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Day of Dieppe Raid Starts Early

Heroes Remember

Day of Dieppe Raid Starts Early

Transcript
The chap that was in charge of the signal office come and woke me up about 3 o’clock in the morning and he asked me if I would take over his shift because I was due to go on duty again at 8 o’clock in the morning and he said he was married to an Irish girl up in Tooting, London which was the Irish district and he said he’d got a call that his wife was sick, and so I “Okay.” and he took one of the phony passes and away he went and I went up to signal office and just... got my head down cause it was quiet at night and that and anyway, we were to change shift at 8 o’clock, well I was due to stay on. so I let the other signalers go, because I always was the last to go and eat, because you always got a little bit better food, when you went into the cook house on your own, you know. And anyway, I went and had breakfast and I came out of the mess hall, and all the trucks were lined up and guys got their gear on and everything else and my platoon officer came up and he says, "Where’s Crawford?" and I said "Oh, his wife’s sick he’s gone up to London to see her." He says, "Get your gear and get on the truck." and I says, "Well where are we going?" And he says, “Well we’re going on a three day maneuver”. "OK." So I went and got my kit, and climbed on the truck and I was sitting there and the mailman, his name was Percy Such, and he came running up, "Gorman" and he had a cablegram for me and I opened it up and it was from my father’s doctor, my father was dying and the doctor said, “Get compassionate leave if you can and get home as soon as possible.” So I got off the truck and ended up with the Colonel and he looked at the telegram and he said, “We’re just gonna be gone for three days.” he said, “When you come back, you’ll be home.” “Okay.” So I climbed back on the truck and away we go on this supposed three day maneuver. And we ended up at Southampton and we see the ships standing there and we started to think, we’re not going on no three day maneuver, we’re going somewhere. And anyway, we loaded on and we got on, it was a ship called the Leopold.
Description

Early in the moring of August 19, 1942, events began to unfold that would lead to the Dieppe Raid. Mr. Gorman was asleep in his bed.

Donald Gorman

Mr. Gorman was born June 23, 1921. His father was a stationary engineer at one of Windsor’s high schools and was a veteran of both the Boer War and the First World War. Mr. Gorman left school after achieving junior matriculation. He held jobs in a bakery, a fish market and as an apprentice mechanic at Remington-Rand typewriter factory in Windsor. After enlisting on September 16, 1939, he took his basic training in Windsor before being moved to Camp Borden for advanced training in June, 1940. Mr. Gorman went overseas with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Regiment and was involved in the Dieppe Raid.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
03:03
Person Interviewed:
Donald Gorman
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Battle/Campaign:
Dieppe
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Essex Scottish Regiment
Rank:
Lance-Corporal
Occupation:
Signalman

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