Interview (holo, 2p.; Ts version, 2p.; c.2 Ts carbon, 2p.)

The Cornelius Ryan Collection of World War II Papers primarily consists of material relating to World War II, the European Theater of Operations, in the form of his research papers and files for his three battle books: The Longest Day (Operation OVERLORD, Normandy, France, June 6, 1944); A Bridge Too Far (Operation MARKET-GARDEN, Holland, September 17-26, 1944); and, The Last Battle (the capture of Berlin, Germany April 15-May 10, 1945) There are personal files for 3,072 individuals, both military and civilian participants of the battles, covering all nationalities. The files contain 2,551 questionnaires, 955 interviews, and numerous letters, diaries, accounts, and observations. In addition, there are 166 audio recordings of interviews. Of particular not among the interviews are those with Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands, President Eisenhower, and General Simpson, all from 1963. In addition to the personal files there are numerous newspaper and magazine articles and book excerpts dealing with the battles. Ryan also collected military documents of all types: combat interviews and after action reports, war diaries, message files and logs, strategic and tactical analyses, maps, and unit histories from all national forces involved. Of particular not among the military documents are war diaries and message logs of the major German commands from all three battles and accounts, interrogations and unit histories from the Moscow Archives concerning the storming of Berlin. The bulk of the German documents had not been consulted by any researcher prior to Ryan and, in the case of the Russian documents, no one else had ever been allowed access to the Moscow Archives. There are in excess of 1,900 original photographs in the files, collected from various national archives and private individuals, the vast majority of which are unpublished. The remainder of the collection deals with his journalistic productions. The research files for his two articles "One Minute to Ditch" and "Five Desperate Hours in Cabin 56" are complete, containing interviews, photographs, and official documents. Also of special note among these files are a collection of interviews with President Eisenhower's West Point classmates (class of 1915) and correspondence and original material on the early American space program from Dr. Werhner von Braun.