Dieppe Raid, Operation Jubilee

Discussion in 'NW Europe' started by Franek, May 9, 2008.

  1. No.4CommandoBairn

    No.4CommandoBairn Well-Known Member

    I'm going this year. I've not heard of any official programme as yet. I know of a private one on the 18th, a few French friends are meeting then and I'll be heading to the Varengeville Battery site on the 19th. I will make sure I attend the main one in the town on the 19th also. I will visit the Battery that was No.3's target, too.
     
  2. smdarby

    smdarby Well-Known Member

    As a slight aside (although it is to do with Dieppe), I live near Bergen CWGC cemetery in North-Holland. There are 2 Canadians from the Dieppe Raid buried in the cemetery - G.A. Scaife of The Cameron Highlanders and an unknown. It seems they were washed ashore in Holland long after the operation. Bear in mind that Bergen is about 500km from Dieppe. According to the attached article I found online, there are a few from the Dieppe Raid buried in the Netherlands. Just wondered if anyone might have more information about Scaife, and why he might have ended up where he did?
     

    Attached Files:

  3. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Those dead in the sea from the Dieppe Raid were subject to the prevailing English Channel northerly currents which tended to take some of the bodies north and deposit them on to the Dutch coast line.If I remember correctly there was also a couple of Canadian bodies washed up on the West Frisian Islands.These currents were also responsible for the washing up of RAF aircrew casaulties who had been downed in the Channel and also were foiund on West Frisian Islands shores

    There was also a sole casualty deposited in the Cap Blanc Nez area who is now interred in Escalles Cemetery,a few miles south west of Calais.
     
  4. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I see that the two Canadian casualties washed up in the West Frisian are mentioned in the helpful Battle diary document.

    The casualty buried at Escalles is British, being No 40 RM Commando Arthur John Callow.He is the only military casualty buried here in a pleasant postion in Escalles Churchyard,situated on a slope with a good view out to sea.
     
  5. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    A veteran of the Calgary Tanks who attended the 65th anniversary with us in Dieppe described to us the dozens of bodies he encountered in the waters off Dieppe. He eventually made it out to an RN launch and returned to England. The crew of the launch took a huge risk as they darted in under fire and plucked him from the water. As he recounted the experience he commented that without the cover provided by the many floating corpses he would not have made it. He swam underwater from body to body as he worked his way further from shore and always under fire.
     
    No.4CommandoBairn likes this.
  6. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

  7. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

  8. Shirt Off

    Shirt Off Member

    A free downloadable article on the RAF involvement at Dieppe in Canadian Military History can be found here:

    http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol25/iss1/12/

    The references show links to the IWM oral histories, in which the soldiers, airmen and journalists say some very interesting things.
     
    canuck likes this.
  9. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Politics?
    Many have argued that the number of gallantry awards for the Dieppe raid, particularly in VC's, was grossly disproportionate.

    "This proceeded in stages, the first of which culminated in the publication of Dieppe-related awards in the London Gazette of October 2nd, 1942. The scale
    of these varied according to services; their distribution was as follows: London, and the War Office. The matter was further discussed with Combined Operations
    Headquarters and with the GOC First Canadian Corps. By August 26th, 1942, the general policy had been laid down. First Canadian Corps instructed the
    General Officer Commanding, 2nd Canadian Division (Major General Roberts) to submit recommendations for 100 immediate awards in respect of Dieppe operations.
    It was suggested that 40 should go to officers and 60 to other ranks. First Canadian Corps also requested that approximately 150 Mentions in Despatches
    be submitted with similar officer/OR proportions."

    http://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033&context=cmh

    2 VC's awarded for a 5 hour limited action (plus one for the Commandos) and only 4 for the entire Canadian 1st Army (180,000 men) over the course of 11 months of continuous action after June 6th.Canada had a total of 3,369 casualties at Dieppe vs 18,700 in Normandy alone
     
    Guy Hudson likes this.
  10. 17thDYRCH

    17thDYRCH Senior Member

    Canuck,

    Politics and more Politics. Sad to say....
     
  11. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    In previous posts I have mentioned Ron Reynolds who was one of the veterans who accompanied our group to Dieppe. It's only fitting that I salute this man and provide some highlights of his life. I have attached a photo I took of him at Beny sur Mer cemetery in 2007, some Dieppe photos and the cliffs at Puys.

