Roger Camrass recalls his father's wartime experience. By Roger Camrass. Watching the stream of young people fill the Odeon Imax cinema to capacity this week to see the new film Dunkirk , I felt deeply touched that such distant memories should remain so relevant to the millenial generation, including my three sons. Those remarkable cinematic scenes took me back to childhood when my late father, Lt Colonel Richard Hirsh Camrass MBE, led my brother and me down the vast deserted beach of Dunkirk and through the silent graveyards to instill in us the impact of global conflict.
Amongst the one and a half million Jews who fought in the war, why was my father standing on that beach in , and how did he end up as deputy commander of the allied forces in Rome? He was a vocal supporter of Winston Churchill who recognised the inevitability of hostilities. He gave up a promising career as a young lawyer in Yorkshire to prepare for the inevitable.
Early in , after the declaration of war, he landed with the British Expeditionary Force in northern France to help stall the Nazi onslaught. Possessing little more than rifles and a few anti-tank guns, he encamped with his battalion in a picturesque chateau in glorious spring sunshine, enjoying sumptuous cuisine to the background music of a regimental band. The beleaguered French president called on the British army to support his ground troops as they massed for a final show down.
As my father advanced with his battalion towards the enemy front, he witnessed the sheer inhumanity of war. A constant stream of dishevelled refugees were retreating from the war zone whilst the Nazi troops ravaged the country behind them. Messerschmitts flew down to within fifty feet of these defenceless crowds, spraying bullets indiscriminately at women and children. This was a dark pre-warning of the horrors of Auschwitz and Belsen. Large hordes of fugitive Belgian, French and Dutch soldiers were now streaming through in alarming numbers.
In just a few days the entire combined forces of Europe lay devastated and confused as they retreated to the beaches of Dunkirk. He was evacuated from Dunkirk only to return to the scene of action to help save the remaining stranded soldiers. Fortunately for us, he was landing at Folkestone to encounter another world. To his utter amazement, children were playing on the beaches and adults were lounging in deck chairs as though nothing had happened. Completely exhausted, he was loaded onto a train and woke up several hours later to find himself wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by curious animals at Belle View Zoo in Manchester.
