En route to Dieppe, August 1942

Joan Wardrope of Alliston, Ont., shares a postcard showing King George saluting soldiers prior to their embarkation for Dieppe, France.

“My father, Norman William Pender, joined the Royal Canadian Engineers and went overseas in 1940, leaving my mother with us five children.” explains Wardrope. “At the time he was a band leader and out of work. Dad had come from Scotland at the age of 10.”

She remembers her father telling her that after the disastrous raid on Aug. 19, he was picked up by a German patrol boat after “four and a half hours trying to swim in the waters of the English Channel back to England.” He was eventually liberated in 1945 by Russian troops.

Wardrope says that while her father was not the same man after suffering his horrible experiences, he went on to help produce three more children before retiring from Kodak. He passed away at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto at the age of 71.

We thank Joan for her contribution to Find-Share-Discuss, and invite readers to share similar memories of wartime or peacetime service.