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D. THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY Ack 15/5 D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 —MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name? Lt. Col J.G.M.B. Gough
What is your present address? Huish Manor Nr Blandford Dorset
Telephone number: MORDEN (Dorset) 246.
What was your unit, division, corps? 1st Suffolk Regt Assault Bde 3rd (Br) Div
Where did you land and at what time? Queen White (Lion sur Mer) approx 9 am
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Major 36
Were you married at that time? Yes.
What is your wife's name? Sybil Anne.
Did you have any children at that time? Yes. 2.
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? about 9 months before.
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? I was in LCI 228 with duplicate Bn HQ, plus advanced surgical unit. Beach signals etc: about 180 in all. Very rough, most men seasick. Being a bad sailor myself found great difficulty in issuing secure documents. Most of us dozed on our bunks.
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.) absolutely none, everybody was most confident and anxious to get on with the job. men were rather tired, as operation cancelled previous day, after embarking & we returned to camp, in time to start all over again
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No. But have a few maps & air photographs issued on the way over, as soon as the signal was received that the operation was on.
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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? No. only routine
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? 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? Difficulty in landing, owing to damage to ramps, & transhipping to another craft returning empty.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? 1. The wreckage & confusion on the beach. 2. The smooth working of the Regimental task, which was carried out according to plan, with few casualties. 3. The calm & quietness of the first night ashore.
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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? 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? Major General RE Goodwin DSO Brigader E.E.E. Cass DSO Col. Hutchinson DSO (East Yorks) Major H Meriam MC (adj 1 Suffolk) Brigadier D Wilson. R. Lincolns
What do you do now? Dairy Farming
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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The role of 1st Suffolk on D day was: 1st to capture a Battery of guns covering beach 2nd To clear the village of Coalville 3rd To capture strong point "Hillman"
First two were easy, but "Hillman" proved difficult nut to crack, & was finally taken about 7 PM "D" day. The slowness has been the subject of severe criticism in the Book (forgotten name!) concerning the whole campaign in N.W. Europe. When I visited "Hillman" last year, (most of the concrete works remain) I pondered over the problem again, and realised what a tough egg it was.
Contrary to reports that our slowness was holding up reserve formations moving up in our flanks, this is entirely untrue, as the defenders of Hillman were far too busy to give any attention to troops trying to move forward wide on the flanks. To my mind, reserve troops were hindered by bicycles with which they were equipped, with the object of cycling into Caen!