His regiment - the Essex Scottish Regiment - suffered grave losses in terms of deaths, soldiers wounded and/or captured. In fact by the end of the war no other Canadian regiment had suffered as many casualties as the Essex Scottish - over 2500.
The story as it came out over the years and years it took for him to share it with me and my father, was that during the Dieppe raid he was in hospital with jaundice. But for his hospitalization he would have went ashore not far behind the pipers of the Essex Scottish.
Can you imagine that? Motoring toward a heavily defended foreign beach with bagpipers playing as the shore guns blared, the machine guns chattered and the ramps lowered as your craft hit shore?
Either he was already a Corporal or was promoted to Corporal upon his discharge from hospital. There was a disagreement with his commanding officer about whether he was qualified to lead in battle as a Corporal or not due to his lack of battlefield experience. The result was he gave up his Corporal rank and was attached to the 7th Light Field Ambulance for the remainder of the war which was attached to the 5th Canadian Armoured Division that was sent to Italy in 1943.
Here is a picture of the 7th Light Field Ambulance. I have no idea if my grandfather is in this picture. If i had to chose i would say he is the man 9th from the right in the very back row. But there is no "name key" to this photo in the National Archives of Canada page about the 7th Light Field Ambulance RCAMC.
He volunteered and served through all 6 years of the Second World War.
Much of his later years back in Canada were spent making videos with interviews of the various doctors and officers associated with field hospitals his ambulance unit was attached to.
He concluded the war like so many Canadian soldiers in Belguim.
Did you know that a pigeon named "Beach Comber" was awarded a medal for bravery at Dieppe?
Update: Here is a new memorial about Dieppe recently dedicated in Windsor, Ontario.
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