80th anniversary of 51st Highland Division at St Valery

Early day motion 577, tabled 8 June 2020 by Angus MacNeil (Scottish National Party). Signed by 37 members.

That this House remembers the capture of 10,000 men of the 51st Highland Division taken prisoner near St Valery en Caux near Le Havre, 6 days after the Dunkirk evacuations after being attached to French defence forces, facing the onslaught of the invading Germans; remembers those that tragically lost their lives; recalls that the men were marched to Stalag XX-A prison, north west of Warsaw, to be there for the duration of the rest of the war; highlights that of the 219 returned escapees to Britain in 1941, 134 had been from the 51st Highland division; notes that three of these escapees were from Ballachullish who used Gaelic to confuse the Germans to convince them that they were from a part of the Soviet Union and then friendly forces of Stalin; further recalls their 1300km march at the end of the war from the east of the oncoming Red Army, marched by German forces, to the west where they eventually met the Americans; and pays tribute to their sacrifice and heroism remaining in France after the Dunkirk evacuations and most notably captured in the memorial in St Valery en Caux “La a bhlair is math na cairdean”, On the day of battle it is good to have friends/relations.

Signatures by party: Scottish National Party 33, Conservative 2, DUP 1, Independent 1.