The Invasion of Normandy

Operation Overlord

"We were out of there in five days."

"The day that we went over to in the, D-Day, the night before, this chaplain [named] Fitzgerald came up to me. He said, 'Lieutenant, you mind if I pray for you?' He said, 'I’m Catholic, and I know you’re Protestant.' And I said, 'I don’t care. I wish everybody would. I’m scared to death...'

We flew a pathfinder group - the 82nd Airborne - south of the front. 25-30 miles south...And we went in at 12:00, took off at 12:00 at night and landed about 1:00 or 1:15...We also took Benzedril. And you take a Benzedril tablet and a shot of scotch, and your eyes get that big [laughs]. And you don’t sleep for days...

They sang “Happy Birthday” to me on the way over. And then we worked our way out, came back on one of the troop carriers...We were back in England in five or six days. So we didn’t do anything in Normandy to speak of. Nothing to brag about...

The only problems we had was a little bit of light fire which we took care of in a hurry. And we were out of there in five days..."


Editor's note: June 6, 1944 was Guy Gunter's 26th birthday.

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