Reginald Laird's narration is transcribed in full.
[START: 00:00]
Reginald Laird: We were obviously under the scrutiny of the defenders on shore, we couldn’t help but be. At that time, we wondered why we had to keep wireless silence whereas the Germans were making all the noise in the world.
Visual Description: Reginald Laird speaks to the camera in an outdoor setting.
[TIME: 00:16]
R.L.: When we went to jump, we found that the bow of the craft had not dropped all the way and it was an impediment. We had to step up instead of stepping off. Jackie Pearce, who jumped with me, and that was the last I saw of him. He was hit
in the air and dropped. Then, it was advance a few paces and try your sten gun. I know that my sten gun did not work on the first clip, nor did it work on the second clip. That was rather an odd experience, to be standing there exposed, having bullets,
tracers come all around you. Knowing you’re being fired at, you’re a sitting duck, and not do anything about it.
Visual Description: Through smoke, soldiers can be seen jumping off of landing craft and running up the beach, laying down on their stomaches to avoid fire. Wounded and killed men are shown on the beach. Reginald Laird speaks to the camera.
[TIME: 01:01]
R.L.: Eventually the sten gun was thrown away and the revolver was drawn. With it, I think, one machine gun was largely silenced but the other two were not.
Visual Description: Reginald Laird speaks to the camera.
[TIME: 01:15]
R.L.: Just about that time when I was approximately a third of the way up the beach towards the wall, I sat down. I’d been hit on one side, about three or four times. The impact didn’t hurt, but it certainly sat me down rather hard and I knew
I had been hit and probably seriously wounded. From then on, it was a case of trying to make my way to the wall, which consisted of crawling. And seeing a tremendous amount of men being hit, falling, and then being hit again. Eventually after passing
out two or three times, I got almost to the wall. I don’t know how long I had passed out. I have no idea.
Visual Description: Reginald Laird speaks to the camera. The camera pans along tens of dead or wounded men, lying still on the rock beach and against the beach wall.
[TIME: 02:04]
R.L.: I can remember one, a corporal in the intelligence section, who was trying to get a sniper up in the cliff. He had a big jagged scar in his face, and all I was concerned about was pulling the edges together, probably to safety pin with
some means. I asked him to stay still, had my hand on the front of his forehead and his cheek, and the other hand I had on the back of his head. Unfortunately, the movement was discerned by the Germans and a bullet entered his head through my fingers
and blew the back of his head out.
Visual Description: Reginald Laird speaks to the camera. The beach, strewn with dead bodies. is shown, as a couple soldiers stand around.
[END: 02:48]
