Where Have all our Soldiers Gone?

As a boy of 13 I had lived most of the war staying at various places with my mother, sister and brother. My father who was a sergeant in the Royal Artillery returned from Dunkirk without a scratch. However it must have affected him in some way because he returned to active duty and was never seen or heard from again. He must have found pastures greener because as far as I am aware he survived the war.

We moved around a bit and finally settled in Camberley, Surrey. A military area with camps at Sandhurst, Aldershot and Borden amongst others. The countryside seemed full of army camps with soldiers of many different nationalities. We had regiments of Canadian troops stationed around us, hundreds of them. Strangely they all belonged to Scottish regiments, Seaforth Highlanders, Cameronians, and others that I can't recall.

All of the locals really took to these Canadian soldiers, and they to us, integrating very well into our community. I suppose like all young soldiers they liked dating our pretty girls. They were also invited into many people’s homes and sort of adopted giving them a bit of family life to make up for what they had left behind in Canada.

They did a great deal for our community, laying on Fetes and parties for the kids from different schools. Wonderful times we had, and all the food, we had never seen the like before.

Our adopted soldier was an older man, a sergeant who had been in the wars before. His name was Allen, we never did find out his surname. He was a lovely man, quiet and soft spoken. Generous to a fault, he was always appreciative to be allowed into our family life. He struck up a close friendship with my mother and for the few months that we knew him he was like a father to us.

What family he had back in Canada we never knew, he never spoke of it and we never asked. It was like that in wartime I suppose.

Sadly, like all good things it had to come to an end. All in a rush the soldiers were recalled to their camps due for immediate shipping out. The next day all were gone except for a few units at Aldershot, base staff, store personnel, things like that. We tried to find out what was happening but in wartime everything was hush hush.

All we had were rumours - there was some raid or other taking place on the coast of France. We never did find out what had happened to 'our soldiers' and they never returned. These events were soon overshadowed by others as the war progressed and we eventually stopped wondering.

What's left of my family still have fond memories of these grand guys and particularly of sergeant Allen as we called him and like to think that he eventually made it home.

I've always had my suspicions as to what befell these young men but a recent television programme finally convinced me. A documentary on an attempted landing in France carried out by Canadians troops that was an absolute disaster and left many casualties.

I think I now know where our soldiers went - a place called Dieppe.

As told by George Ward, P.O.M.e Royal Navy retired, aged 74 years. Resident of Weymouth, Dorset circa 2005.

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