1000 Men, 1000 Stories : Context: Dieppe Raid 1942

Any Word About Operation RUTTER Cancelled?

News Clippings From July 8 - 11

[Photo: "The Great Battlefield" depicted above likely refers to the Atlantic Ocean.

Canadians in Combined Operations, manning landing crafts at Dieppe (later in North

Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Singapore) were also involved in an amphibious war on

various 'battlefields'. From The Winnipeg Tribune, July 11, 1942. Page 6.

Introduction:

I will continue to search the digitized version of The Winnipeg Tribune for articles, editorials, photographs, etc. related directly to Operation RUTTER and JUBILEE. From previous searches related to Operation TORCH in November 1942 (the invasion of N. Africa) I know that several items related to the Dieppe raid do exist and appeared in the November issues of The Tribune. I hope to collect as many such items as I can in this current series of posts/entries re Dieppe.

A few more entries from the book Combined Operations by Londoner Clayton Marks will also appear here.

Continued from previous post (link below):

The Dieppe Raid

.... At 2130 on the night of August 18th the landing ships slipped their moorings and headed out to sea on a cloudless and warm evening. The fleet consisted of 237 ships of all sizes from large Infantry landing ships to the 74 LCP's unarmed and unarmoured carrying 6,100 of all ranks.

Many stories and acts of heroism have been told and will be retold over and over again. Officers and men of the British Army, Commandos, Royal Marines, American Rangers, Canadian Essex Scottish, Canadian Engineers, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, Hamilton Light Infantry, Fusiliers Mont Royal and the Royal Regiment of Canada, Black Watch, were all involved in this raid.

The perilous honour of the raid fell mainly to the Canadian Army and the Royal Navy, but members of the Naval team from Canada had a share. Training was not sufficiently advanced for the Canadians to operate as separate Flotillas when the Dieppe expedition sailed from Portsmouth, Shoreham and Newhaven on the night of August 18th but among the British Landing Craft fifteen Canadian Officers and fifty-five Ratings* were distributed.

Sub-Lieutenant C.D. Wallace was the first Canadian casualty. He was killed in the dark hours of the morning, when the Flotillas on the extreme left flank of the assault made the fatal encounter with a German convoy.

Lt. J. E. Koyl, a Canadian who was to figure in many happier landings, was boat Officer of a Flotilla which included thirty-three Canadians. It left its parent ship, "Duke of Wellington", at 0334. As the craft neared the beach shortly after five, they came under heavy fire from shore.

They managed to land their three platoons of the Canadian Black Watch near Puys; but as they were withdrawing the British Flotilla Officer was seriously wounded and Lt. Koyl took charge.

Continuing seaward, he transferred the wounded Officer to a British destroyer, and about 1200 when the evacuation of the beach was ordered, led his craft in again through heavy fire from shore and attack from the air.

Before he could beach, however, he was ordered to turn back. German batteries were laying down a curtain of steel that made evacuation an impossibility.

Pages 28 - 29.

*55 ratings, i.e., Ordinary Seamen, Able-Bodied Seamen, Leading Seamen and Coxswains; 55 is about half of the Canadian sailors (RCNVR) that had been training for Dieppe (unknowingly, of course). My father and many others were on a scheduled leave on the day of the raid.

* * * * * *

From The Winnipeg Tribune