Contrary to what the title above may suggest, it is NOT yet November! Remembrance Day is NOT just around the corner and you did NOT forget to buy your usual poppy to wear this year. Why then the Lest We Forget?s
Hopefully, many of you did not forget that this past Sunday marked the 70th anniversary of the horrific battle that Canadian troops fought at Dieppe, France, in the middle of the Second World War.
By modern military standards, it stands as perhaps one of the most ill-advised advances ever ordered in armed conflict given the jaw-dropping losses sustained by Canadian soldiers.
As one source notes regarding the young men who attempted to secure the beach at Dieppe for the Allied forces, “Their blood turned the ocean red, their bodies washed up on beaches of the occupied French port city.
Many survivors became prisoners. German forces marched the captured in columns and shipped them to camps in boxcars alongside horses.”
How bad was the carnage? Of the 4,963 Canadians involved in the assault, only 2,210 returned back across the channel to England. 1, 946 were taken prisoner-of-war and 913 were killed, according to statistics from Veterans Affairs Canada.
That the anniversary of Dieppe occurs in the dog days of August is instructive. During that period of the year when Canadians typically enjoy some of our best summer weather, our sensitivities to the pleasant things of life should rightly be informed by the rumble of cannon-fire and the explosion of bombs.
For, as an old Russian proverb says so succinctly: “Live in the past and you lose an eye; forget the past and you lose both eyes.”
As I read and watched various reports on the Dieppe commemorations this year, I was struck by a couple of realizations. Firstly, the people of that region of France have certainly not forgotten the sacrifice of so many Canadian soldiers all those years ago.
Thousands turned out this past Sunday to wave Canadian flags and cheer a team of Canadian veterans who made the return trip to Dieppe. Even those who were enjoying the beautiful weather on the beaches at Dieppe had planted several maple leaf banners in recognition that the waters they were enjoying had once been scarlet with Canadian blood.
This indication of respect and remembrance by the French is most encouraging in a day when it’s tempting to conclude most people are completely self-absorbed.
Secondly, I trust it will never be necessary for such bloodshed to occur on Canadian soil in order for today’s Canadians who have never experienced the hell of modern warfare to be able to understand that the privileges of freedom that we enjoy today came at substantial cost to another generation.
Learning to live life as an act of gratitude is a commendable way to live. Indeed, being encouraged to embrace the attitude of gratitude must never become a platitude.
A heart-felt “thank you” to the dwindling number of Second World War veterans that are still among us.
Although we will never fully comprehend the magnitude of your sacrifice or the lingering suffering, we salute you even though November is still a few months away.
Indeed, WE WILL NOT FORGET!
Tim Callaway is pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church, Airdrie [email protected]
