FLOWERS OF SASKATCHEWAN
(David Francey)

The sun was shining on the English Channel
On a ferry off the coast of France
And it was summer and a pleasant morning
And high above gulls wheeled and danced

And high above the cliffs of morning
The gun emplacements that stood in ranks
And I walked over to the railing
And I heard the ghosts of the Calgary Tanks

And I remembered pictures I'd seen
In history books and magazines
Of three men standing smoking, staring
Among the dead men on a rocky beach

And in the light of that pleasant morning
As we sailed under the cliffs above
I thought of all their silent prayers
And the final thoughts of the ones they loved

That they'd left behind at prairie stations
Waving to their pride and joy
Waving to the smiling faces
Smiling faces on the soldier boys

No waves of grain will claim the fallen
Just the channel cold and grey as steel
And no return to the rolling prairie
And a silent cross on a lonely field.

Oh the sun was shining on the rolling prairie
Far from the channel, cold and grey
Shone on the families, friends and lovers
Of the prairie boys who fell that day

But they could not know on that sunny morning
The future held for them no joy
They'd wait in vain at prairie stations
Wait in vain for the soldier boys

YT clip

Most historians agree that the allied raid on Dieppe on 19 August 1942 was an unmitigated disaster. The planners grossly underestimated the strength of the German garrison and the difficulties presented by the cliffs and stony beaches. Churchill privately admitted: ‘It would appear to a layman very much out of accord with the accepted principles of war to attack the strongly fortified town front without first securing the cliffs on either side, and to use our tanks in frontal assault off the beaches’. British war historian, David Reynolds, described Lord Louis Mountbatten, the architect of the raid, as ‘this egregious political climber’ who had been ‘absurdly over-promoted’ by Churchill. Of the 6000 allied troops involved, 4963 were Canadian. Of the latter, only 2104 returned to England, many of whom were wounded. 913 were killed and 1946 captured.

Canadian historian, Pierre Berton, wrote: ‘How ironic it is that for Canadians the defining battle of the Great War was a glorious victory – Vimy Ridge – while its counterpart, 25 years later, was a bitter defeat’. One of the 3 Canadian soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross had the last word: ‘The people who planned it should be shot’.

--Stewie.