Dieppe Raid, Operation Jubilee

The remains of Hess Battery, successfully destroyed by No. 4 Commando.

Keith

 

I think it worth mentioning another VC that "never was":

Following on Gerry's excellent summary of the Dieppe raid I must mention a series of coincidences that have led me to make this posting.

On Sept 6th I shall be attending my old boy's club reunion and, as always, the table talk will get around to former members who are no longer here to join in our talk of WW2. At my particular table, because we have several vets there, Jack Nissenthal's name is invariably brought to mind.

I was recently interviewed, about the club, on spitalfieldslife.com and the interviewer known only by his pseudonym of "The Gentle Author" was intrigued by the story of Jack Nissenthal, a former club boy, who was taken to Dieppe to find out about German radar accompanied by a special troop who had instructions to kill him rather than allow him to be taken prisoner. He also placed a link on his Blog so that others might read the story.

A well known authority on Jack's history is Martin Sugarman and his newly published book "Fighting Back" contains a full chapter on Jack's exploits.

I've also just been to Wikipedia and on the pages relating to Dieppe found this item:
Dieppe Raid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was amused to find that footnote No.10 took the reader to the BBC WW2 Archives to an article that I had previously posted myself on behalf of Martin Sugarman !

The Wikipedia excerpt now follows:

Pourville radar station

Destroyed Landing craft on fire with Canadian dead on the beach. A concrete gun emplacement on the right covers the whole beach. The steep gradient can clearly be judged


One of the objectives of the Dieppe Raid was to discover the importance and accuracy of a German radar station on the cliff-top to the east of the town of Pourville. To achieve this, RAF Flight Sergeant Jack Nissenthall, a radar specialist, was attached to the South Saskatchewan Regiment. He was to attempt to enter the radar station and learn its secrets, accompanied by a small unit of 11 men of the Saskatchewans as bodyguards. Nissenthall volunteered for the mission fully aware that, due to the highly sensitive nature of his knowledge of Allied radar technology, his Saskatchewan bodyguard unit were under orders to kill him if necessary to prevent him being captured. He also carried a cyanide pill as a last resort. Nissenthall and his bodyguards failed to enter the radar station due to strong defences, but Nissenthall was able to crawl up to the rear of the station under enemy fire and cut all telephone wires leading to it. This forced the crew inside to resort to radio transmissions to talk to their commanders, transmissions which were intercepted by listening posts on the south coast of England. The Allies were able to learn a great deal about the arrays of German radar stations along the channel coast thanks to this one simple act, which helped to convince Allied commanders of the importance of developing radar jamming technology. Of this small unit only Nissenthall and one other returned safely to England.[10][11].


I can never read about Dieppe without thinking of this club boy who played such an important role and was never awarded the honour he so richly deserved

Ron

 

Bravery, skill and training counted for little on that morning 70 years ago. Over 900 Canadians were killed in a little over 5 hours. The cemetery in Dieppe reduced me to tears and brought home the full extent of the debacle. What a colossal waste.

 

In the past few years, I've been a frequent visitor to Dieppe:

Ignoring the political recriminations and yes I can follow some of the arguments, the one thing that has puzzled me about this raid is Why There?, surely it must have been obvious that a frontal assault across that beach was suicidal even if it was only lightly defended!!!

Whenever I'm there,I come away wondering where the 'grit in my eye' came from!!!

Those guys who went ashore that day (and those who supported them at sea and in the air) deserve the Utmost Respect

I trust that today's commemorations go well

PZULBA - Out of Africa (Retired)

 

This shows the gradient at Pourville in the vicinity where the radar station was. (I believe.)

Keith

 

This shows the gradient at Pourville in the vicinity where the radar station was. (I believe.)

Keith

Yes, that's Pourville. Puys was even worse.

 

Puys

 

Just one battalions casualties for that day in 1942.

