There were some interesting as well as heart wrenching moments to observe on Saturday during the South Saskatchewan Regiment reunion in the Legion Hall in Estevan.
One of the more interesting reunions within the reunion was the meeting between John Edmundson of Victoria, B.C. and Jack Nesbitt of Estevan, two officers who fought in the memorable Battle at Dieppe.
The two men sat on metal chairs in the Legion Hall, surrounded by comrades, but yet alone for nearly an hour on Saturday morning. They wanted to straighten out a few matters, 55 years after the fact.
Without the benefit of a coffee pot, comfortable couches or history books, the two men went over that memorable battle, that five hours of hell for the Canadian troops, with their own memories to rely on. "How did we get separated?" Edmundson asked Nesbitt.
Nesbitt responded that a wireless communication system went down early and with the separation of an officer named McTavish, it seemed A and D Companies were left without liaison devices.
When the astronauts got into trouble during that memorable space exploration probe in the 1970s the word came down to their command station "Houston, we have a problem."
In August of 1942, Edmundson, who held the rank of major, remembers hearing from one of his enlisted charges, skipper, we've got problems," as the German artillery blasted away at the Allied troops who were storming the beaches and attempting to make their way into the nearby village.
Decades and events separated the two incidents, but the messages of extreme stress were remarkably the same.
"Just what happened, we didn't know then," Edmundson said.
The former officer said he got "blasted" at Dieppe and was temporarily paralyzed. He asked Nesbitt what happened to his troops and Nesbitt said he could recall getting over the wall with a few, but then they probably holed up, perhaps for a half hour after the last man had scaled the wall leading to the village. The idea was to wait for the others who were to come up behind them and supply men and artillery. They didn't arrive.
"Some German soldiers came down a hill after us on bicycles. We managed to knock a few of them off there," said Edmundson.
Those who were able to retreat after the early morning raid, managed to get back to the beach and retreating boats by noon.
Just then, another man enters the room to be greeted by the two.
Edmundson grabs John Kemp in a big embrace.
"When they picked me up, I asked the medics if they had seen Kemp. They said they had. I asked them how were his chances and they said they weren't very good. But who the Hell comes to visit me in the hospital, none other than Kemp," Edmundson laughs, "You made it."
"Damn right I did, thanks to this guy," said John Kemp who grabs the shoulders of SSR reunion President Tony Heisler of Regina.
Heisler was a very young SSR soldier at the time, assigned to medical evacuation duties on that dreaded day at Dieppe.
"He picked me up and hauled me away and I made it," Kemp said grinning from ear to ear.
"Now we're just a couple of old sweats, but he's a younger old sweat than I am, he's 75, I'm 85," he said with another laugh.
I want to ask Kemp what it's like to owe one man your life, but it's obvious from the greeting that this isn't how these guys think about things like that. They were both just doing their jobs. This isn't the only story of disaster and rescue among the surviving SSR members.
Edmundson retired from service with 100 per cent disability.
"The anti-tank mine did a real number on my Jeep. Did a pretty good number on me too," he recalled.
"There were remembrances of the action of Charles Merritt, one of only 1,350 recipients of the Victoria Cross. He received VC number 861," said Peter Maule.
SSR historian Maule has been tending to his task for over 40 years, gathering photos and memorabilia for his comrades to help them remember what they'd never forget anyway.
There was operation Veritable near the Netherlands and the Battle of Xanton in Germany which involved the SSR troops.
There is the official report of Mayor J.E. McRae on the Dieppe fiasco and pictures of young soldiers, now old veterans, at rest and play in Europe.
There are reports of the contribution of southern Saskatchewan families and the interesting brother combinations that marched off to war like the Smith, Dalziel, Mather and Burns brothers. There is a story about Reg Cull who was the regiment's only true-to-life cowboy and stories about how the soldiers dined with music provided by a phonograph machine they bought themselves through a special regiment collection and their hockey team that probably could have defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Maule said he didn't know how he fell into the job of being the regiment's historian but it's obvious from the displays made available at the reunion, he hasn't been shirking his duties. There are even samples of poetry provided by the young soldiers hours before they marched out to meet death.
It's important stuff, not just for Second World War veterans, but for all of us.