In the Water for 8 Hours
The Dieppe Raid
In the Water for 8 Hours
Transcript
We stayed in that position until almost noon and then a couple of
aircraft layed down a smoke screen and that's when we withdrew
and that's when they really opened up again into the smoke,
I mean you know we're getting all.. The smoke was thick you
couldn't see nothing but the fire was coming. The Germans were
firing into the smoke because they knew we were in there I guess.
Interviewer: The wounded, were you able to get many of the
wounded off?
I had four German prisoners with me, and a wounded major, and my
buddy was wounded in the leg. He was a 2 inch mortar man
and we got them on to an AL, an assault landing craft but it
was full. And the coxswain said there was room for no more, so we
got off it and I took the four German prisoners and we got onto
a big tank landing craft. And as I got on that I was on it a
little while and I noticed it sinking. So I said to the four
Germans, "Get!" You know, I didn't want them anymore, like
get for yourself. And I jumped off it and started to swim out.
Well I was swimming out a little way, and my Mae West was tied to
to my, you know what the Mae West is, it's sort of like a
life vest, you know, I had it around my chest here. But it was,
the waves was pushing against me and I couldn't swim too good
so I took it off and I tied it to my ankle and I was a good
swimmer, and I'm really swimming. And then I notice these little
plinks, "plink, plink, plinks" all around me. I'm wondering
what the hell they were, you know? Till it dawned on me,
they were bullets. So I started to dive under, you know,
figuring well, hell, I'll get away from them. So anyway, I swam
out oh, quite a way, I was way out. Then I seen an assault
landing craft just idling, I could hear the engine running and I
swam towards it and I'm yelling, "Ahoy, Ahoy" and I'm quite a way
out, and the engines running, and I get closer, "Ahoy, Ahoy!"
and still no answer. So I got right up to it and it has the ropes
to pull yourself up. I pull myself up and go to get in it and
they're all dead in it. They'd been machine gunned from the air.
But they must have seen movement from the shore because
then they'd opened up on the shore and the shells are starting
to bracket it, and I jumped off it and swam away from it.
And I turn around a little while, you know when I got away from
it and they hit it, and it sank but they're, all the guys were,
it was full of guys but I couldn't see any life. And I thought
you know, if I could, if I could of got in it and got it back
even with the dead guys in it would have been something.
It was running, but the cox was dead and everything,
they'd been machine gunned from the air, I guess.
Interviewer: You were in the water...
I was in the water from noon until, until about 8 o'clock at
night and it brought me into the beach and I was in my underwear.
I'd chucked all my clothes, but I still had my chocolate ration
and when I got in I, I sat on the beach and looked at myself and
I'm all, I don't know if you ever seen when you're in the water
for a long time your hands are all crinkly and shrivelled.
I sat there. I couldn't walk and I ate my chocolate ration and,
of course, there's guys floating in on Mae Wests that were dead
and I looked over, I looked at a few of them because I had a
brother, I was one of two brothers and I'm looking for my brother
I thought he was, I didn't think he was there, but you know I...
Interviewer: What unit was he with?
He was in a mortar platoon, too. He was in number 3 detachment.
He was attached to A Company. And anyway, they, I walked,
I'm at the beach there and I couldn't walk but when I could walk,
I'm right below high cliffs so I look along and I see a gully and
and I thought, "Gee, if I can get along there I can maybe get up
into a town and maybe some French will help me". So I walked
along the cliffs, below the cliffs and of course all sorts of
dead guys floating in, and ever now and again I'd look to see if
one was my brother. And I got to the cliffs and a German
pops up behind a rock and takes me prisoner and he took me
up through the gully and it was loaded with Germans. My best bet
would have been to stay where I was and maybe tried it at night.
But, of course, I was only a kid, you never thought. So they
took me to the top of the cliffs up through this gully and took a
a lot of pictures of me. And they ended up, they took me to this
old abandoned factory and as I went in there was quite a few of
our guys milling around and I seen a guy I knew, I said,
"Have you seen my brother?" And he said, "Yeah, he's in there."
So I said "Where?" He said "Oh just go into the back there,
I think he's laying down". So I walked in and sure enough
I found him, he was fast asleep. I woke him up and he thought I
was a ghost. But I was wounded in the back, not bad, and he
was ok. So he said, "Are you ok Kenny?" And I said "Yeah, I got a
little wound in the back, but I'm ok." So we cuddled down, cause
we were cold and hugged each other for the rest of the night.
Description
Mr. Curry explains his withdrawal from the position on the beach, eight hours in the water and his capture by the Germans.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 05:29
- Person Interviewed:
- Kenneth Curry
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Europe
- Battle/Campaign:
- Dieppe
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- Royal Hamilton Light Infantry
- Date modified: