By John Dolan
DEAR GENERAL GAVIN:
Thank you for your letter of March 10, 1959. It had always been my intention to answer the questionnaire of Cornelius Ryan; but realizing that it would take considerable time to give a detailed and accurate account, I kept putting it aside and then completely forgot about it until Bob Murphy spoke to me about it a few days before receipt of your letter. (1)
I shall try to cover as much detail [as possible] without making this letter too voluminous, leaving it to your judgment and discretion to delete any portion that you deem unfavorable to the outfit.
You may recall that I was in command of Company A, 505 PIR, with the rank of 1st lieutenant. The specific mission of Company A was to seize and defend the bridge crossing the Merderet River on the road that ran east to west from Ste. Mère-Eglise, with the purpose of preventing the movement of German troops down to the beachhead.
I don’t recall exactly what time the 1st Battalion jumped, but it was between 0100 and 0200 hours on D-Day. We hit our drop zone right on the nose, because within 20 minutes to one-half hour, I knew our exact location. I was able to identify a T intersection, a dirt road eight to ten feet wide near our drop zone. The upper arm ran generally east to west, the vertical arm running north to south to meet the road running from Ste. Mère-Eglise to our objective, the bridge at the Merderet River.
We had the usual problems of reorganization in the dark; however, about an hour before dawn, Company A moved out from the drop zone with about 90 percent of the men accounted for. (This was not due to luck alone, but to the cooperation of my officers, noncoms, and last but not least, training. Men who have to fight in the night should be trained in night-time fighting, not just taken on a night march and digging fox holes.) We moved along this dirt road, which I previously referred to as being the north-south arm of the T intersection, and just around here, I ran into Major McGinity. He moved out with us.
The order of march was 1st Platoon, Co. Headquarters, 3rd and 2d Platoons, in that order. When we reached the road running east-west from Ste. Mère-Eglise, a German motorcycle passed us going toward Ste. Mère-Eglise. At this time, it was still dark, but daylight was starting to break. We crossed the road and started west toward the bridge, with a hedgerow to our right between us and the road. Just about this time, contact was lost with the 1st Platoon, so the 3rd Platoon took the lead.
About 700 to 800 yards from the bridge, we came upon a dirt road running southeasterly from the road to the bridge. Hedgerows were on either side of the road; and beyond it in the direction of the bridge was an open, flat field, about 100 yards deep, and about 75 yards wide. It was here that I figured the Germans would defend if they intended a defense of the bridge.
I directed Lt. Donald Coxon to send his scouts out. This he did, and he also went out with them. He had plenty of personal courage, but he didn’t have the heart to order them out without going with them.
A few moments later, a German machine gun opened up, killing Lieutenant Coxon and one of his scouts, Ferguson. Their fire was returned, and, with Major McGinity and myself leading, and a few men holding and returning frontal fire, the platoon flanked to the left. At the same time, I directed Lieutenant Presnell to recross the road and attack along the northerly side down to the bridge. This was done, and the second platoon didn’t meet with any fire until they arrived at the bridge.