Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre and senior politicians from the defence ministry marked the 75th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid, a crucial event in Canada’s involvement in the Second World War, at Dieppe Park — formerly called Cité-du-Havre — on Saturday afternoon.
Those who fought in the battle, which took place in Dieppe on the northern shores of France, were among the more than one million Canadian men and women who served in uniform during the war.
READ MORE: Kent Hehr leads Canadian delegation to Dieppe to mark 75th anniversary of raid
Close to 5,000 soldiers took part in the raid, which began under the cloak of darkness on Aug. 19, 1942.
It ended up being a dark day, with more than 3,350 killed, injured or taken prisoner.
Coderre told Global News that today’s ceremony was an important moment.
“It’s all about the duty to remember,” he said. “It was the first time you had Canadians, specifically Montrealers, who went to the front.”
Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal, a Montreal-based regiment, suffered heavy causalities at Dieppe, with 119 soldiers killed.
A miscommunication was blamed for the tragedy.
It was believed that the first wave of Canadian attackers had made significant inroads and the regiment was sent in to assist them. But, they were greeted with heavy German fire.
Members of the Black Watch, Canada’s oldest Highland regiment and also based in Montreal, suffered four fatal causalities.
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Jenny Clarke’s late husband Herbert Clarke was part of the Black Watch. He was just 19 years old when he was captured 45 minutes after landing at Dieppe, and was held prisoner by the Germans for 32 months.
“He went to Dieppe with one battalion of the Black Watch and he was taken prisoner,” she said.
“Soon as he got off the boat he could see the water was full of blood you know. And this fellow came up to him and said in perfect English: ‘for you, mister, the war is over.'”
Despite his experiences, Clarke never held any animosity towards the Germans, according to his wife.
“They were doing their job, we were doing ours,” she said. “He came out of it OK, although it wasn’t an easy thing for sure.”
Clarke’s story was one of many shared at the ceremony.
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According to Coderre, Dieppe is what made the war real for many Montrealers.
“Historians will tell you it was one of the first time Montrealers truly felt that war because one of their own left their life,” he said.
The event in Montreal included an artillery salute, a performance of the “Last Post,” concluding with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque, officially renaming the park.
Coderre said that with fewer veterans left to remember the Second World War, commemorating gestures become even more important.
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