The Fate of Dieppe Casualties Left Behind
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Canadian Military History Volume 9 Issue 4 Article 2 2000 On the Beach and in the Bag: The Fate of Dieppe Casualties Left Behind Charles G. Roland McMaster University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Roland, Charles G. "On the Beach and in the Bag: The Fate of Dieppe Casualties Left Behind." Canadian Military History 9, 4 (2000) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2 On the Beach and in the Bag The Fate of Dieppe Casualties Left Behind Charles G. Roland hen the last Allied ships drew away from No. 11 Canadian Field Ambulance had been the beaches of Dieppe on 19 August 1942, selected and trained with the main Dieppe W forces, the plan being to supplement the they left behind over 2,700 of the 4,963 regimental stretcher-bearers with sections of Canadians who had embarked on the raid: 807 11th CFA. Each section of the field ambulance men were dead, including four Royal Canadian was composed of an officer and 11 men. Their Army Medical Corps [RCAMC] medical orderlies, equipment was thoroughly supervised and an and 1,946 (including four Canadian Medical attempt was made to provide what was most Officers (MOs), a chaplain, and at least 11 suitable. Special packs consisting largely of shell dressings, morphine, sulpha drugs and plasma RCAMC medical orderlies and 48 accredited were provided, and the equipment was divided stretcher-bearers) were abandoned to German so that each man had some of it to transport.3 captivity on the beaches and environs.1 As Lord Lovat wrote decades after the event, “the raid Four tank landing craft and two large flak landing was an exceedingly bitter experience, learnt the craft were selected and equipped for handling hard way.”2 casualties. Each of the four tank landing craft carried two medical officers and several medical It is to the fate of these nearly two thousand orderlies, and each of the flak landing craft, one men, and in particularly the 568 who had been medical officer plus medical orderlies. The flak wounded and then captured, that this article is landing craft were to be grounded on the beaches devoted. Many of the survivors faced lengthy one hour before the withdrawal was due to begin. hospitalization and rehabilitation, frequently Once loaded, each craft had a capacity of 100 under the care of POW medical personnel rather casualties on stretchers and 60 walking than German doctors. The account of that wounded to return to the United Kingdom for medical treatment is one of the untold stories of transfer to hospitals. But, the Dieppe raid. none of this happened. From time to time the Medical Planning tank landing craft, which lay well out to sea awaiting the call to go in, answered urgent requests from destroyers and gun boats for iven that Dieppe was intended to be a raid medical officers, orderlies and supplies, and that Gof only a few hours’ duration, the medical was the total of their participation. At ten planning was not complicated. Typical, perhaps, minutes to nine o’clock, as soon as it had become were the instructions for the South clear to the Naval and Military Force Saskatchewan Regiment: Commanders that the beaches were not securely held, the four hospital tank landing craft were O p p o site :- ordered to return to port. Of the two large flak landing craft one did good service as a medical Top: The beach at Dieppe immediately following ship, and the other was sunk.4 the raid on 19 August 1942. B ottom : A Canadian soldier with head wound is By 0430 hours the first casualties had begun to helped by one of his comrades following their come aboard HMS Calpe and HMS Fernie, even capture at Dieppe, 19 August 1942. though these ships were destroyers, not hospital © Canadian Military History, Volume 9, Number 4, Autumn 2000, pp.6-25. 7 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 2 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag CWM 19830136-001#8 ships. Destroyers have little surplus space under location by 10th Canadian Field Ambulance, but any conditions, but the equipment required to when it was learned late on the 19th that most transform a Hunt-class destroyer such as the of the casualties were arriving on board the Calpe into a headquarters ship further limited destroyers at Portsmouth, 10th Field Ambulance the space that might have been allotted to the and No.2 Canadian Motor Ambulance Convoy wounded. moved there with all haste and were fully ready w hen Fernie an d Calpe arrived early on 20 Nevertheless, much of the immediate care August. Casualties arriving at Newhaven were of casualties was carried out on destroyers, cared for by 8th Canadian Field Ambulance. prim arily Calpe and Fernie, as well as on the Ultimately, all casualties were transported to 7th gunboat Locust. Calpe attempted to cope with Canadian General Hospital.6 278 wounded men plus her own substantial number of casualties. Space in the wardroom Immediate Care of Casualties and in the after mess-deck was soon occupied and, after that, the wounded lay out on the decks -eatment of the wounded on the beaches with little or no protection and many suffered followed standard lines where possible, additional wounds. Goronwy Rees, General T though frequently it was not. The extraordinarily Montgomery’s liaison officer, described the heavy enemy fire prevented many of the medical casualties being brought aboard HMS Garth as personnel from performing their duties. “the grey, lifeless faces of men whose vitality had Nevertheless, much was achieved under been drained out of them...The ship’s medical appallingly difficult conditions. One Canadian officer tried desperately to improvise who was involved in getting injured compatriots arrangements for blood transfusions which were under cover and into the hands of the regimental far beyond his resources.”5 Like the other ships, medical officers on White Beach was Honourary Garth took the wounded aboard to capacity. Captain John Foote, padre of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, who subsequently received the Planning in the United Kingdom for the Victoria Cross for his courageous and selfless reception of the expected casualties was efforts. necessarily somewhat more elaborate. The main reception point was to have been Stokes Bay near Captain D. Wesley Clare, RCAMC, was also Portsmouth, with Newhaven as a secondary site. on White Beach where he found fire so intense The main dressing station was set up at the first that it was impossible to seek out the wounded. 8 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000 3 Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 4, Art. 2 He set up his aid post in the lee of a derelict Captain Charles Robertson, RCAMC, who landed tank landing craft that had floated in broadside with a section of the 11th Canadian Field to the beach. His battalion had 13 men to Ambulance in support of the Royal Regiment of dispense first-aid - two to each of four Canada, was pinned down by enemy fire. It was companies, and Clare and four men with literally impossible to venture onto the beach, headquarters company - but they quickly so only casualties already under cover could be became casualties themselves. “As my one treated until after the surrender. “Really there corporal was killed shortly after reaching the wasn’t anything medically that I or anybody else beach, and my sergeant was evacuated an hour did,” Robertson recalled. “You sure weren’t out later on a craft th at landed the FMR [Les Fusiliers on the beach.”8 Mont-Royal], I had one first aid man and my batman stretcher-bearer. The wounded had to On another part of Blue Beach, Lieutenant help themselves or be helped behind our craft.”7 R.R. Laird was able to care for some of the wounded Royals. He was under cover, but the On Blue Beach, in front of Puys, the fire was casualties had to get to him since he had been so intense that little medical work could be done. badly wounded himself; the lanyard from his revolver had been blown through his thigh leaving one end hanging out each side. Ultimately, his leg had to be amputated, and Laird was eventually repatriated to Canada.9 Photofrom author's collection Wounded Canadian soldiers receiving medical attention following the Dieppe raid. https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss4/2 4 Roland: On the Beach and in the Bag Photofrom author's collection, courtesy Dr. D.W. Clare. Above: Canadian prisoners formed up on a street in Dieppe. Front row left is Honourary Captain John Foote, the padre of the Hamilton Light Infantry, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry in tending to the wounded during the raid. Front row right is Captain D. Wesley Clare, a medical officer who landed on White Beach. L eft: Canadian soldiers being marched into captivity. The Men Left Behind nce the white flag had been raised, O immediate efforts were made to treat the Captain F.W. Hayter, MO of the South wounded. Generally, the Germans behaved Saskatchewans, established his regimental aid correctly and assisted the wounded men in post well off the beach at Pourville.