Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 45 Story from a Dieppe Veteran Taken from a Halifax newspaper in 1942, Letter from Maritimer tells of Raid on Dieppe: “The Canadians showed them how to fight like real men and die like heroes”, was part of a letter received Saturday by Nicholas Lacusta, chef at the Nova Scotian Hotel (Halifax), from his son, Leo, of the 2nd Canadian Division overseas. In this letter Leo told of his experience as one of the attacking Canadians at Dieppe. He related the terrific odds they had to face, foreign territory, mobile artillery, outnumbered forces and German reinforcements later. He added the significant note: “Besides all of which I don’t think the raid was as big a surprise as we had hoped it would be”. The letter was dated 24 August, and Defence Minister Ralston in his report to the House last week told of an encounter with a German tanker that partly gave the attack away. Leo W. Lacusta joined the signalling Corps in Charlottetown two days before the outbreak of the war, and was overseas September 1940. In a letter to his parents, dated 31 July, he gave a hint of action shortly for Canadian forces in England. Writing to his family on that date, he thanked then for all they had done for him. He makes no fateful prediction in view of coming events, but writes with the idea of letting his family sincerely know his regards for them. Plenty Tough “Well, we finally got our crack at the Boche (Germans) and believe me he’s plenty tough; he made it really hot on that beach at Dieppe but I guess the Canadians can handle anything he can throw at us. Because he threw everything at us but the kitchen sink and didn’t stop us,” said the letter. If the odds had been even the Canadians would have given the “squareheads” a worse beating, he said, “but naturally they had the advantage of being on their own territory; they brought up mobile artillery, they outnumbered us badly and rushed up reinforcements later. Besides all of which I don’t think the raid was as big a surprise as we had hoped it would be. “Still we did our job and we did it better than any other division in the world could have done. That’s no fooling. Second Division was the crack outfit. The price we paid was high; we lost the cream of our boys but when it was over Fritzie knew he had been in a fight”. The witness said he was proud to be one of those in the “show”. “The Canadians showed them how to fight like real men and die like heroes,” he continued. Not a man showed the “white feather” and he praised the bravery of those who faced and met death. “I lost my roommate and nine other buddies and that hurts a lot but we can’t have a bloodless war, can we?” continued ...
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