Description
As the morning of the Dieppe Raid wore on, one of the platoons managed to enter the town of Dieppe.
Donald Gorman
Mr. Gorman was born June 23, 1921. His father was a stationary engineer at one of Windsor’s high schools and was a veteran of both the Boer War and the First World War. Mr. Gorman left school after achieving junior matriculation. He held jobs in a bakery, a fish market and as an apprentice mechanic at Remington-Rand typewriter factory in Windsor. After enlisting on September 16, 1939, he took his basic training in Windsor before being moved to Camp Borden for advanced training in June, 1940. Mr. Gorman went overseas with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Regiment and was involved in the Dieppe Raid.
Transcript
The colonel was told that this platoon had got in see, so we were asked to relay this message to the Calpe. So Bill did and he said that a platoon had landed in, had got in to Dieppe. Well it got twisted and the message, it ended up in the Calpe was that the Essex Scottish had penetrated into Dieppe. Well the FMR’s were laying off shore and this is daylight, and the FMR’s, what they were supposed to do was to come in and take up our position on the beach, we were supposed to go through Dieppe and then we were supposed to meet another regiment from the 6th Brigade. I think it was the South Saskatchewans that Merritt had and anyway, and they were to come through Dieppe and then load on and out and then we were to fight a rear action and get back. Well the FMR’s came in and they were just shot right out of the water, it was in broad daylight and whatnot and anyway, things went on. Ammunition started running low and there was a lot of casualties and that. But I don’t know, it just seemed that the mind was blocked out to this stuff you know. Bradley, he stuck with the radio and I helped him as much as I could, but I couldn’t help him a hell of a lot and then finally around, I think it was around 1 o’clock, they said there was going to be a cease fire about two I think it was. So Bradley told me this and I said, “Take your rifle and smash that damn thing. And when the cease fire goes in,” I said, “you smash it.”