milked the cows well in front of our position.
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? Will send addresses later when I contact them.
What do you do now? C/HAND PRODUCTION LINES (STEEL).
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 0. Isaacs The Reader's Digest
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L.R GIBBS 31 ELGAR CIRCLE ALWAY NEWPORT,MON June 11th 1958,
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Dear Sir, With reference to an item in the local newspaper I would like to state that I took part in the Normandy landings with the South Wales Borderer's, would be pleased to help in any way possible with information as my memory is quite good.
Sincerly L.R. Gibbs