1000 Men, 1000 Stories : Context: Dieppe Raid 1942

Canadians Trained Like British Commandos

[Photo: Army assault troops landing from invasion craft as naval beach

parties and commandos train at HMS SAUNDERS, Kabrit, Bitter Lakes.

Link to Photographs: Training on Landing Crafts (4) for more details.

Photo A17724 - Lt. L.C. Priest, RN, Imperial War Museum

A17759. Vigorous action of Naval Commandos during their training course.

Please link to Photographs: Training on Landing Crafts (5) for more details.

Photo - Lt. L.C. Priest, and Imperial War Museum, IWM.

Introduction:

The members of RCNVR who also volunteered for Combined Operations during WW2 became familiar with training routines at various camps in England and Scotland. They often trained with and like commandos, and I have learned that 'commando training' later became part of the daily or weekly regimen for Canadian forces here in Canada.

News featured in The Winnipeg Tribune (June, 1942 issues) informs us of some details related to this type of training, and informative articles about it will follow in this post or entry.

First, I present a few paragraphs - detailing early training days leading up to the Dieppe Raid - from the Navy memoirs of Lloyd Evans (RCNVR, Combined Ops):

LIFE ON A WW2 LANDING CRAFT

.....In April '42 we returned to the familiar surroundings of Hayling Island only this time to HMS Northney I a few miles from the first base we'd used. This one had previously been a summer holiday camp of chalets with two bedrooms, a small sink in each room, and no heating. In the winter months there was usually an icicle hanging from the tap when we arose in the mornings! I used my navy mattress at night in an often vain attempt to keep warm.

Meals were served in a large central dining room which was a welcome relief from the cold. The R.N. types couldn’t imagine why we complained about the cold since we came from the land of ice and snow - not appreciating that our Canadian homes were, out of absolute necessity, well insulated and properly heated.

Like the proverbial yo-yo we returned to Scotland but this time to HMS Quebec situated on the shores of Loch Fyne near Inveraray. Just outside the town was Inveraray Castle occupied by the Duke of Argyll the Chief of Clan Campbell. The food at HMS Quebec was desperate. It improved slightly after a couple of our men threw a rope over a beam, in the style of a Wild West mob hanging, and were heard to mention something about the cook!

We then spent some time in different locations around Scotland and England training on several troop ships, train ferries, and oil tankers that had been converted to mother ships for carrying Assault Landing Craft, i.e., HMT Iris and Daffodil, Ettrick, Ennerdale, Queen Emma etc. We sailed from the Firth of Clyde on one of them, down through the Irish Sea, and somewhere near Lands End, our convoy was bombed...my first night bombing at sea. (Compare to my father's story in Operations RUTTER/JUBILEE (1). Link is provided at bottom of this page).

I hastily donned my tin helmet which always gave me a headache but this time it seemed as light as a feather and caused no problem at all! One of the main A.A. guns, on our fore deck, jammed, and a JU 88 came in real low to take advantage. Our gunners cleared the jam and shot him down before he could drop his bombs. We managed to get away in safety and ended up in Portsmouth.

We had canteen messing on this posting. Under this arrangement each mess was allowed a sum of money per head to buy food from the canteen. Each day a member of the mess had the duty to prepare the food for the members. When my turn came around I made a rice pudding and put the rice in a pot to soak overnight. I knew it would expand but had no idea by how much. Next morning there was enough rice for the whole crew not just our mess!

We had no clear idea why we were there. The situation was all the more confusing when a large flotilla of Landing Craft, loaded with soldiers and Commandos, set sail that evening and we remained in port. We could see the Commandos putting detonators in their hand grenades and blackening their faces as though they were preparing for action.

The mystery deepened when they returned a few hours later. We found out that they had sailed for a raid on Dieppe, France, but returned when they found out the Germans were waiting for them.

We could never figure out if our presence there was anything to do with the abortive Dieppe Raid and, if it was, why we were not part of it. We later set sail for Clyde Bank and stopped in Cardiff, south Wales, where half of our crowd were given a few hours leave...

Please link to more of Lloyd's memoirs at Combined Operations Command by Geoff Slee.

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News Clippings from The Winnipeg Tribune, June 27 - June 30, 1942:

The following article, "Moving Troops and Supplies...", shines a light on the organization that transported men and the materials of war overseas from Canada, often in times of danger upon the seas. One can compare it to the role of Canadians in Combined Operations who later transported these men and all their supplies during raids and invasions onto several foreign shores.

The above article has a few things in common with this next one. "No Small Roles" comes to mind:

As in "Dieppe Raid 1942 - Operations RUTTER/JUBILEE (1)" I will include a few photographs related to the Dieppe Raid. Later, these will be included in a growing collection, with links to more pertinent materials:

During the Second World War, on 19 August 1942, the Allies launched a major raid on the French coastal port of Dieppe. Operation Jubilee was the first Canadian Army engagement in the European theatre of the war, designed to test the Allies' ability to launch amphibious assaults against Adolf Hitler's "Fortress Europe." The raid was a disaster: More than 900 Canadian soldiers were killed, and thousands more were wounded and taken prisoner. Despite the bloodshed, the raid provided valuable lessons for subsequent Allied amphibious assaults on Africa, Italy and Normandy.

Link to The Canadian Encyclopedia for more details.

Wrecked Allied tanks and landing craft lie strewn across a beach at

Dieppe, France, following the failed raid there in 1942.

Bodies of Canadian soldiers of the Calgary Regiment lie dead on the beach at

Dieppe, France, following the disastrous Allied raid there on Aug. 19, 1942.

A painting by Canadian war artist Charles Comfort,

of the Allied raid on Dieppe in 1942.

Infantrymen of The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada boarding

landing craft before the raid on Dieppe on 19 August, 1942.

Photo A11233. A naval motor-launch seen with four of the landing craft personnel

(large) used during the Combined Operations daylight raid on Dieppe. The landing

craft are numbered (left - right) LCP (L) 85, LCP (L) 41, number not visible and

R 145. Lt. L. Pelman, Royal Navy official photographer,

Admiralty Official Collection, IWM.

The beach at the village of Puys, east of Dieppe, where Canadian

soldiers landed on 19 August, 1942.

A photograph on an interpretative panel in France, showing the bodies of

Canadian soldiers piled up on the beach at the village of Puys, following

the raid on Dieppe on 19 August, 1942.

The graves of Canadian soldiers* -- buried head-to-head in the local style --

at the Canadian War Cemetery at Dieppe.

*Also buried at Dieppe are a few members of RCNVR and Combined Operations, men who among those who manned landing crafts, including one of my father's comrades, Robert Ansley Cavanagh, age 19, RCNVR, HMCS Niobe.

Link to the list of those buried at Dieppe - https://www.militarytour.com/blog/

Enemy fortifications are examined two years after the raid.

Photo: Ken Bell, Library & Archives Canada - PA134448

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More news articles and photos from The Winnipeg Tribune, June 27 - June 30, 1942:

Training on barges at Petawawa Military Camp, near the Ottawa River, east of Algonquin Park -

In hindsight we can say that Mr. Cummings report missed by a country mile:

One year after the Dieppe Raid and invasion of North Africa (Nov. 1942), many Canadian members of Combined Operations were transported around Africa on their way to the invasion of Sicily, aka Operation HUSKY in July 1943. After visiting Cape Town and Durban they arrived at the Suez Canal and trained and camped at HMS Saunders (as mentioned in this post's top photo), before visiting Port Said and Alexandria, seen in the map below: