SECRET BETRAYAL OF SCOTS TROOPS
DUNKIRK was one big oceansized lie. The evacuation of troops wasn’t the heroic retreat which has become legend, spawning films such as the upcoming Hollywood blockbuster.
In fact, the claimed success of the movement of soldiers from the beaches of Normandy In June, 1940 was a false truth.
“Churchill claimed the 350,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force were all evacuated to safety,” says actor James Rottger.
“But that wasn’t the case. Eight thousand Scots troops were sacrificed in a secret political deal when Churchill ordered them to stay and fight to the last bullet.”
The story of those sacrificed is told this week in Oran Mor play The Beaches of Valery.
James, who grew up in Fyfe, in Newport, play Calum Chisholm, a Private in the Cameron Highlanders.
The story follows this journey of his character from being a ‘daft wee laddie’, working on the A9 construction in 1938 to being conned into joining the Territorials.
And no sooner had he signed up, expecting the Territorials to be a ‘bit of fun’, war arrived in September 1939, and the 19 year-old innocent was soon in the trenches.
When the British had to retreat from Dunkirk Calum and his friends were left behind and taken prisoner.
Those captured were made to walk to Poland, but Calum escaped.
“He found himself in a pit valley in Northern France, where, incredibly, he met a Fyfe miner.
“The miner had been smuggling escaped prisoners past the Germans.”
Ashley Smith plays several roles, including Catriona, the daughter of the miner.
It’s fair to say a love story develops when Calum and Catriona get together.
Written and directed by Stuart Hepburn, the story is told ia a collection of letters.
The older Calum is played by Ron Donachie, which allows for the reflections of the older man.
“It’s an epic story,” says James. “And it’s all historically accurate.
“It’s not often where I read an audition script, laugh and then end up crying.
“We think of war in an abstract way. But this story makes it immediate. I’m 25, and it makes me realise that seventy five years ago I would have been on a beach being shot at.
“I would have been leaving behind friends who had been killed.” James wasn’t a born actor. “I was a shy kid,” he recalls of early days in Newport. “I was too shy to even go into a shop and buy something.
“But I learned confidence aged ten after my parents dragged me kicking and screaming to the Helen O’Grady acting academy.
“I learned to communicate and I loved it. If I hadn’t had gone there I might have fallen through the gaps at secondary school.”
Young James kept on acting and determined to go to drama school, attended the Byre Youth Theatre in St Andrews.
“I was hooked. I even did a tap class for eight weeks, which I hated and turned up at bizarre poetry readings,” he says, grinning.
Since then he’s gone on to appear in a range of theatre including who has appeared in theatre such as Outlying Islands and television with BBC sitcom Gary: Tank Commander.
But he counts this role as one of the best he has taken on.“I had to have this part. It’s a great piece of theatre and the writing is incredible.
But it’s also a really poignancy story.
“It reveals a deep sense of betrayal. The politics asks whether the Government would have done this to an English or a Welsh regiment.
“And to me, that’s still the case today. Think of Brexit. It doesn’t really matter what Scotland wants. We have to do as we’re told.”
He reflects on the pointlessness focused on in the play.
“The British government feared the French would capitulate and these soldiers were left to support the French.
“Yet, the French knew there were 84,000 Germans on the march heading their way. They couldn’t not surrender.”
James’s personal history, he admits, could make for a fascinating play.
His great grandfather was a German hairdresser who moved to Northern Ireland at the turn of the last century.
“He left Germany because of religious persecution. It’s a bit of an irony he ended up in Northern Ireland.
“But yes, it’s a fascinating story that again takes a historical tale and takes us to the here and now.”
lThe Beaches of Valery, Oran Mor, until Saturday.