Photographs: Dieppe Raid 1942 - Operations RUTTER/JUBILEE (4).

ROYAL NAVAL DOG MASCOT INJURED AT DIEPPE, and More.

[Photo: Courseulles - A wrecked LCT (Landing Craft, Tank) on the beach. The LCT'S
stern lies rusting on the sand at low tide, watched by a soldier. In the background there
are several other landing craft at sea with barrage balloons flying above.
Artist Bone, Stephen; as found at Imperial War Museum (IWM). 

Introduction:

As photographs from the Imperial War Museum are presented concerning the Dieppe Raid, so too will be short excerpts from the Navy memoirs of Al Kirby (RCNVR, Combined Ops) about the day of the controversial Allied attack. 

The Dieppe Raid, August 19

Continued from Photographs: Dieppe Raid 1942 - Operations RUTTER/JUBILEE (3).

(The Canadian soldier I spoke to) turns and runs for the sea wall, scrambling for all he is worth, stumbling over the bodies of his dead and wounded comrades. I drop the bike in the stones, turn and run back toward the rear of the boat, shouting to Hop as I go, "All clear, all clear, get us to hell out of here, Hop!"

As I crouch down behind the still smoking generator for shelter, I burn one of my hands on the hot side of it, as Hop backs off the beach, turns seaward and pours the power to old R-135. I am so glad to hear that engine bark that I am unable to feel any pain in my burned hand.

Very shortly, we are buried in the smoke that we had laid down all the way in, and the thought strikes me that I am now on the wrong side of the smoke generator to receive any shelter from it. Jumping down into the now empty well deck, I notice light coming in through the starboard side where we took a burst of machine gun fire.

Fortunately for us it caused us no serious damage and nothing was hit on the engine. Charging out through the smoke, we all prayed that we didn't hit anyone coming the other way as we couldn't see beyond our own bow. Good old Hop was clever enough to note our course coming in so that he was able to take us out to safety through the smoke and I thanked our lucky stars that these juicers make such great sailors.

We soon cleared the smoke and sailed out of range of the fire coming from ashore, then picking up the remainder of our Flotilla, we proceeded in line ahead, over to a destroyer and hove to along-side of her. Everything looked just great, we have all of our boats and we are sure that we have put the Infantry where they belonged.

I can't pick out McKenna's or Lantz's boat from here but I can count twelve boats, so they must be here. Our damage is minimal, with about twenty small holes in the starboard side from small arms fire, but looking around, it is apparent that some of the other boats are not so lucky.

I can't get over my admiration for Hop and Grear for the way everything went. Even Leach begins to take on a semblance of humanity.

The warm sun smiled down upon us as we slowly rocked on the gentle swell, in the melee of boats that huddled around this unknown destroyer. It seemed almost as though the battle was over, as we lolled about, but for the Infantry - it had just begun.

As the smoke cleared away, we began to see the beach, and as the large flashes from the continuous explosions lit up the scene, we assumed that this was evidence of the pounding that our boys were giving the Jerries....

Page 54, Combined Operations by Clayton Marks of London, Ontario.

* * * * * *

Photographs from the Imperial War Museum:

A11573. A Motor Launch repair shop. Photo Credit -
Lt. F.A. Davies, Admiralty Official Collection, IWM

A11574. Motor launches and crews who took part in the Dieppe Raids.
3 Sept. 1942. A 19 year old gunner checking a gun sight.  Photo Credit -
Lt. F.A. Davies, Admiralty Official Collection, Imperial War Museum

A11576. ANIMALS AT WAR. An officer and four of his crew sit with their dog
mascot 'Ighty' on the deck of their motor launch. The dog, sitting on a German flag
taken by the crew from a German tanker, broke his leg during the Dieppe Raid.
A bandage is clearly visible on his front left leg. Photo Credit - Lt. F.A. Davies,
RN photographer, Admiralty Official Collection, IWM.

A11575. ANIMALS AT WAR: ROYAL NAVAL DOG MASCOT INJURED AT
DIEPPE, 3 SEPTEMBER 1942. An officer with some of his crew and their mascot
"Ighty". Lt. F.A. Davies, RN official photographer, Admiralty Official Collection

A11577. MOTOR LAUNCHES AND CREWS... Cleaning the guns of a British
Motor Launch. Photo Credit - Lt. F.A. Davies, Royal Navy official photographer,
Admiralty Official Collection, Imperial War Museum (IWM).

A11578. MOTOR LAUNCHES AND CREWS WHO TOOK PART IN THE DIEPPE
RAID. 3 SEPTEMBER 1942. Cleaning the guns of a British Motor Launch. Photo -
Lt. F.A. Davies, Royal Navy official photographer, Admiralty Official Collection, IWM

A11579. A Nazi airmen's jacket, which was a souvenir of the Dieppe raid. Photo -
Lt. F.A. Davies, Royal Navy official photographer, Admiralty Official Collection

A11580. MOTOR LAUNCHES AND CREWS... Two of the crew busy with
their washing. Lt. F.A. Davies, RN photographer, Admiralty Official Collection

B10480. THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944-1945.
German prisoners being marched through Dieppe on their way to Britain,
1 October 1944. Laing (Sgt) No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit,
THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944-1945

B10888. A general view of Dieppe harbour, 14 October 1944.
Laing (Sgt) No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, THE BRITISH
ARMY IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944-1945

B10890. THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944-1945. The
camp for German POWs at Dieppe, 14 October 1944. Laing (Sgt) No. 5 Army Film
& Photographic Unit, THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944-1945

C3080. RAF BOMBER COMMAND, 1939-1941. Operation JUBILEE, the
Combined Forces raid on Dieppe, France. A Douglas Boston Mark III of No. 2
Group runs in to bomb a gun battery near the town, passing over a smoke screen
laid off the coast to provide cover for the landing operations. Photo Credit -
RAFFPU, AIR MINISTRY SECOND WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTION

C3081. Bombs being released from a Douglas Boston bomber over the target area.
RAF official photographer, Air Ministry Second World War Official Collection

C3082. A low-level aerial reconnaissance photograph of the Dieppe waterfront
taken by the Army Co-operation Command a few days before the raid. Royal Air
Force official photographer, Air Ministry Second World War Official Collection

C3193. ROYAL AIR FORCE FIGHTER COMMAND, 1939-1945. Stills from
camera gun footage taken from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark V flown by Sergeant
M. Liskutin of No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF, as he shot down a Dornier
Do 217 over the English Channel, while on patrol over a convoy of returning vessels
from the Dieppe raid. Creator No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF
AIR MINISTRY SECOND WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTION

More photographs and excerpts from the memoirs of Al Kirby will follow.

Please link to Photographs: Dieppe Raid 1942 - Operations RUTTER/JUBILEE (3).

Unattributed Photos GH