Highland heroes of St Valery remembered by parliament
The sacrifice of thousands of Highland soldiers, who surrendered to overwhelming German forces in 1940 at St Valery on the Channel coast, has been remembered by members of the Scottish Parliament, writes Ellis Butcher.
Friday June 12 was the 80th anniversary of the 51st Highland Division’s surrender at St-Valery -en-Caux, and the occasion was marked by pipers and musicians playing The Heroes of St Valery, a piping tune composed by a veteran of the battle.
Donald Cameron, MSP for the Highlands and Islands MSP, proposed a motion to the Scottish Parliament highlighting the commemoration.
He said St Valery was, in some respects, the ‘forgotten Dunkirk’.
‘Unlike at Dunkirk a few days earlier, it proved impossible at St Valery to evacuate the troops due to the weather and the proximity of German artillery.
‘As a result, thousands of soldiers, who had spent weeks fighting gallantly, went on to spend years as prisoners of war.
‘Winston Churchill called it a ‘most brutal disaster,’ and the loss of so many of our young fighting men was felt keenly across the Highlands and Islands, with very few communities left untouched,’ he said.
‘Five years later, the reformed Highland Division re-entered St Valery as liberators – appropriately to the sound of the pipes.
‘It’s surely equally appropriate on Friday that we commemorate this anniversary with a tune composed by Donald MacLean, a piper with the 51st Highland Division, who was himself captured at St Valery and spent years in captivity.’
Mr Cameron said the soldiers involved were forced to surrender to German forces at 10am on June 12 1940.
They included men of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, the Black Watch, the Gordon Highlanders, the Seaforth Highlanders, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, RAMC, RASC, RA and other supporting and attached troops from other parts of the UK.