Lieutenant-Colonel Dollard Ménard
Fusiliers Mont-Royal
Régiment de Hull
13th Infantry Brigade

We couldn’t walk back, we couldn’t get forward, we couldn’t go in the sides, so were dead, really. We were condemned … In war there are no winners. Wars have produced nothing but misery. I hate war.

(Ménard quoted In Montreal Gazette, 3 Nov 1979, 4)

Born on 7 March 1913 in Quebec, Dollard Ménard graduated from RMC in 1932 and took a commissioned in the Royal 22nd Regiment. On exchange with the British Army during the Waziristan campaign in 1939, he returned to Canada for the formation of the 2nd Division. While attached to 8th Brigade headquarters overseas, he replaced Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Grenier of Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal in April 1942. On taking over, Ménard worked to improve unit discipline and training which had suffered under his predecessor. Four months, he led the battalion into action during the Dieppe Raid on 19 August 1942.

He was the only Canadian battalion command to return from the beaches of Dieppe. All others were either killed or captured. He was wounded at the outset in the attacking wave but continued to direct his battalion under heavy mortar and machine gun fire. Only after being wounded four more times would he finally be evacuated. Having “displayed the highest qualities of courage and leadership,” he earned the D.S.O.: “He set an example in the best tradition of the service and was an inspiration to all ranks in his battalions.”

Artist Huber Rogers famously depicted Ménard at Dieppe for the “Men of Valour” propaganda poster series. Wielding a tommy gun in his right hand with his left arm bloody and torn apart, the colonel charged ashore surrounded by shell explosions. Too wounded to remain in command overseas, Ménard returned to Canada, arm still in a sling, in September 1942.

Once he had recovered, he was given command of Le Régiment de Hull during the Kiska campaign in summer 1943. Although the Alaskan island had been abandoned shortly before, Ménard stated, “The Hull Regiment should be proud of the fact that they were the first Canadian unit to be assigned to action with the Americans against the Japanese.” He served as acting commander of the 13th Brigade from October until the end of the operation in January. He remained with the army until retirement as brigadier in 1965.

During the 1980 Quebec Referendum, Ménard encouraged voters to back Yes. Rather than endorse sovereignty, he explained that a strong Yes vote would give the Parti Québécois government bargaining power in future negotiations with the federal government. His position elicited strong criticism from former chiefs of defence staff General Jean-Victor Allard and General Jacques Dextraze, who had commanded the FMR at the end of the war. At a press conference for the No campaign, the pair ridiculed Ménard’s judgment and Dextraze mockingly speculated that Ménard held ambitions to head an independent Quebec army.

Feeling “nervous and humiliated” after the two fellow veteran generals further implied that war wounds had made him mentally unbalanced, Ménard sued for libel and $300,000 in damages. The 1983 court fight turned particularly bitter. When a Ménard supporter called him Quebec’s greatest war hero, Dextraze retorted that the “real heroes of Dieppe are the ones who are buried there.” A defence lawyer further suggested Ménard was an alcoholic.

In the end, a fellow officer facilitated a reconciliation, and the dispute was settled out of court with a handshake. “I now realize all the harm this could have caused him and am sincerely pained,” Dextraze said, while Ménard stated, “I’m happy the battle of the generals has come to an end—the whole thing was silly.”

Ménard died on 14 January 1997.