A 98-year-old Canadian veteran of the Second World War was honoured with a surprise flight aboard the military Dash-8 aircraft.
Seventy-six years after Elmer Cole and 402 Royal Canadian Air Force Squadron took part in the ill-fated Dieppe raid on Aug. 19, 1942, he and the other few surviving veterans of the war were celebrated at a private ceremony in Winnipeg on Friday.
“It’s unbelievable,” Cole, who was a member of the First Calgary Tank Regiment, told CTV Winnipeg. “I thought I was just here to remember those that didn’t make it back.”
Cole and 2,000 other Allied soldiers were taken prisoner during the battle, which saw nearly 6,000 troops – the majority of them Canadian – storm the beaches of the Nazi-occupied town of Dieppe in Northern France. More than 1,000 died on the shores of the French port and Cole was released after more than a year in captivity, returning to Canada in 1945.
“There were a lot of wounded on the beach,” Cole recalled. “We carried them off with stretchers.”
Cole was accompanied at the ceremony by many of his family members, including his granddaughter Candy.
“He didn’t talk a lot about (Dieppe) until maybe five or six years ago, and even then, he would just give us little drizzles,” she said.
Cole was presented with a 402 Royal Canadian Air Force Squadron flag signed by each member in attendance at the ceremony.
“It’s wonderful what the air force had done for me…inviting me,” Cole said. “I was lucky. You have to be lucky in life.”
With a report from CTV Winnipeg’s Sarah Plowman
