Charles Merritt

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Photo from The Times

Photo by Brad Armstrong

Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt, VC (November 10, 1908 - July 12, 2000) was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Merritt was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on November 10, 1908, the elder son of Major Cecil Merritt, who was killed at Ypres in the First World War. He entered the Royal Military College of Canada, at the age of 16 and graduated with honors. He was commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada (a Militia regiment) in 1929 but read for the Bar and practiced law in Vancouver until mobilized at the outbreak of war.

On mobilization in 1939, he was promoted major and in December sailed for England. In the next two years he held a variety of staff and regimental appointments and attended the War Staff Course at Camberley in June 1941. From GSO2 of the 3rd Canadian Division, in March 1942, he was promoted to command the The South Saskatchewan Regiment, Canadian Army, (Canadian Infantry Corps).

Two months later, they moved to the Isle of Wight to train for the Dieppe raid.

It was on 19 August 1942 during the Dieppe Raid that the then 33 years old Merritt's actions would result in him being awarded the VC.

Two experienced British Commando units (Numbers 3 and 4) were assigned to land before dawn to destroy German heavy gun batteries on promontories east and west of the port, a task in which they were largely successful. Two Canadian battalions were scheduled to land at the same time to the immediate east and west of Dieppe to give land ward support to the attacks on the guns and form a secure perimeter for the main force to land.

The right flank Canadian battalion assigned to Green Beach was the South Saskatchewan Regiment commanded by Merritt. His objectives were Pourville, west of the port, then the cliffs above the village.

His force crossed the Channel in Royal Navy destroyers, transferred to landing craft ten miles offshore and reached Green Beach on time, in near darkness and unopposed. But the main part of the battalion was landed on the wrong side of the River Scie estuary and faced crossing a narrow bridge though Pourville in order to approach their objectives on the cliffs.

By then alert to the situation, the German defenders targeted the bridge with machine-gun and mortar fire. Initial Canadian attempts failed to storm the bridge, leaving it covered with dead and wounded. Merritt led the next rush forward, waving his steel helmet with the rallying shout "Come on over. There's nothing to it!"

His audacity took the enemy by surprise; one group of men followed him over the bridge and others used the girders to cross. Merritt soon had most of his surviving men on the far bank, but shortage of mortar ammunition and lack of communications to the destroyers to call for supporting fire made any further advance impossible.

Meanwhile, the company landed on the west bank of the Scie had reached its objective and sent a success signal to the operation command ship. This and one from Lord Lovat's Number 4 Commando were the only two success signals sent in the entire operation.

Finding all moves towards his objectives blocked by concrete "pillboxes", Merritt led an attack on each in turn, personally killing the occupants of one by throwing grenades through the enemy's firing ports. When the last enemy strong point had been silenced, Merritt had been twice wounded and his battalion reduced to fewer than 300 men.

He held on to an improvised perimeter nevertheless, and kept contact with his section positions by moving from one to another after his runners had been killed. When the time came to move back to the beach, Merritt coolly gave instructions for an orderly withdrawal and announced his intention to hold off the enemy from a rearguard position in a small bandstand near the beach to cover the re-embarkation.

The South Saskatchewan battalion left 84 dead on Green Beach and 89 more, including Merritt and eight other officers, were taken prisoner. His citation for award of the Victoria Cross concluded: "To this commanding officer's personal daring the success of his unit's operations and the safe re-embarkation of a large portion of it were chiefly due."

Merritt was sent to prison camp Oflag VIIB at Eichstätt in Bavaria. Together with 64 others, he escaped through a 120 ft tunnel during the night of June 3-4, 1943. Only a handful reached safety. Merritt was recaptured and sentenced to 14 days' solitary confinement. He remarked after being freed: "My war lasted six hours. There are plenty of Canadians who went all the way from the landings in Sicily to the very end." He was dismissive of his time as a prisoner of war with the words: "It was an enforced idleness. It cannot be translated into virtue."

He returned to his law practice after the war. Merritt was elected to the Canadian House of Commons, serving the electoral district of Vancouver—Burrard from 1945 to 1949. He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada in 1951. He became a valued rugger player for the Meraloma Club. Brother officers still speak with awe of his skill at "shinny", a kind of hockey. Merritt married, in 1937, Grace Graham, the daughter of Jamieson Bone of Belleville, Ontario; they had two sons and a daughter.

He died in Vancouver on July 12, 2000 at the age of 91.

1 Further information
2 The medal
3 Reference
4 External links

[edit] Further information

Grave/memorial at Ocean View Cemetery, 4000 Imperial Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Royal Section, Plot 49, Grave #5.

[edit] The medal

His medal set was donated to and is displayed by The Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, some time after his death on July 12, 2000. from 'War Museum.ca - Backgrounder' Also Press release