Vous qui passez par Saint Valery en Caux et vous qui vous baignez sur la plage rappelez vous que des hommes venus des Highlands et venus de toutes les régions de France sont morts en cet endroit pour notre liberté.

Le 10 juin 1950, le général Douglas Wimberley pour la nouvelle 51st Highland Division  et le général Paul Gastey pour la nouvelle 2ème Division Légére de Cavalerie, et des vétérans des diverses unités se retrouvent à Saint Valery en Caux pour la remise à la ville de Saint Valery de la Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 et  pour l'inauguration des deux monuments  à la mémoire des défenseurs de juin 1940. 

51th Highland Division

2ème Division légère de cavalerie

2ème Division légère de Cavalerie

Au 78ème d'Artillerie

Au 81ème d'Infanterie Alpine

Les drapeaux au cimetière Franco-Britannique

Les  Français

Les Ecossais

 Houdetot : Monument aux Alpins

Le Général Berniquet au milieu de ses hommes

Les Highlanders n'oublient pas le souvenir de leurs compagnons disparus, une chanson est composée à leur mémoire.

 The Beaches Of St Valéry

It was in 1940 the last days of Spring
We were sent to the Maginot line
A fortress in France built to halt the advance of an army from a different time
For we were soon overrun out-fought and outgunned
Pushed further back every day
But we never believed high command would leave us
So we fought every inch of the way
Till the 51st Highlanders found themselves on the banks of the Somme one more time
It still bore the scars of that war to end wars
The old soldiers scars deep in their minds
But we couldn't stay long for the Panzers rolled on
And the battle raged west towards the sea
Then on June the 10th when sapped of all strength
I entered St Valéry

Chorus

When I returned at the end of the war
From the stalag where I'd been confined
I read of the battles the allies had fought
Stalingrad, Alamein, and the Rhine
Wi' pride in their hearts people spoke of Dunkirk where defeat had become victory
But nobody mentioned the Highland Division
They'd never heard of St Valéry

Chorus

And all I recall was the last boat leavin!
My brother on board waving and calling to me
And the Jocks stranded there wi' their hands in the air
On the beaches of St Valéry
So I huddled all night in a hammered old house
As the shells and the bullets rained down
Next morning at dawn my hope was still strong
For we moved to the beach from the town
But the boat that had left on the day we arrived
Was the only one we'd ever see
And with no ammo or food we had done all we could
So we surrendered at St Valéry

 

Chorus

No stories no statues for those that were killed
No honours for those that were caught
Just a deep sense of shame as though we were to blame
Though I knew in my heart we were not.
So I've moved to a country I've come to call home
But my homeland is far o'er the sea
I will never return while my memories still burn
On the beaches of St Valéry

Les prisonniers Écossais dans leur stalag écrivirent "une danse" inspirée de leur folklore . Rommel qui avait été très surpris de l'attitude très flegmatique de ses prisonniers britanniques l'aurait-il dansé ? 

 

Le seul vestige du vieux Saint Valery autour du port.

Aux soldats du 56ème Régiment
d'artillerie de montagne


Les canons du Cerons
à Veules les Roses


Presse du 19 avril 1950

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