Lieutenant Colonel Klem R. Boyd

82nd Airborne Division - 325th Glider Infantry Regiment - 1st Battalion
Utah Beach

--- EN COURS DE TRADUCTION ---

We came in at D plus 1 at about 0730 in the morning. The men who flew the planes on D minus 1 scared the hell out of us by painting a bad picture. The 437 at Ramsbury was in quite a state of excitement. The landing zone was changed on us. The trip was uneventful. We were supposed to land in the Southwest part of Ste Mere Eglise, but the order was changed. We landed in the Southeast corner of Ste Marie du Mont. We came in too close together. The speed was 170 miles per hour and we were eight feet above the ground when we hit the trees. The first aid man saw us hit and they got to us immediately. The gliders should be strung out a little more to avoid collision.
We had our 300 radio and all the companies checked in except "A" Company and we proceeded to the assembly area. We landed at seven o'clock in the morning. Our medical detachment came in about two PM and they took care of some casualties. Out of seven hundred men we had 600 ready to operate at 2 p.m. We should have the glider pilots earlier for instruction. The Air Corps started dropping tow ropes all over us, which was wrong. Some even went over our troops. These ropes are an item of critical issue and should be taken home instead of being dropped in the area in France. We had no flak and plenty of air protection. We flew in column of fours, but would like to fly in a column of twos. A single column-double tow should be satisfactory, but would like to have some practice before taking it up. We were cut out at about 200 feet which is entirely too low. 
(On the evening of Thursday, 13 August 1944, a debriefing conference was held at the Glebe Mount House, Leicester. During the course of the conference each commander present who had commanded a unit the size of a battalion or larger of the 82d Airborne Division in Operation Neptune, was permitted to talk for not to exceed ten minutes. Instructions were that each officer was to speak freely, without restraint, regarding any aspect of the operation during its airborne phase and to offer any criticism he saw fit in the interests of improving our operational technique in future combat. Commanders spoke in the order in which it was planned that they would land. Their statements were taken down verbatim as far as possible. )
Courtesy: National Archives