Pedestals honouring South Saskatchewan Regiment, HMCS Weyburn to be unveiled

On the 80th anniversary of the Dieppe raid, one of the Canadian regiments that participated in the doomed attack will be honoured in Regina on Friday.

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) will unveil two new pedestals at the Cenotaph in Victoria Park, including one saluting the South Saskatchewan Regiment. The other pedestal will honour the HMCS Weyburn.

The ceremony is to begin at 2 p.m.

RUSI’s Brad Hrycyna, a retired army major, joined Gormley to provide details about the latest honourees.

The South Saskatchewan Regiment was recruited out of the Weyburn and Estevan areas. It was one of the battalions within the Second Canadian Infantry Division that assaulted Dieppe on Aug. 19, 1942.

“They hit the beaches with 523 soldiers on the morning of that raid,” Hrycyna said. “Seventy-eight of them were killed in action, three died of their wounds and another three died while being prisoners of war. There were a further 166 that were wounded.”

When the regiment returned to England, only 186 soldiers were fit for duty.

Hrycyna said the SSR landed in the incorrect position during the assault and had to move across a bridge that was exposed to heavy enemy fire. Lt. Col. Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt of the regiment was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry and inspiring leadership during the raid.

The raid was a failure; of the 4,963 Canadians who took part, only 2,210 returned to England and many of those were wounded. There were 3,367 casualties, with 916 deaths. Nearly 2,000 Canadians became prisoners of war.

HMCS Weyburn was a Flower-class corvette that served in campaigns in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.

On Feb. 22, 1943, it struck a mine off Gibraltar and began sinking. The safety pins on the ship’s depth charges were damaged in the explosion so the crew could not disarm the depth charges.

“When the ship went down, with the crewmen in the water, the depth charges exploded when they got to the assigned depth,” Hrycyna said. “Seven sailors were killed and several others were injured.

Hrycyna said RUSI switched its focus in 2014 from being a defence policy analyst to putting its efforts into commemorating veterans.

Two other pedestals were unveiled this month commemorating the Regina Rifle Regiment and the HMCS Regina.

Hrycyna said another pedestal will be unveiled this year — that ceremony, honouring the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, is set for Sept. 15 — with seven more to follow in 2023.