World War 2: Ten Poignant Stories (2)

(This series of posts will serve as a small collection of powerful, poignant paragraphs I've encountered in my travels through books concerning WW2.)

"The defeat was bitter, humiliating and

sad - fate had been too cruel"

["Germans survey the damage at Dieppe, Aug. 1942"]

The following is an excerpt from 'Dieppe: The Landing' by Robert McRae, LT, RCNVR. He became a prisoner of war on August 19, 1942.

Fatally Headed Toward the Beach

At Dawn we seemed to be near the French coast,

but it was mostly invisible behind a heavy smoke-screen.

The sounds of war just beyond us were unlike anything

I'd ever heard before - particularly the frightful whine

of mortar shells. Our flotillas of R-boats stood about in the
outskirts of the thick smoke-screen until about 7.30 AM,

when, as the reserves, we got orders to go in, Land our troops

(again, I only discovered much later, this was action to reinforce
failure on the seafront of the town, contrary to all rules of war

that I'd ever heard of). So as quickly as possible we formed up
in line abreast and went through the smoke-screen.

Coming out on the other side with a full view now of the coast,

we found we were fatally headed toward the beach under the
steep cliffs, to the right side of the town instead of the town
front, with the ominous heads of the enemy clearly visible

lined along the top of the cliffs. And now they began to pour

machine-gun fire down into the boats.

[Pg. 62, St. Nazaire to Singapore 1941- 45

[From page 2, Unauthorized Action by B. Loring Villa]

McRae later records that Lloyd Campbell of London, Ontario was struck down by machine-gun fire, lost his legs to amputations as a POW and died before Christmas. He is buried in Germany.

Photos by GH

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