 

While some lessons were indeed learned at Dieppe, many of these were so obvious that you wonder why so many men had to be killed just to make the point. As an American, one of the most shocking things to me about JUBILEE was how pertinent it was to the American assault at OMAHA and how little the US Army (or Gerow, GOC US V Corps) learned from the earlier failure. Gerow landed his corps right at the mouths of several draws that the German fire turned into slaughter pens a la Puys. As at Dieppe, the preparatory bombardment (air and sea) was a flop. The tanks did some good work at Dieppe as long as they survived, but armor support at OMAHA was botched too. OMAHA was a victory after all thanks to the initiative of some officers, the guts of the men, and the valiant work of the bombardment vessels, but you wonder if anyone in V Corps even bothered to study Dieppe.

 

While some lessons were indeed learned at Dieppe, many of these were so obvious that you wonder why so many men had to be killed just to make the point. As an American, one of the most shocking things to me about JUBILEE was how pertinent it was to the American assault at OMAHA and how little the US Army (or Gerow, GOC US V Corps) learned from the earlier failure. Gerow landed his corps right at the mouths of several draws that the German fire turned into slaughter pens a la Puys. As at Dieppe, the preparatory bombardment (air and sea) was a flop. The tanks did some good work at Dieppe as long as they survived, but armor support at OMAHA was botched too. OMAHA was a victory after all thanks to the initiative of some officers, the guts of the men, and the valiant work of the bombardment vessels, but you wonder if anyone in V Corps even bothered to study Dieppe.

Or the North African, Sicily, Italian or Pacific landings, all of which came after Dieppe.

 

Tim,
I will be glued to the History Channel tonight watching "Dieppe Revealed". Naturally, a bottle of 'Skepticism' will be close at hand.

 

Tim,
I will be glued to the History Channel tonight watching "Dieppe Revealed". Naturally, a bottle of 'Skepticism' will be close at hand.

Nothing new to be found in that program Randy. It's a "re-packaging" of existing knowledge.

 

Originally Posted by La-de-da-Gunner Graham
This shows the gradient at Pourville in the vicinity where the radar station was. (I believe.)

Keith




Yes, that's Pourville. Puys was even worse.



Just got back from Dieppe.
Today, I saw Pourville, Puys, and Dieppe for myself, and almost
started to cry.

Then I went to the Cemetery and did.

 

I was there in 2004 and did the tour of Pourville, Puys and Dieppe. They had no chance.
May they rest in peace knowing that their country remembers.

 

Originally Posted by La-de-da-Gunner Graham
This shows the gradient at Pourville in the vicinity where the radar station was. (I believe.)

Keith








Just got back from Dieppe.
Today, I saw Pourville, Puys, and Dieppe for myself, and almost
started to cry.

Then I went to the Cemetery and did.

Well said Martin. I spent 3 days in Dieppe and spent hours at each of the landing sites. Seeing those places is absolutely necessary to fully understanding that those men were sent on futile and suicidal missions.

Also to appreciating why those survivors have remained angry for 70 years.

 

Most appropriate,Spitfire Mark Vb AB 910 from the BBMF, Coningsby, overflew Dieppe yesterday on the 70th Anniversary of the Dieppe Raid.On that day 70 years ago, the aircraft flew 4 sorties out of Lympne(Kent) when on charge to No 133 (Eagle) Squadron in a wartime career of 143 sorties. After D Day patrol involvement,the aircraft was relegated to support duties an OTU aircraft.

This is the aircraft that made the news when on charge to No 53 OTU at Hibaldstow.On February 1945,LAC Margaret Horton carrying out the practice of weighing down the tail of AB 910, clung on the tail of the aircraft as it took off with the pilot initially not aware that she had not cleared the tail.

This aircraft can be seen on display at the BBMF,RAF Coningsby.

 

My daughter found some facsimilie newspapers in a charity shop and brought them home. One of them is the Sunday Pictorial (later the Sunday Mirror) dated 6 September. Spun as a "brilliant success" with troops destroying their own tanks to prevent them falling into enemy hands, it does not make good reading. I've photographed each caption with its photo to make it more readable but if anyone needs me to type it up let me know.

Keith

 

A problem occurred with posting the photos. Bear with me...

 

Trying again.

 

The remainder.

Keith