Red Beach

"It’s so important that we remember the sacrifices of all those who contributed to the freedom we enjoy today."

The plaque had been moved to the cemetery from its former location on a beachfront esplanade, where a larger and more resilient monument has taken its place. The new monument will be dedicated Saturday, the 64th anniversary of the day 105 Essex Scottish soldiers were killed in a hail of Nazi fire on the deadly beach.
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A couple of the veterans became teary-eyed, while some others stood taut holding their hats over their hearts while Gilliland spoke. The event also drew Windsor-area politicians, including Mayor Eddie Francis and MPs Joe Comartin, Brian Masse and Jeff Watson, each of whom said they paid out-of-pocket for the trip. Francis said he included the Dieppe ceremonies as part of a European vacation he is taking with his wife as “a symbol of gratefulness” to the veterans and their slain brothers in arms. “I’m surprised how emotional it really is,” Francis said of the well-kept grave site. “It truly is emotional; you read the names, you read the ages, you read some of the family inscriptions on the bottom and there really is a connection to Windsor.” Following the dedication, the attendants filed inside the cemetery and as they entered, they were given a yellow rose, a Canadian flag and a regimental flag to place at the grave sites. “I wish the people in Windsor could see this cemetery in this country,” said Doug Duff, an Amherstburg resident who joined the tour. “You can almost feel the people talking to you under here. It’s like they’re reaching out to say, ‘Just say today thank you, not that I died in vain.’"

The Essex Scottish paid the highest price of any Canadian Army unit in the Second World War, and it is fitting that the fighting men of that regiment should be memorialized at Dieppe.

On that ill-fated day, a misleading message was received by the headquarters ship, which led officials to believe that the Essex Scottish Regiment had breached the seawall successfully and were making headway in the town, when in fact they were on the pebble covered beach, pinned down and being fired at by the enemy. By the end of the Dieppe Raid, the Essex Scottish Regiment had suffered 121 fatal casualties.

In July 1944, after regaining their strength, the Regiment moved on to northwestern Europe. They landed on the coast of Normandy and fought their way through France, Holland, and Germany until the end of the war in the fall of 1945.

By the wars end, the Essex Scottish Regiment had suffered more than 550 war dead and had been inflicted with the highest number of casualties of any unit in the Canadian Army during the Second World War, more than 2,500. The Regiment returned home after the war in 1945, where they were disbanded on December 15.

Semper Paratus.