Regiment returns to French town to remember 10,000 killed or captured

They stood on a clifftop in Normandy - their red hackles fluttering in the breeze, their heads bowed in silent remembrance of those killed or captured in one of the darkest periods in Scotland’s military history.

- MAUREEN YOUNG

The Black Watch returned to St Valery-en-Caux this week to commemorate the ill-fated defence of the region by the 51st Highland Division exactly 85 years ago. A battle to support the French that saw the cream of Scotland’s fighting forces killed or marched into captivity, effectively removing more than 10,000 men from World War Two.

Veterans in The Black Watch Association joined comrades from other Scottish regimental associations to mark the sacrifice - Gordon Highlanders and the Queen's Own Highlanders Association veterans, representing the many Highland antecedent regiments who had fought shoulder to shoulder with their French Allies and attached British units as part of the 51st Highland Division in 1940.

All stood silently sharing the view across the Channel that their forebears would have seen - within touching distance of safety and home.

Throughout their pilgrimage, Black Watch veterans retraced the withdrawal of their regimental forebears - exhausted men pushed back to the coast, vastly outnumbered, surrounded by the enemy and rapidly running out of ammunition, food and fresh clothing, as well as having no aerial or heavy artillery support.

Veterans walked in their footsteps through fields where Rommel’s panzer divisions had snapped at their heels, visiting cemeteries where brave Black Watch soldiers and their comrades lie forever.

And they marked the spot where 51st Highland Divisional commander Major General Victor Fortune reluctantly embraced orders from the French to call a ceasefire and surrender when all hope of naval evacuation had gone.