Medal of Bravery

As things got worse, I turned out to be, I discovered I was about the only one in communication forward to the battalion and back to the force headquarters. When force headquarters finally decided that they are going to send the boats in to take out whatever troops could come out because they were so badly hurt that I heard them, I heard them give the order to come out for 10 o’clock. I gave the order to the Essex Scottish. The RHLI, and the Fusiliers de Montreal but I couldn’t give the order to the Royal Regiment. There was no communication with them.
But I heard force headquarters trying to get in touch with both the South Saskatchewan Regiment and the Cameron’s of Winnipeg who were on the right flank but they couldn’t communicate with them. And I called Control which is the headquarters and I said, “Can I get off the air, I have an overlapping frequency on my set, maybe I can contact them and give them the order.” They said, “No you are the only one we have in communication. We don’t want to lose you.” I said, “I promise you I will be back within two minutes.” So they said okay in that case you can do it. I got off the air and tried to search with an eighteen set at the other end. The signal was very, very faint and I could barely hear it through all that noise and pounding of the guns and everything else but finally I got both units, gave them the order and got a reply that they said they had got it and came back on the air and I was back on the air in about thirty seconds. We didn’t have any motor or rudder and we were towed back by the navy, Royal Navy, on both sides from the beach and all the way to England. When I got to England I was debriefed by the Intelligence people and the first thing they said to me, “What you did saved at least a hundred lives.” So I felt very good about that. And on the 60th Anniversary I met two guys who had heard that order that I gave and they acknowledged that they had heard it and got out.