Read about D-Day through the eyes of then- Capt. Edward Wozenski of Bristol here. He talked to the Imperial War Museum back in 1972. Here's a taste of what he had to say:
It was bloody awful really. ... Personally, I could not move out of my place. I just was pinned down. Everybody around me was being shot and I was willing to believe it [that we couldn’t move]. You’d stick your head up and they would just hose you right down. My executive officer, I’m talking to him, and he had one drilled right through his forehead....
And so we’re absolutely stymied and I was just praying for smoke, any kind of smoke, to act the same as nightfall would so we could get up through this wire. There were automatic weapons trained on us and heroics have nothing to do with it: people can not advance in daylight against automatic small arms weapons.
It was bloody awful really. ... Personally, I could not move out of my place. I just was pinned down. Everybody around me was being shot and I was willing to believe it [that we couldn’t move]. You’d stick your head up and they would just hose you right down. My executive officer, I’m talking to him, and he had one drilled right through his forehead....
And so we’re absolutely stymied and I was just praying for smoke, any kind of smoke, to act the same as nightfall would so we could get up through this wire. There were automatic weapons trained on us and heroics have nothing to do with it: people can not advance in daylight against automatic small arms weapons.
If you want to read more, you can see my 1994 story on D-Day through the eyes of Bristol here.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
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