Finding Safe Shelter on the Beaches of Dieppe
The Dieppe Raid
Finding Safe Shelter on the Beaches of Dieppe
Transcript
Well there was tanks laying all over the place
and there was on fire and treads shot off and stuff like that.
So anyway, I said to Bradley,
I said, “Dump that thing or we're finished”and he said “Okay.”
And I said, “You’re on your own”
and he said, “Good luck, good luck” and that was it.
He smashed the... radio anyway and...
he put a grenade in it actually and that was it.
Anyway this officer and I, we started to crawl along the beach
and they were still firing and everything else
and we couldn’t get behind any tank, because God there was...
a crew and everybody else was hiding behind tanks and that.
And there was a bunch behind us,
I don’t know how many men maybe 20,
that were crawling behind us
and they were going ahead of us,
and as they were going by us they were getting shot down,
cut down
There was a gap in the wall,
and the Germans had a machine gun
trained on that and when they were firing
20 second bursts, 20 second lapse, 20 seconds
and anyways, this marine officer, he caught it
and he kept everybody back,
and he hollered at ‘em and he said,
“Now when that gun quits, as many as you can, run. Get by it.”
Finally it was just him and I,
and I don’t know how the hell I got by there but,
I could hardly move, I could hardly walk.
I wasn’t walking, I was crawling,
but anyway it seemed to be an eternity had gone by
and just as we got over they started firing again
and there was nobody else behind us and that, but
anyway, we worked our way down and finally a cease fire
and that was the end of it.
So this officer said, “Well, you’re on your own”
and I said, “See ya.” I didn’t even know the man’s name.
I often wish I’d got his name and that
and we wished each other good luck and
then gradually the German soldiers come down.
And I was in pretty sad shape there,
trying to hold on to this arm
and my friend Ted Broadbent come along
and he helped me off the beach and...
when we got so far, we had to throw our tin hats in a pile
and whatnot
I didn’t have a rifle, badly busted both my rifles and that.
Anyway then we marched up the street
and we went to the Dieppe hospital.
Description
Feeling very vulnerable during the Dieppe Raid in the open space of the beach, it was decided to try to take refuge behind one of the nearby disabled tanks.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 03:22
- Person Interviewed:
- Donald Gorman
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Europe
- Battle/Campaign:
- Dieppe
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- Essex Scottish Regiment
- Rank:
- Lance-Corporal
- Occupation:
- Signalman
- Date modified: