Red Beach an Appropriate Name!

Heroes Remember - The Second World War

Red Beach an Appropriate Name!

Transcript

And we went in, there were six thousand seasoned German troops against our six thousand. And that’s an absolute no, no. You never do a frontal assault when the odds are even especially when they got a background of guns and defences that they could put up against and all you got is the boats coming in. Not only that, in the first attempt on Rutter, we had been told we were going to have heavy bombers bombing Dieppe. We were going to have two navy battleships pounding away at the guns. The only problem was that the navy withdrew their capital ships. They weren’t going to do it. They said we can’t risk capital ships in a narrow channel and bomber Harris decided that he was going to withdraw the bombers because they had better things to bomb in Europe in either Berlin or other places. As a result the Germans had six inch guns or bigger and all we had was destroyers with four inch guns so were out gunned right from the start and we didn’t have a chance to get anywhere. And like I said, six thousand seasoned German troops with our intelligence didn’t show the fox holes that they had built in the cliffs with the machine gun nests and so on, and the batteries were right trained on the beach. The mortars were trained on the sea wall where the troops hid so we had a terrible time because we landed at 4:45 but I was on Red Beach. It was very aptly named because it ran red with blood.

Description

As many wounded and dead lay on the beach, Mr. Hart expresses the sights he witnessed in this bloody battle.

David Hart

Mr. Hart was born in Montreal, Quebec on July 8, 1917. One of seven boys, Mr. Hart joined the army reserves and high school cadets later graduating from college as an accountant. Joining with the Fourth Divisional Signals in 1937, he then joined active service August 1939. Mr. Hart continued on with his service as a signalman with the Royal Canadian Corps Second Divisional Signals taking part in The Dieppe Raid as a sergeant. For his part in this historical event, Mr. Hart received the Military Medal for bravery, awarded to him by His Majesty King George VI at Buckingham Palace. Upon returning to Canada, Mr. Hart continued on with his accounting career. Having great pride for his service, Mr. Hart has returned to Dieppe six times and with this being the 75th Anniversary of the Dieppe Raid, along with his wife and son, he will be joining the Canadian delegation in recognition of this commemorative event. At 100 years of age, Mr. Hart continues to enjoy life with his wife of 99 years of age, still residing in their own home. Mr. Hart continues to promote the importance of the Dieppe Raid so that Canadians will truly understand the sacrifice that was given during this battle. He and his wife now reside in Montreal, Quebec.

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