I looked around to see if all the men had jumped and they had. Much to my surprise I looked down and all I could see was water. There was no place to slip to and I thought to myself, this is it. It would have been impossible' to get off all that equipment before drowning.
I hit and much to my surprise the water was only about three feet deep. I sank in the mud a good foot, before I had a chance to get out of the chute, the wind inflated the canopy and started to drag me. I was helpless at the moment and couldn’t collapse the chute. I landed on my back and had all the heavy equipment on my stomach. It included my reserve and also my field bag and rifle. The risin came up in front of my helmet and my helmet was fastened by the chin strap so I couldn't get it off. All that time my head was under water and the chute dragged me for about three hundred yards. Several times I thought it was no use and decided to open my mouth and drown. Each time though the wind would slack up and I'd get a chance to put my head up out of the water and catch a breath. I must have swallowed a lot of water because I didn't take a drink for two days afterwards. I was exhausted and don't know whether it was from fright or because I had drunk so much water and gagged. The last bit of energy I had I reached down and pulled out my trench knife and cut the risins. What a relief it was to get away from that chute. Bullets were singing over my head from machine guns and rifles, but it didn't bother me because at that point I didn't care.
I laid in the water for awhile and just panted I was so exhausted. There were two men that were just about 20 yards from me and the grass was so high they couldn’t see me. They were talking back and forth but I didn't know whether they were Americans or French. I finally cut the rest of the harness off and stood up. I was so weak I couldn’t carry all of my equipment so I left my field bag. That was a mistake I found
out later, because most of my rations were in it. I didn't know where I was but started walking away from the heaviest fire. I must have stayed in the water a good two hours, I finally reached a road but as I was walking to it, some Jerries kept firing .at me but I just kept going. When I hit the road I laid down and rested for awhile, I was still panting like a dog that had run for about ten miles. It was pretty cold and I was wet and shivering and shaking. I looked around and couldn’t see: anyone. I walked up the road and found it was flooded and didn't go any further. About that time I heard someone in the water and I walked over and challenged them when they came close to the road. At first they didn't reply, arid I didn’t know whether I should fire or not, I challenged again and they came back with the reply. It was Smith and Wogan. Maybe you think I wasn’t glad to see them after, being by myself so long.
We stayed on the road for a while and soon I saw a dark figure coming toward us. I walked up and challenged and he came back with the reply. It was Polasky and he had been up to the road junction and had run into a German Patrol and had killed two of them. There were four of us now, and of course, it was our duty to try to assemble with the rest of the men, I knew we had missed the D.Z. and estimated; we had missed it by about five miles. There were still planes flying around trying to get their men in the right spot. Off in the west we saw what might have been a flare. It kept coming closer and soon you could see it was a plane on fire. It had been hit by flak. Just before the plane crashed I heard the pilot gun both motors and they dropped off, I knew then the crew was still in: the plane. It crashed about 10 yards from where I landed, and lit up the whole country side. The; Jerries fired their machine guns into the burning plane, how many they killed I don’t know - but I know that no one came out alive.
The four of us started up the road towards the road junction, about 25 yards from the junction the Jerries challenged us and we hit the ground. They opened up and we fired back. I was lying between the two Germans Polasky had killed. They had a machine pistol and a few rifles. All we had were two rifles and 2 carbines. We had to withdraw so I told the men to move back. At that time I heard Wogan cuss and he had been hit in the shoulder. He was the first casualty and that was our first fire fight with the enemy. Smith and Polasky helped him back and Polasky gave him first aid treatment. We laid on the ground for awhile and it was almost day-light. We could hear the firing over the beach now where the first troops were coming in.
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