Lost so Many Friends so Quickly
The Dieppe Raid
Lost so Many Friends so Quickly
Transcript
As I said things quietened down by now,
it’s getting about, must be around noon,
we’re tired, you know, we’ve been on since
three in the morning we have been
on the water and then all the strain
on all my buddies.
I landed there with 36 signallers,
only nine of us survived and only two
out of the nine that weren’t wounded.
So that’s my own platoon.
Now these were guys that I spent nearly
three years with day and night and
they’re gone like that, you know.
I’ve spoken to school kids and I’ve said
we’ve got a whole classroom,
two classes here, maybe you got
about one hundred people here.
I said, “Just look at your buddy next to you,
you’re going to school with all the time and
as I said that just in a matter of
two minutes all of you are dead
except one and you look around,
what would you feel like?”
And I said that’s the feeling you get
when it’s all over and you just
look at all those, your buddies,
laying there, they’re not
going to get up again.
Description
Mr. Ryan makes the comparison of landing on Dieppe to being surrounded by 100 of your buddies only to be left standing alone 2 minutes later.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Recorded:
- May 5, 2009
- Duration:
- 1:23
- Person Interviewed:
- Joseph Anthony Ryan
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Germany
- Battle/Campaign:
- Dieppe
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- Royal Regiment of Canada
- Occupation:
- Signaller
- Date modified: