Memoirs of Gordie Bannerman - World War II

• We were soon to hear who had taken part in the Dieppe raid. The South Saskatchewan regiment was one of the regiments of the second Division participating . This battalion held special interest to many of us in the 17th RCA as we knew a lot of chaps in that unit. The raid, as history recalls, was on 19th August 1942. We, and I say, really did not have any contact with these fellows that we knew until my birthday 13th Sept 1942. At this time Bill Davies, who had two brothers in the SSR, Orme Payne, his brother Kirk, and I were able to get a 48 hour pass to visit the SSR. I think we had heard that Orme's friend Dagnall Dempsey had been killed on the raid, and Jake Krohn had been captured. On arriving at Horsham we went to the area of the SSR and located the Davies brothers and George Goldbeck. The Davies brothers certainly had some terrible stories about the raid and how they had survived through sheer will to live and being in good shape. George Goldbeck told us he had missed the raid with a badly sprained ankle and was in having treatment.

  Here we found out how Dagnall was killed. Apparently on the rush up from the beach a friend of Dagnall's, a chap called McKellar, was wounded and fell at Dagnall's feet. Dagnall ignored going on and stopped to help a friend only to take a burst of machine gun fire killing him instantly.

  Now about Jake Krohn. As the battle had really gone next to nowhere, Jake, who could speak German, assisted in helping wounded members of the SSR and anyone else probably saving some of their lives. Jake was taken prisoner and spent the next almost three years as a prisoner of war. Jake has passed away a number of years ago, and so has George Golbeck.

  After the war any of us that were fortunate to talk to George Goldbeck found in this man his love of life, and how he managed to survive the war. George was truly a character. His descriptions of the German panzer tanks running over their slit trenches and swerving their tracks to try and kill them or when he went to go and relieve himself and find that in that moment a German 88mm anti tank gun had fired hitting his six pounder gun and killing all his crew. George had a great way of telling a story. How he, on landing, tells a tale that he went no further than the beach, and after the war they hauled water for days to flush him out of his hole to tell him the war was over. Of course George fought in all the SSR battles and miraculously survived to return to his family and live out his life in Saskatchewan. The world around George was made a better place with the humour he brought to all that heard his stories. May wherever he is in after life he still be entertaining. RIP George who brought humor to tragedy. All were enriched by just knowing him.

  Here 61years after the Dieppe raid, most of the participants are now dead and their stories are being lost. Who really remembers these young men that lost their lives so many years ago. The school principals were not born then and our history tends to know more about Vietnam than what our young Canadians did so long ago.