The truth, the near truth, and history

When I first started working on Rangers at Dieppe, I thought writing about history would be easy. All I had to do was find out the facts and put them into some sort of presentable form.

It turned out to be a lot more complicated than that. Facts turn out to be elusive things. Even when you’ve gone through all the official documents, used archives and spoken to eye witnesses, there’s still a gap between what you know, and what really happened.

Much of my book is about coming to terms with that gap. But since Rangers at Dieppe was published, I’ve learned that the process actually continues.

Which is a good thing, I think. At least for the writer.

* * *

One of the things that puzzled me while I was doing the research were discrepancies in the official records pertaining to the soldiers and the raid. These discrepancies varied from battle details to the spellings of names in the official records. There are even conflicting reports on how many men took part. A few are mentioned and addressed in the book, but the vast majority required a kind of silent call on my part; it would be of little point to say that an after-action report written by a man not at the battle got many important facts wrong, much less spend much time explaining the lengths necessary to determine it was not to be relied on.

One of the discrepancies that interested me while working on the book was Lieutenant Loustalot’s first name. You see, in all of the official Army documents relating to the battalion, it’s given as Edwin. Edwin is also used in some of his school records as well. But on the monument at Dieppe near where he died, his name is given as Edward.

Though puzzled, I eventually decided that the preponderance of evidence suggested Edwin was the proper name, and that Edward was either a nickname, an alternative others used, or simply an inadvertent mistake made by someone who was far removed from the original battle. I used Edwin – except on the page where the photo appears (which was actually a mistake, but that’s another story . . .)

I forgot about the problem until I received an email just after the book came out from a relative of the lieutenant’s, who told me that his first name was in fact Edward. He wasn’t sure why Edwin entered the records, but he was sure that Edward was the proper name. Other family members agreed.

Good enough for me. But that wasn’t quite the end of it.

* * *

The three American Rangers who were killed at Dieppe were originally buried with the other Allied soldiers who died there. Immediately after the war, their bodies were taken out and – I thought – returned to the U.S.

At this point I’m not sure where precisely I got the information about their being returned, though I did verify that they weren’t at the cemetery in France. (Yes, I did it the old fashioned way: I checked the tombstones.)

It turns out that Lieutenant Loustalot is buried in France, though not at Dieppe. Soon after the book came out, I received an email from a reader who believed that the lieutenant was buried at Ardennes and very kindly put me in touch with Hans H. Hooker, the superintendent of the Ardennes American Cemetery. Mr. Hooker was kind enough to do some research on the matter; this is part of his email:

"We do have some limited records pertaining to Lt. Loustalot. The poor quality of these records preclude my scanning them into the computer or photocopying them for mailing. Apparently they are copies of copies of documents.

"The most moving document we have is a first hand account from a High School classmate of Loustalot. Then Captain Shinn, while assigned to HQ's 7th Army spent his annual leave after the war years searching for Lt. Loustalot's grave. Local Frenchmen buried him in the community cemetery with other KIA's. The Germans moved these remains to Le Vertus. German personnel were in such a hurry to bury Lt. Loustalot that they did not notice a "Mills Bomb", grenade, in one of his cargo pockets. A monument was erected to the memory of Loustalot and members of the Canadian and English Commando's killed at Petit Berneval sur Mer. This monument was dedicated on August 19, 1946 by the Canadian Prime Minister McKenzie King. Captain Shinn finally located Loustalot's remains in a common grave in the Le Vertus Canadian Cemetery. Permission was requested and received from the Canadian authorities to disinter the remains and bring them to the Neuville-en-Condroz American Cemetery in Belgium for purposes of identification. Once the remains were formally identified as Lt. Edward V. Loustalot they were buried in Plot II Row 10 Grave 242. The next step after Loustalot's identification confirmation the family was notified and a final disposition of remains was requested. The mother of Lt. Loustalot opted for burial overseas in the Neuville-en-Condroz cemetery. Lt. Loustalot was reburied in the Neuville-en-Condroz American Cemetery Plot C Row 3 Grave 45 on April 13 1950."

I will, naturally, be updating this information in the next edition of the book. Of course, I wish I had been able to get all of these facts before the publication, but I am grateful that readers took the time to help me set the record straight.

Lt. Loustalot on the left, with Don Fredricks

One of the monuments to the lieutenant and the other brave men who died near Berneval.
Lt. Loustalot probably died not too far from where this monument was erected.