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Interview - [illegible] Airborne [illegible] P-6 S-P H
THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6
What is your full name? JOHN MCCALLON MAY
What is your present address? SIGNAL HOUSE 20, ATKINS ROAD LONDON, S.W.12
Telephone number: TULse HILL 9431/2
What was your unit, division, corps? 'P' Section, 6th Airborne Div Signal Reg attached 22 Independent Parachute Coy.,
Where did you land and at what time? Officially, mear Le Ban de Ranville Actually, at Huonvillette, at 0020 hrs. D. Day
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? W/s. Sergeant, age 29 years.
Were you married at that time? Yes What is your wife's name? Dorothy Hannah Maud Mary (née Matthews. Did you have any children at that time? 3. a fourth was born in August 194?
When did you know [insert] think [end insert] that you were going to be part of the invasion? About 3 weeks previously, when we were moved to a concentration men.
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? A good trip, no particular conversation. Only general talk regarding what sort of a reception we might get. (Discussions on the [illegible] landing had occupied a bit of time in the camp [illegible]
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.) Only that HIteler had ordered all parachutists + commandos to be killed instantly, allegedly because we carried fighting knives not conforming to the Geneva convention.
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No - we were forbidden in advance to keep any such diary. However, while it was still fresh in my mind, I wrote a letter to my sister
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Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day?Lots of them. However, we were kept so busy ourselves, it was difficult to find out exactly who, when, + under what circumstances, although news drifted through later.
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? We had been briefed about "decoys" being dropped. We often discussed whether we were being deliberately bluffed + whether we would eventually be the decoys. We also had doubts about our intelligence, although we thought the RAF Photo Recces very efficient, we were not quite so happy about the interpretation of those photos, since most of it was assumed, + not factual. In the event, our fears in this respect were more or less groundless.
Were you wounded? Yes, slightly. How were you wounded? By low level bombing on the right of the beach through to [illegible]. Our Signal Office received a direct hit whilst I was in it with several others.
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? I didn't realise it at all. I was busy caring for the more seriously wounded, + didn't even both to report mine, as it was so insignificant. I don't remember any pain at all. Being so occupied, I assumed that what blood I saw was that of some of my comrades who I conveyed to the C. C. S., espcially one of our Cipher Sergeants.
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? @1 I had been instructing Div Signal personnel on how to plait a kit-bag rope properly, before take-off. On landing, I was myself injured @2 through my own kit-bag not coming away properly. @3 Unexpected - I found elements of 3+5 Para Blues firing at each other + managed to convey a message to the respective units + stopped it. These appeared to have dropped slightly out of position by the R.A.F. resulting in a few unnecessary casualties.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? A few days after D Day, a Padre with the Commandos came to our unit looking for his brother, a Cipher Sergeant with us. (He was a Scot, but I can't remember his name offhand. I had the unfortunate taks of escorting him to see his brother's dead body. He had been killed when his glider crashed into a building on the L. Z.
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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? My two ASSO detachment failed to arrive complete, either in personnel or equipment. I had to improv leads for the wireless sets from ordinary wire cable, not really suitable for the job - it worked from [illegible place names] altho we were never very sure of where our control was. 22 Indep Para Cy carried out some Recce's on horseback. Mounted Parachutists. They horses had been "found".
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? [illegible] W.O.II S. Glover, now in New Zealand. I can get his address. Major, now Lt. Col Fendor, R. Signals (through War Office) - he should have some fantastic tales to tell - his nickname was - + is - "LUCKY" A War Correspondent with us (I think it was Chester Wilmott) who used to roll off a bend into a slit trench when we were attacked, yet often accompanied patrols going after snipers, etc
What do you do now? I am still serving. At the moment as a Local W.O.II, P.S.I with 56 (Lon) Inf. Div. Sig. Regt. T. A., London. I am due to be posted to Hong Kong as a substation Sgt. ( I have just rejoined [illegible] service) in October this year.
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
[inserted] There are probably other events I have omitted, but a little memory-jogging will probably bring them out. If I can be of any further assistance, please contact me. J.M. May
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J.M. May * This a local newspaper in my home town, Lanarkshire, Scotland. I remember reading it later, + was surprised that it looked so good in print. @ RAF personnel at the airfield carrying arms, WRAF waving + enjoying + laughing as we went out to take-off X Wondering what people at home wouls say + [crossed out illegible] is think when they heard of our actions. Would we dispute ourselves, cover ourselves with [illegible] - all men supremely confident, + our mood was extremely high 0 we considered ourselves the "elite" + acted like it
@2 A meeting with a professed [illegible], whom we wounded. An enemy(?) aircraft - a captured Spitfire - trying to read our ground/in recognition [illegible] & giving wrong acknowledgements - I had arguments with my C.O. Gen Gale about this episode. We later heard that the plane concerned had been shot down
@3 On approaching [illegible], I saw an old Farmer & his family in the middle of the road watching the aircraft & gliders coming in I [illegible] a resolve in his [illegible], & as he [illegible] round, his face sort of lit up & he cried "American!" Boo! I replied "B----", we're English! Je suis Germans! & I remembered being dispirited that our propaganda had let us down, & that [crossed out]the[end crossed out] apparently the French only thought the Americans had come. Since we were extremely jealous of the yanks, this really rankled.