Cornelius Ryan WWII papers, box 022, folder 07: John Dudley Mitchell

MITCHELL, John Dudley 54 Beach Bat. RAF Box 22, #7

ackk 18/6/58 THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 ~ MIDNIGHT JUNE 6 What is your full name? John Dudley Mitchell What is your present address? 59 Lissenden Mansions, Lissenden Gardens, London NW 5 Telephone number: Gulliver 7376 What was your unit, division, corps? 54 Beach Balloon Unit RAF Where did you land and at what time? Gold Beach H + 6 hrs What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? Cpl 25 years Were you married at that time? yes What is your wife's name? Adele Eugenie Did you have any children at that time? yes - one daughter When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? approx 6 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? Pretty quiet except for the odd stand-to. We passed the time sleeping and playing cards. 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.) none that I recall Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? no

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? 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? 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? The sight of ourselves walking along the beach towing our balloons certainly seemed to amuse the troops at large, and we came in for a lot of good natured wisecracks Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? The German pilot who parachuted into one of his own minefields, and was lead to safety out of it by a party of Royal Engineers

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? 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? What do you do now? [ ?] retail coal trade 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

59 Lissenden Mansions Lissenden Gardens London NW 5 GULLIVER 7376 6th June 1958 Dear Sir, Re your advert in last week's Evening News. I landed in Normandy on D-Day at H plus 6 hrs with the 54th Beach Balloon Unit R.A.F. If there is any information that I can give you which maybe of use you can phone or write above address. Yours sincerely, JD Mitchell