The Veterans Came Together at Naval Reunions
Combined Efforts Produced Rare WWII Books
the Woodstock Navy Club in August 1988. Photo from D. Harrison
L - R: Al Kirby, Robert Brown, Norm Bowen, Doug Harrison
Introduction:
Three of the four men above are associated with aforementioned books or stories related to operations/incidents that involved our Canadians in Combined Ops during WWII. E.g., Al Kirby wrote a tremendous piece about the Dieppe raid, Norm Bowen contributed an audio file to The Memory Project, and Doug Harrison compiled his naval memoirs in the 1970s, which now serve as the original backbone of this online site.
As of yet I have found nothing written by Robert Brown of Brantford, Ontario, but what was written about him - really, only a few words - inform us of the realities of war and its after-affects.
A short excerpt from prose entitled Dieppe: The Landing by Robert McRae, Lt., RCNVR, describes the action as Lt. McRae's landing craft comes out from behind "a heavy smoke screen" off the coast of Dieppe, France, August 19, 1942:
Coming out on the other side
with a full view now of the coast,
we found we were fatally headed toward
the beach under the steep cliffs,
to the right side of the town
instead of the town front,
with the ominous heads of the enemy
clearly visible lined along the top of the cliffs.
And now they began to pour machine-gun fire
down into the boats.
In our craft, Campbell, who was at the wheel,
received a line of bullets across his thighs
(later as a POW he lost his legs to amputations
and died before Christmas from gangrene).
Cavanagh, standing beside him, was shot in the chest,
and died an hour later thrashing in torment
while his lungs filled up.
My third crewman, Brown*, took something
in the stomach that damaged him
for the rest of his life.
But although wounded, he took over Campbell's place
at the wheel, and for this action received
a gallantry award after the war.
As it was my place to stand behind
the man at the wheel,
Campbell had stopped the machine-gun bullets
I might otherwise have received ....
* Robert Brown, Brantford
Coming out on the other side
with a full view now of the coast,
we found we were fatally headed toward
the beach under the steep cliffs,
to the right side of the town
instead of the town front,
with the ominous heads of the enemy
clearly visible lined along the top of the cliffs.
And now they began to pour machine-gun fire
down into the boats.
In our craft, Campbell, who was at the wheel,
received a line of bullets across his thighs
(later as a POW he lost his legs to amputations
and died before Christmas from gangrene).
Cavanagh, standing beside him, was shot in the chest,
and died an hour later thrashing in torment
while his lungs filled up.
My third crewman, Brown*, took something
in the stomach that damaged him
for the rest of his life.
But although wounded, he took over Campbell's place
at the wheel, and for this action received
a gallantry award after the war.
As it was my place to stand behind
the man at the wheel,
Campbell had stopped the machine-gun bullets
I might otherwise have received ....
* Robert Brown, Brantford
As found in St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941 - 1945, Volume 1, page 62.
(The complete, dramatic, eye-witness account by Lt. McRae can be found on pages 61 - 65, by clicking here.)
Lt. Bob McRae writes another, four-paragraph account about that fateful day - during which he was taken prisoner of war - and as a postscript, found on page 66, following McRae's prose, he added the following:
"Brown, I saw last January when he came with some old shipmates to
have lunch here." The photo below records that meeting, mid-1990s
Note - "survival guilt" was written by my father on page 66; I added "where is Lloyd Campbell buried?" for curiosity's sake, along with "Dad wrote "Berlin". I located Lloyd Campbell's Navy records and it includes the location of his burial plot... in Germany. (Click here to read a full story re Lloyd Campbell, London, ONT)
My father (2nd left) is wearing a blazer w Combined Operations badge.
The dark cap is possibly mine, from the 1960s (Beatles fan)
Bob Brown in his burgundy blazer, accompanied by D. Harrison
(left) and Billie Rose (related to Chuck Rose, RCNVR) of Sarnia.
Six Canadians members of RCNVR in Combined Operations, 1944 - 45,
at HMCS Givenchy III or Naden (at Esquimalt) on Vancouver Island.
Back L - R: D. Westbrook (Hamilton), Chuck Rose (Chippawa), J. Spencer (Toronto)
Front L - R: J. Watson (Simcoe), D. Harrison (Norwich), A. Warrick (Hamilton)
Lt. Bob McRae does not appear in photos re reunions or other get-togethers. As we have read above, he mentioned Bob Brown and two others related to the Dieppe Raid, i.e., Lloyd Campbell of London (died as a POW, buried in Germany) and Richard Cavanagh. Though Campbell and Cavanagh did not survive the war, as did my father and many good mates, I have been fortunate to get early photographs of the two Canadian veterans via research and good fortune.
Lloyd George Campbell, RCNVR
News clip, as found in The Winnipeg Tribune, Nov. 18, 1942
Likely from The London Free Press
Richard Cavanagh, RCNVR, Combined Operations
Richard Cavanaugh with Effingham Division, Halifax 1941
2nd row from front, second from the left
Richard C. on left, I believe. But I could be wrong w this one.
From the collection Lloyd Evans, RCNVR, C. Ops
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