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Friday, November 4, 2022 3 Brooklin Town Crier On August 19, 1942, Allied forces carried out Operation Jubilee, an attack on the German-occupied French port of Dieppe. Known as the Dieppe Raid, it was the first major Canadian engagement in Europe of World War II. Within ten hours of landing on four beaches, 3,623 of 6,086 men had been killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Robert (Bob) Hedges of the Royal Canadian Regiment was one of those prisoners and, for almost three years, he suffered with thousands of others through forced labour and hardship as prisoners of war in a northern Germany prison camp. Grew up in Quebec Bob was born on May 17, 1917, in Hamilton though he grew up in St. Hyacinthe and Sherbrooke, Quebec. At 21, he enlisted in the United States Army. When Canada's allies, France and Great Britain, declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, he joined the Royal Canadian Regiment and was shipped to England on December 30, 1939. There, as a new recruit, he was taught how to fight. However, he soon learned that his training was just about useless when faced with the assault at Dieppe. While a POW, he and his fellow Canadian prisoners had borne the brunt of German retaliation to a previous raid when British commandos had tied German prisoners' hands behind their backs to prevent the destruction of documents. Hitler demanded an apology and a promise to never bind prisoners again. Britain refused to comply and German guards were ordered to bind the PoWs. As a result, 1946 men had their wrists tied together with creosote ropes, making it almost impossible for them to use their hands. Ulcerated sores developed from creosote burns, causing some to die from bacterial infections. Changing treatment of POWs In October of 1942, after three months of this torture, a German doctor decided that many prisoners became ill because they couldn't exercise or breath properly with their hands tied so tightly. Ropes were exchanged for cuffed steel chains. The barbaric practice finally came to an end by December 2, 1943. While imprisoned, Bob traded cigarettes with a German guard for a notebook he used to record his day-to-day existence. Many entries mentioned that hunger was a central feature of prisoners' lives. PoWs were generally given two meals a day - a thin watery soup usually made with beets or potatoes and eaten with black bread. Bob wrote, "When parcels arrived from the Red Cross, every single man was as happy as if he was in his right mind." Sparse food An entry from Wednesday, March 14, 1945, reads: "Red Cross parcels brought from Lubeck and distributed. For three men to share, 1 1/2 tin of biscuits, 1/2 tin jam, 3 teaspoons of coffee, 3 teaspoons of cocoa, 3 tsp powdered milk, and 1/2 tin Oleo margarine." As the war advanced to its conclusion, Allied troops launched offensives into Germany, re-taking towns and freeing prisoner camps. PoWs, however, were forced by their captors to undertake forced marches, being moved further and further from Allied forces. Without adequate rest, shelter, food, and medical supplies, the men faced great privation. Bob had marched approximately 492 km by the time the American Army liberated him on Wednesday, April 18, 1945. He wrote; "troops arrived...a stream of tanks sent us wild...made us cry with joy..." At the end of the war, he joined the Canadian Military Intelligence Corps, serving as a Warrant Officer during the Allied occupation of Germany. His kindertransport bride After returning to Canada he was employed as the Security Officer Director for the Department of National Defence in Toronto. It was here that he married Renate Bial in 1960. Coincidentally, she'd been shipped as a child to England with Kindertransport at about age eight. When he retired from the army in 1964, he held the rank of Captain. Bob transferred as a civil servant to the Montreal branch of the Department of National Defence and took Renate and their three children with him. Active in Legion In 1974, the family lived at 55 Cassels Road in Brooklin where his parents, Francis and Lina Hedges, resided. He took an active role in the business of the Royal Canadian Legion, Brooklin branch 152 and was elected Legion President in 1976 and reelected the following year. Bob had made plans to return to Dieppe with his daughter, Crystal, in July of 1977. Sadly, the trip did not materialize as he passed away just weeks before. "That summer," she recalls, "we were set to depart for England and France. It was to be Dad's return to the battlefields of Dieppe. He never made it. He knew he did not have long to go. He took me to the bedroom where he kept a small roll top lap desk that had been handed down in the family and told me that he wanted me to have it when he was gone. In it were all his war diaries, and medals. For the family history buff in the family, that was me. He saw that in me, well before I even knew. I hope I have served him well. This is a nod of thanks to the father that was mine." This year, on the 80th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid, we must remember the courage, fortitude and sacrifices of veterans like Bob Hedges. Brooklin's Dieppe Raid Survivor By Jennifer Hudgins