Cast No Shadow, Peter Sharp [books to get back into reading txt] 📗

enemy had regrouped and were beginning to return fire, but Kelly didn’t dare hesitate; he needed to get his group back to the rearguard, where there would at least be some element of protection. On his command, his group, under the covering fire of the two flank groups, ran between them and took up a defensive position. To his relief, covering fire was also now coming from the rearguard.

As soon as his group were down and in a defensive position, he called the flanks in. They passed his position and continued into the relative safety of the defensive positions of the rearguard. The only exposed group now was Kelly and his team. The rearguard team was now giving covering fire, but the fire coming from the enemy was intensifying. He had no option but to move.

On his command the group sprang to their feet, then, crouching, ran back towards the rearguard. There was a cry of pain to his left. Looking back Kelly saw Delacroix sprawled on the grass. Kelly changed direction. He swooped down and in one movement hoisted the Belgian onto his shoulders and sprinted as fast has he could towards his comrades. As he approached them, he flung Delacroix over the barricade which he then hurdled without breaking stride and landed in a crumpled heap on the other side, as round after round thudded into the much more solid barricade of the rearguard.

When Kelly was able to catch his breath, he found that other groups also falling back from Petit Appeville were reinforcing the rearguard. The party was now a substantial size and the advance of the Germans was halted. This gave a senior officer from one of the groups the opportunity to reorganise into a single unit. He began an ordered withdrawal under fire.

There was at first little resistance to the retreat. However, as they approached the beach the firing intensified again. On the beach the landing craft were manoeuvring, ready to evacuate the troops. Kelly was impressed at the bravery of the landing craft coxswains who, whilst under sustained fire, waited patiently for the troops to embark.

The Colonel, who had taken charge, was now organising a new rearguard to keep the Germans occupied whilst the rest of the party embarked on the landing craft. Kelly, still carrying Delacroix and beginning to sag under the weight, was immediately waved towards one of the craft. As he approached, a Canadian moved alongside him. He was one of the biggest men Kelly had ever seen.

“Give me your buddy, sir,” he drawled, effortlessly lifting Delacroix off Kelly’s shoulders and placing him on his own, “You look all in.” Before Kelly could protest, the giant, with Delacroix on his shoulders, had disappeared in the general mêlée on the beach. Kelly caught a glimpse of the two men clambering onto a landing craft to his right, whilst he was steered by the throng onto another craft.

Within minutes the craft had turned on its axis and was weaving and bobbing its way back to the transport ships and the safety of the destroyer protection force.

Kelly sat in stunned silence as Gareth Owen retold the fate of ‘A’ Royal Marine Commando on that fateful morning at Dieppe.

Kelly had returned from his temporary secondment with 10 Commando and was again on the strength of ‘A’ Commando, now renamed 40 Commando. It had transpired that Delacroix had survived his wounds and would appear to have been fulsome in his praise of Dan Kelly for his leadership, bravery and selflessness. As a consequence of this, Kelly had surmised at the time, his request for a transfer back to 40 Commando had been readily agreed and rapidly implemented.

However, he had been disabused of that notion when he found, on arriving at the unit, that there could well have been a much simpler, more pragmatic reason for his transfer back. There simply weren’t enough officers left from Dieppe for the unit to be viable.

Gareth recounted the tragedy. “Things went well in the south as you know. The Canadians at Pourville didn’t link with the main force, but in retrospect, that was probably just as well. In the north it was a complete disaster. Only eighteen of 3 Commando landed in the right place and, despite distracting the battery at Bernaval, it wasn’t disabled. And at Puys, virtually the entire Canadian regiment was annihilated.”

He went on, “Under the circumstances you question the wisdom of going ahead with the main assault, but it did go ahead. None of the regiments sent in made it past the esplanade.

“When it became clear that the front assault was failing, our boys were sent in, but the plan was changed. Instead of going in on fast motorboats into the docks to destroy the naval installations as rehearsed, we were redeployed onto landing craft to land on the main beach and reinforce the main assault force.

“It was clear from the off that this was going to be all bad news. The Germans had found their range and were picking the landing craft off at will. Those men that made it to the beach were annihilated by the crossfire from the cliffs. When the CO realised what was happening, he stood up on the stern of his landing craft, donned a pair of white gloves and signalled to all landing craft following to return to the flotilla.”

Gareth stopped for a moment, overcome with the memories of the disaster. Composing himself he went on, “Tigger was shot as he stood there in the craft, directing the others to return. He died saving hundreds of lives.”

Kelly dipped his head, unable to take it all in. “I heard the casualties were high, but I had no idea.”

“Of course, the official figures have been withheld, but a conservative estimate puts the losses at around 1000 dead and 2500 wounded or captured,” Owen finished.

Kelly shook his head but stayed silent.

Owen stood up and walked the floor for a moment, struggling with his emotions. At last, he felt composed enough