Miller: What was your own personal reaction when the Mulberry concept was explained to you? How did you react yourself?

Mais: That's a long time ago. I think my primary reaction was "Thank God I got in on the party." Secondly, really as far as I was concerned, my job was to put the markers in, and to do the inshore survey, for which we were allocated about the only small cross that was still available and hadn't been requisitioned already. Javelin, which was a narrow dotted motorboat which should have never been allowed outside the Hammel River, yet it was sailed to Normandy. I think my reaction was "Thank God I've got in on it," and this seems to me to be a really job worth doing. But I didn't know I was going to be told to build it. I was told to do the survey. My job was to do the survey, get the markers in. The _______, they didn't get the markers in. And that was done, but it wasn't until we'd been there about four or five days, and the piers just weren't getting built. But the units were arriving, but they were arriving in all sorts of orders, not in accordance with the plan, and it had been so driven into these chaps that they must do it exactly as the plan, nothing was happening. There were an awful lot of units bobbing up and down their anchors, but the piers weren't getting done. The inshore landing ramps were in position, and bigger than a _______ got hold of me, I supposed it was about D+4 or 5, day before the storm. And said, "Take over and build the bloody thing."

Miller: Right. OK, before we get to that, let me ask you, when did you actually go across. What were the circumstances of your sort of crossing the Channel?

Mais: D-1.

Miller: In this -- what was it called, this . . .?

Mais: I went in on an auxiliary naval boat with a little small survey party, and then when we got there, Javelin, that was the survey launch for the echo sounders on the bows, came alongside and I got aboard it.

Miller: Right. Javelin was what again?

Mais: Javelin was obviously a well-bridged enthusiast for a ____ motorboat. It was only about fifteen feet long, very slender, rode like a pig. Very fast, it had about eighteen knots. And it hadn't been helped by putting the two echo sounders like two great trumpets right forward on the bows. That really upset what little buoyancy it really had. And I think it was -- the crew _____ that sailed it over -- across what, eighteen miles of water, all ought to have gotten a medal ______________.

Miller: The _____, right?

Mais: Right.

Miller: So you went over on a naval auxiliary.

Mais: I went over on a naval auxiliary.

Miller: Was that one of the ships taking across the invasion force, or was that a sort of subsidiary ship?

Mais: It was a naval supply vessel. I had a feeling that we were the only small _______ party, we were the only troops on board. I can't really remember now. It wasn't a landing craft.

Miller: Right. Can you remember how you felt when you set off across the Channel?

Mais: Oh, terrific. I'd been ____________. Oh yes, spirits were very high.

Miller: And when you were crossing, did you see the rest of the force?

Mais: Yes, yes, it was a most impressive thing. It was being anchored off ports, as far as the eye could see, ships, landing craft. But you didn't notice an awful lot going over. You saw the odd chap on the _________, not only the starboard side, and a few _______. There was a got _____ of shipping. Landing craft had gone in, of course, about six hours ahead of us. The assault force. And I landed over the beaches just near __________. And the beaches still had bodies lying on them, and equal amount floating about in the water.

Miller: Right. Can you remember the time that you transferred from the auxiliary vessel to the Javelin, approximately?

Mais: I would have thought about 11:00, 12:00 in the morning.

Miller: Of June 6. Right. And the force happens to have boarded over, and your party comprised what?

Mais: Don't think that's detail I can remember.

Miller: Right.

Mais: There were four or five crew -- four -- and I had my driver, my ________. . . driver, ______ and John. But John didn't _________ to the survey launch. As far as I know, it was only myself and I forget who -- Ronny Carn didn't come ashore with me. Came ashore just afterwards. I'm afraid I can't remember.

Miller: No, OK. Immediately after you transferred, what was your first duty? What did you do then?

Mais: First duty was to get the inshore marker, it was a gray pole, in position in the back of the beach for the ______ of the pier, and then a second marker for the tank . . . 

Miller: Now how long before you left had you been given these detailed orders?

Mais: About 24 hours before.

Miller: OK. Was that the first time you realized where the invasion was going in?

Mais: I'm not sure I even realized then. I have a feeling the first intonation of where it was going to be was once we were on board.

Miller: Right. But you'd been clear instructions of where these markers had to be.

Mais: Yes.

Miller: OK. And is that the first thing you did as soon as you got on the Javelin?

Mais: As soon as we went in, we got in the makers, and then we made our way and we had to make our way. We put one marker in, which was the calm side of Mulberry, or Arromanches, and then we had to make our way round as soon as we could into Arromanches itself and put down the marker for the tank landing pier and the other ____ pier.

Miller: OK. How did you actually fix the markers?

Mais: Well, they were just driven in, with spiked in, and they were ______ black and white stripes. It was a perfectly ordinary problem.

Miller: Were these things obviously driven into the beach, were they, or . . .?

Mais: Well, in the course -- in the back of the beach.

Miller: Yeah. OK.

Mais: The beach went up facing Arromanches on the left marker, the left side _____ pier. The beach rose quite steeply and we put the marker up on the ____ on the shore just inside, just off the beach.

Miller: Was the beach still under fire at this point?