Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
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A: Oh no, never saw any. I saw some Red Cross but - I can't say I didn't see them, because<br />
I might be unfair there. I saw some Red Cross workers in France. I don't think I ever<br />
saw any in England. We got to Coventry. We stayed at Salvation Army there and for maybe<br />
like a dime, a shilling - and one thing I recall about the Salvation Army, they had an<br />
open urinal. If you had to take a pee you know, they didn't have any cover. But the odor<br />
in the room wasn't too . . .<br />
Q: Well I'll be darned. (chuckles)<br />
A: But it was dormitory, maybe seated. Oxford or Cambridge, one <strong>of</strong> those universities<br />
must have been close to Coventry. And I think it was Cambridge. Because we went through<br />
that campus, if that's what they called it.<br />
But we were busy. We took hikes. I don't recall laying any pipe. Rut we didn't go on<br />
D-Day or the first ten days. We went in, I think, late in June. And I remember that. We<br />
were on that damned ship I know for twenty-four hours or so before you embarked, twentyfour<br />
hours before you left.<br />
Q: Where did you embark from, do you recall?<br />
A: Well I think Southampton.<br />
Q: Southampton.<br />
A: I think Southampton. We were right near Southampton - I mean Arundel - you look<br />
at a map <strong>of</strong> the British coast, I guess that's one <strong>of</strong> the closest points, Southampton, and . . .<br />
Q: Excuse me, I wanted to ask - now you visited Coventry you say'?<br />
A: Yes.<br />
Q: What did you think <strong>of</strong> the destruction you saw in Coventry?<br />
A: Quite bad. Quite bad. And I just read recently that - <strong>of</strong> course there's so much BS<br />
out - that Churchill ordered that bomb to shake up somebody.<br />
Q: Oh really?<br />
A: Or for some reason. But I read that since I've talked to you the last time. Rut that<br />
doesn't sound quite - but then you don't know if that's true. Rut we saw it. It was damaged<br />
extensively. And the more you saw <strong>of</strong> England the more you would see <strong>of</strong> destruction. Of<br />
course nothing like you saw when you got to France and those places. They were really<br />
beat up on the coast, and the Normandy area, and places like that. You read about those<br />
all the time. And these movies.<br />
Q: Where did you land when you . . .<br />
A: Well we ran - what was there, Omaha and what was the next one, Utah?<br />
Q: Utah.<br />
A: We would land at Utah.<br />
Q: Oh you did, across the beach?<br />
A: Yes.
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