Memories of Dieppe

The Dieppe Raid

Memories of Dieppe

Transcript

Strangely enough, we knew that, through the grapevine we learned that other people other than ourselves were going to be involved but we didn't know for sure and the first time we actually knew about it, was the morning of the invasion when I got instructions to go down to Portsmouth and two of the destroyers that were coming back from Dieppe were going to be there and they were discharging people who were sick and people who were wounded and so on and so forth. So we got our, had a convoy set up and we went down to Portsmouth and took over. I got authority to take over one of the destroyers and clean things and move out the bodies and so on and so forth, get them anybody, but there was nobody there that was, they were all, at that stage this was just hours after they'd come back. It was a pretty grim situation, there's no doubt about that. We were, see one of the things that we were following in those days were, if a brigade, if a unit or say three units went into action, they'd leave one behind. So same with a brigade, if three brigades were going in, there was always one formation left behind to form the nucleus, of the form. So that was our situation there. Interviewer: What effect did that tragic raid have on the morale of the rest of the men in 2nd Infantry Division? Well I can only say our only contact was with our own people to say we hadn't lost, we didn't loose anybody in that parade, in that engagement. We just considered ourselves lucky, we didn't have to do anything about it.

Description

Mr. Robinson remembers his involvement in England during and after the Dieppe raid.

Sherwin Robinson

Sherwin Robinson was born in Innisvale, Alberta on April 5, 1915. He was a member of the 15th Alberta Lighthorse (Cavalry group) prior to the Second World War. As the Cavalry was not being used at the outbreak of the war, he joined the Calgary Highlanders on September 12, 1939, at the age of 24. During his service, Mr. Robinson moved through the ranks and occupied various positions. Following the war, he took a job with the Veterans Land Administration (VLA), eventually taking a position in Ottawa, where he remained.

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