    Ron was a wonderful and spirited man and an outspoken critic of the raid. During our visit he stopped at tombstone after tombstone in the Dieppe cemetery and described his close friendships with dozens of the men buried there.

    Ron almost missed the Dieppe Raid. While stationed in England with Toronto's Royal Regiment, the handsome and high-spirited 22-year-old didn't want for English girlfriends - and often went AWOL to see them. Returning late to camp on May 19, 1942, he found that the regiment was pulling out. After a bawling-out from his sergeant, Private Reynolds was ordered to jump into one of the departing army trucks.

    On the morning of Aug. 19, 1942, Ron landed with the Royals on Blue Beach, at Puys. Wounded in the foot, Ron limped into Dieppe a prisoner. He was sent to a hospital in Rouen and eventually to Stalag VIIIB. For more than a year the Canadian Dieppe prisoners had their wrists shackled.

    After the war, Ron returned to his family home in Toronto's east end. Like many POW's he was left troubled by his wartime ordeal, but post-traumatic stress was then little understood. Though he quickly recovered his sunny disposition, he would suffer from nightmares for the rest of his life but became a founding member of the Dieppe Veterans Association. He retired in Port Hope, Ontario.

    In 2010, Ron had to have a leg amputated because of circulation problems and died eight weeks later from heart failure.
    On Aug. 19, 2010, the 68th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid, Ron's family stood on Blue Beach and scattered his ashes as he had requested in his will.

    Ron Reynolds
    Born Sept. 29, 1919, in Toronto. Died April 18 in Cobourg, Ont., aged 90.
    R.I.P
     

    Attached Files:

  12. 17thDYRCH

    17thDYRCH Senior Member

    Tomorrow marks the 74th anniversary of the raid on Dieppe.
    Lest We Forget.
     
  13. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Personal accounts - Essex Scottish

     
  14. 17thDYRCH

    17thDYRCH Senior Member

    Tim
    A great find. Nothing like personal accounts to verify the disaster known as Op Jubilee
     
  15. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

  16. ritsonvaljos

    ritsonvaljos Senior Member

    Interesting.
     
  17. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

  18. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    I discovered that Tom achieved some notoriety in 1943 when his photo appeared on the cover of the Picture Post magazine.

    1943-picture-post-canadian-army-dispatch-rider-H9KXTE.jpg
     
    Guy Hudson likes this.
  19. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    I don't think clarizzacole is likely to return to the forum 6 years later, but I found it very moving to read her posts about her great grandfather, and I'm grateful for her stories.

    In this unofficial history of the Calgary Regiment which I acquired there are a number of first person accounts by members of the regiment at Dieppe and in captivity (and two of whom unbelievably managed to escape prisoner camp, somehow took a couple of trains, and stowed away on a Swedish freighter). I don't know if I feel right about posting these without permission, though, which I haven't pursued. But I think posting an excerpt would be appropriate under fair use.

    From Dieppe 1942 by Lieutanent Ed Bennett, who was in command of #10 troop in "Bellicose":

    I would say where the Essex Scottish landed they or the Engineers would have no hope of ever climbing over the sea wall, but the sea wall was not as high in front of the Casino. Where the sea wall curved out in a crescent shape and in the "V" of between the straight line of the sea line and this curve of the promenade the shingle had washed up higher. I asked Bobby, the driver, to go up there but go slow and steady, and we gradually crept on and finally we were on the Esplanade.

    Naturally we were making for the buildings and our task was to get into the town, so we went up parallel with and on the east side of the Casino... [they clear a few slit trenches and drive over a German soldier with a grenade]

    We went along the Boulevard in front of the buildings but every road entrance was blocked by a concrete road block about three to three and a half feet high. Some of them were staggered so that a pedestrian could walk through them or take a bicycle through them. But certainly no vehicle could get through. But we went all along the full length of the Boulevard and cleared the Germans out of the trenches. Last summer [1992] when I was talking with Sergeant Harry Patrick for the first time in thirty years, he confirmed that he had followed me with his tank "Beefy"​
     
  20. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I have just come across further research on Jubilee by a Dr John P Campbell,a Canadian "Dieppe Revisited".I wonder if a review has been done and published.

    There is also a thesis by R.N Maloney entitled The Royal Force, Combined Operations Doctrine and the Raid on Dieppe,19 August 1942 which looks to be comprehensively researched.

    http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/445/1/Mahoney09MPhil.pdf
     
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