Oct. 25, 2000, 4:46 a.m. (Message 23216)
Richard Goss wrote: > The problem of myths of any provenance is that they are not > very sesceptible to reality checks. > Which prompts me to offer the following comments about a myth long prevalent in Scottish Dance circles which is susceptible to a reality check, and also a brief history of the 51st Highland Division in World War II. Most Scottish Country dancers have heard the story of the creation of "The Reel of the 51st Highland Division", devised in a German prisoner of war camp by members of the division captured early in World War II at St. Valerie en Caux. Frequently the tale includes the claim that they had been captured after fighting a rear-guard action to protect the Allied troops being evacuated at Dunkirk. There were several such references in response to a recent request on this server for background information on that dance. But this never happened, and the myth should be discredited, if only to provide credit where credit is due. The 51st was far away from Dunkirk between May 27th and June 4th,1940, when the evacuations took place, and was under orders to stay in place and not participate in that operation. But two other Scottish units of the 2nd Division were there, and contributed significantly to the success of Operation Dynamo, the code name for the evacuation. 1st Battalion, Queens Own Cameron Highlanders and 1st Battalion, Royal Scots, fought valiantly defending the Dunkirk perimeter, and paid a heavy price. Fewer than 100 men from these two units made it back to Britain, as most became casualties or were captured. This discussion is in no way intended to diminish the brilliant fighting record of the 51st throughout W.W.II. At the time of the Dunkirk evacuations, the Division was about 80 miles away, south of the Somme near Abbeville, defending against the German onslaught toward Paris. They had been assigned to the 10th French Army and were under the overall command of General Maxime Weygand. When the other elements of the British Expeditionary Force were allowed to escape, the 51st was ordered to stay in place and continue fighting, in a futile effort to convince the French to do so also. That order is generally attributed to Winston Churchill, who desperately wanted to prevent a French surrender. When the commanders of the 51st saw that the French Armies were collapsing, and the situation was hopeless, they decided to fight their way to the coast, contrary to the orders of the General Weygand and the War Office. Their hope was that it was not too late for them to be evacuated. Cut off from Le Havre, their original destination, and battling stiff resistance from Panzer divisions, they made it to the coast at St. Valerie En Caux, a site that had been used for evacuating wounded. An armada was hastily assembled, with little practical assistance from the British High Command, and was on the way to rescue them, but before it arrived the situation became critical. Five German Divisions under General Erwin Rommel had surrounded the town, gained the high ground and had heavy artillery shelling the town. They were in place to dominate the town and annihilate any attempts to get across the beach to the boats. Faced with an ultimatum to surrender, or face all out bombardment and the destruction of both the town and his troops, the division commander, Major General Victor Fortune at first refused. He organized an attempt to regain the high ground, but soon realized there was little chance of success, as the Highlanders were nearly out of ammunition and equipment and greatly outnumbered. General Fortune reluctantly surrendered his 10,000 men to German General Erwin Rommel on June 12th, 1940. About 1000 had been captured earlier, and the division had suffered over 1000 fatal casualties and nearly 4000 wounded. Years later the Duke of Argyll, who as Captain Ian Campbell had been General Fortune's Intelligence Officer in 1940, wrote; "It has always been abundantly clear to me that no division has ever been more uselessly sacrificed. It could have got away a good week before, but the powers that be - owing I think to faulty information- had come to the conclusion that there was a capacity for resistance in France which was not actually there." The Division was reconstituted soon after St. Valerie, and fought with distinction throughout the balance of the war in the armies commanded by Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. They fought with Monty in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. Some units went ashore in the D-Day landings. They fought their way across the Rhine and into Germany in 1945.. Their significant involvement in the defeat of Rommel's Afrika Korps at the battle of El Alemein must have been a particularly sweet moment, especially to those members who had escaped from the prison camps and rejoined their regiments. ( in less than a year, 134 members of the Division had escaped and returned to Britain.) From El Alemein to the Rhine crossing and beyond, the 51st Division suffered over 15,000 casualties. As the allied advance through France neared St. Valerie, General Montgomery changed his order of battle to allow the 51st to liberate the town from the Germans. They were led into town on September 2nd, 1944 by the Division Commander, Major General Thomas Rennie, an escapee who had been a major in 1940. Lt. Col. Bill Bradford, captured as a captain in 1940, led the 5th Black Watch. Addressing his troops, Gen. Rennie remembered his comrades: "That magnificent Division was sacrificed to keep the French in the war. True to Highland tradition, the Division remained to the last with the remnants of our French Allies, although it was in their capacity to withdraw and embark at Le Harve." Rennie was later killed in action leading his division during the crossing of the Rhine in March of 1945. There is a granite memorial to those who died in 1940 on the cliff overlooking St. Valerie. Harry Ways
Oct. 25, 2000, 8:36 p.m. (Message 23225, in reply to message 23216)
Harry, thank you for such a moving description of the activitites of the 51st Division during WWII. I shall dance that dance now remembering the sacrifices these soldiers made for us. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Priscilla Burrage Vermont US (xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xxx)