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Originally Posted by bigtmac19
Important day in my family history for sure. The Essex Scottish Regiment landed at Red Beach, my Dad among them. He was captured that day and spent the rest of the war as a POW, or as he liked to say "as a guest of the Germans". He suffered life long consequences of his experiences in that camp. They were often starving, he said the only thing that saved them were the Red Cross packages. His camp was in Poland.
I've been to Dieppe twice, brought his grandsons. It's an emotional place. His Regiment usually sends a group of soldiers there every year and every year at 5:00 am they are down on the beach, having a shot of whiskey and making a toast to the boys!
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My grandfather was a medic that was part of the second landing wave and was also captured, he said all he had time to do was hit the sand and the bullets whizzing overhead were so thick that anyone who even peaked over the sand was blown away. Similar stories that Red Cross packages were the only thing that kept them alive -- all the Nazis gave them was bread and water and the bread was so hard there were guys walking on top of the loads before the trucks delivered it.
Pretty amazing story, he passed when I was only around 10 years old so I didn't really appreciate or understand the full gravity of his story and sacrifice. Will always stick with me. I'd love to visit there someday (as would my mom, his daughter).