Page 2

[*BR
H
GOLD*]

Interview with Major Francis David Goode who was in charge of a Company of
the 2nd Glosters of the 56th Brigade attached to the 50th Northumbrian
Division which landed on GOLD beach. Refer to map in Wilmot's book.
They went in behind the Hampshires who with the Dorsets made the initial
assault. Goode and his Company landed at Le Hamel. He had 120 men
each soldier carrying about 70 lbs apiece because they didn’t expect
the remainder of their gear to arrive until D+3. Their packs contained
mostly ammunition. He landed at H + 2 hours which was 9.30 a.m.

Goode at that time was 25, complete with moustache, tall, stoutish, and a
little pompous. In fact it was his aim in life to be a sort of junior
Colonel Blimp. The average age of his Company was 21 and they travelled
over in a LCI from Southampton along with men of other Companies. In all
he estimates that there were about 200 on board. He gave his men leave
beforehand and as he remembers it “We had only one deserter and frankly
we knew the blighter would go anyway”. He told his troops on the way over
that the invasion would be supported by"7,000 ships and 11,000 aircraft.”
He was scared that they might run into a mine during the night and as he
stood on the bridge after nightfall he heard from somewhere below a ’’dull
thud", and said to one of his fellow officers “My God, we've hit a mine!”
What had happened really was that a sailor below had been playing around
with a can of self -heating cocoa. These cans - the British had soups,
stews and otherliquids which could be self-heated - had a wick through them
which when lit automatically heated the contents. To make it work right
one had to punch some holes in thelid. The sailor had not done this
and so the cocoa had exploded in his face. This single explosion had
caused other cans of [crossed out]cocoa[end crossed out] self-heating cocoa to explode as a result the
unfortunate sailor and his quarters was covered with cocoa.

Everybody on board the LCI was sick. They had been in the ship since the
2nd June expecting to land on the beaches of Normandy on June 5. Because
of the postponement they had spent another day onthe water. Goode said
that the postponement had a terrible psychological effect on the soldiers;
"It was rather like being pushed into the operating theatre,” he said “only
to find that the surgeon couldn’t make it.”

Goode prior to D-Day had been on the planning staff and he knew that it was
expected that casualties might run as high at 60%. In his Company he had
a lot of Welsh miners, a sprinkling of Cockneys and Midlanders. He had
3 platoons in his Company with 9 bren guns and four anti tank guns -
called by the British Piats - Personal infantry anti tank. One 2” mortar
with each platoon plus a jeep and a Company bren gun carrier.

The objective of the Company was to take the centre of Bayeaux which had
the code name of Kimberley. If they failed they were to take the St.
Sulpice heights.Another - the 2nd battalion - was to take Bayeaux proper.

They landed without any trouble and without any casualties. They marched
across the beaches, passed through a minefield [crossed out]by following the tapes which
the engineers had put down[end crossed out] and reached a lateral road running behind the
beaches. Where they had landed was a little of Goode's map but “we knew
we would get back on the map eventually by following this lateral road”.
In an orchard a little while later that morning he saw a friend of his
whom he had been to school with and whom he had not seen since 1930.
This was an officer, a Major John Gay, whom he saw cycling along a road.
He said to Gay, “Hello, old boy, haven’t seen you in years. How is your
sister?” Some time later that day he learned that Gay, who was spotting
for an artillery battery had been killed by a sniper.

One interesting thing about the landing: His troops were issued with
fishing waders which came up under the armpits, completely covering boots
and trousers. Goode does not know who suggested the idea but they “damn
near drowned him [crossed out]them[end crossed out] him”. He tripped up as he was getting out[crossed out]oth[end crossed out] of the landing
craft and of course the waders filled up with water and he had a hell of
a job getting to his feet. In the pillboxes back of the beach and on the
beach he found empty champagne bottles and in one some ladies' underwear.

Here is the equipment that Goode carried with him: revolver; "sten" gun
an automatic weapon complete with three magazines; two grenades; two