As yet I didn't have any idea what had happened to the rest of the BN. I found out where the Reg. C.P. was and inquired there. They told me the Bn. had to withdraw and were back in the position we had left from. That was really news to me, I got the troops and took them back to the area. The Company was surely glad to see us because before we got there they only had 14 in the Company. Lt. Garry explained they had lost contact and he couldn’t give us the order to withdraw. Must say that is one 4th
of July I’ll never forget. We were certainly lucky to get out of that mess.
Just after getting back I was going into the C.P. and a couple of 88s cracked right over my head. They hit about 10 yards ahead of me and just happened to hit the top of a hedge row so all the shrapnel went the other way. I had several wounded that day. Lost Sgt.
[Ward] Ecoff, Pvt. [Gerrit] Van Vels, Pvt. Lucht. Later we lost Pvt. Pollock who was wounded going out after wounded men.
That night we moved a short way and set up in a wooded area. We didn't receive much fire in this area except a. little artillery and machine gun fire, About 11 o'clock each night the Jerries would fly over and bomb and strafe out
in front of us. To me that bothered me more than anything else. We didn't have any fox-holes, and the men just had slit trenches and they don't give you any protection at all. I guess I was lazy because I didn't even dig a slit trench and was laying on the ground. We stayed in this area until the 11th of July. The men got awfully restless and there wasn’t much to do. This was the area I was in when Col. Schneider and Capt. Arnold came up to see me and they wouldn't let them come up. Must say that still makes me pretty mad.
The 10th was my birthday and the only celebration I had was a field shower and the news we we're going to move to the beach the next day. The 507th was close by so went over to see if by any chance Lt, Clark was there. He and I went through C.C. together and were the best of friends. Much to my disappointment I found he had been killed.
On the 11th we got new uniforms and got all set to move to the beach, Must say that was a grand and glorious feeling after being In the front lines 33 days and wearing the same clothes all that time,
We moved up close to the beach and the first night about 11 o'clock the Jerries flew over, All the anti-aircraft opened up and it was quite a sight to see all the tracers, Next morning we moved down to the beach and it was quite a sight to see' with all the boats, etc. To see all the wreckage made me feel that maybe we were lucky at that to come in by air. A lot of men must have lost their lives on that beach.
When the tide went out we loaded an L.S.T. It was number 310. We had an awfully
nice trip across the channel and the food and quarters were great. Maybe think it wasn't a grand sight when we saw England again. We landed at South Hampton and took a train back to Nottingham. When we got back to camp hot chow was awaiting us and our bed rolls. I went back to the tent and it was much the same except I was the only one out of the 4 of us who came back. We lost about 63% of our men in
France.
When we left the east area and were coming to the beach we passed the 82nd Division cemetery. It was well situated and had a large English glider at the entrance. It is located at St. Mere Eglice. To pass by and see all those white crosses and I must say they stretched almost as
far as you could see. It gave one a strange feeling and felt as if I had, a big lump in my throat. I wanted so much to visit it and see where some of the men were buried, 'but I couldn’t.
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