1000 Men, 1000 Stories : Articles: Dieppe Raid 1942

News About Canadians in Combined Operations is Hard to Come By.

[Photo Credit - The Winnipeg Tribune, front page, published on July 4, 1942]

Introduction:

Regular and in-depth news coverage related to World War II events filled the airwaves and newspapers across the globe from September 1939 to August 1945 and kept people up-to-date on actions on various war fronts, from Eastern Russia to Hiroshima, Japan. Reporters and news writers were kept very, very busy, in my opinion.

Closer to home, the Canadian Army was oft mentioned in training and war operations, and some items of interest have been presented in earlier entries on this site, most recently @
Context: Dieppe Raid 1942 - Operations RUTTER/JUBILEE (Entries No. 1 - 13).

When looking for information about a very small handful of Canadian sailors in the Volunteer Reserve, as well as in Combined Operations (my interest re my father), the men who manned landing crafts in exercises involving the aforementioned Canadian Army (various regiments) before and during the Dieppe Raid (and later in the invasions of North Africa (Nov. 1942), Sicily (July 1943), and Italy (1943) and more), the cupboard often feels bare in comparison.

That being said, I know the Canadians in Combined Operations formed a very small percentage of the Allied Forces (i.e., approx. 1% of those who joined the RCN and RCNVR from 1939 - 45), and some news about the exercises in which they were directly involved does exist, and I share one article below by Ross Munro, Canadian Press War Correspondent.

As well, after recently reading Dieppe: Tragedy to Triumph by Brigadier General Denis Whitaker and Shelagh Whitaker, I located an excellent article by Caroline D'Amour about pre-Dieppe training exercises - participated in by Canadian regiments and (very likely) a number of Canadians in Combined Operations who were sprinkled among the British flotillas of landing crafts used in lengthy and necessary manoeuvres.

Excerpts from D'Amours enlightening article also appear below.

* * * * * *

Here is one article with a direct link to Canadians in Combined Ops, from The Winnipeg Tribune:

Please note: The Fusiliers from Montreal, mentioned in the last paragraph above, are also featured in the next article by Caroline D'Amour.

The harbour at Dieppe, suffering a hit later in the war.

Photo Credit - Imperial War Museum

Please find below several excerpts from an excellent, detailed article re the training exercises of Canadian troops before the Dieppe Raid. Canadians in Combined Ops were very likely directly connected to these exercises, by manning the landing crafts used in landing the troops on various beaches along the coast of Southern England.

I take a particular interest because my father Doug Harrison (RCNVR, Combined Operations) mentions the dates in his Navy memoirs that are associated with one of the photographs (attributed to June 22 - 23, 1942) that accompanies the article. He says something that has puzzled me for some time but I feel it may have been clarified by C. D'Amour's research.

In my father's memoirs I read:

During the trip down the west coast of England it seems we pulled into an Irish seaport one night; however, farther down the coast of England we headed south past Milford Haven, Wales, and all was serene.

We usually had a single or maybe two Spitfires for company. There were eight ships in the convoy; we were the largest, the rest were trawlers. Of course, the Spitfires only stayed until early dusk, then waggled their wings and headed home.

On June 22, 1942*, my mother’s birthday, O/D Seaman Jack Rimmer of Montreal and I were reminiscing on deck. We must remember there was daylight saving time and war time, and to go by the sun setting one never knew what time it was. Jack and I were feeling just a little homesick - not like at first - and it was a terribly hard feeling to describe then.
[*Editor's Note: I feel this date is accurate because my father was very close to his mother and would very likely have remembered her birthday.]

Our Spitfire waggled his wings and kissed us goodnight though it was still quite light, and no sooner had he left when ‘action stations’ was blared out on the Klaxon horn.

Eight German JU 88s came from the east, took position in the sun and attacked us from the stern. It was perhaps between eight and nine o’clock because I had undressed and climbed into my hammock next to Stoker Fred Alston. When the Klaxon went everybody hit the deck and tried to dress, and being the largest ship, we knew we were in for it.

I got my socks on, put my sweater on backwards and got the suspenders on my pants caught on the oil valves. I was hurrying like hell and nearly strangled myself - scared to death. They needed extra gunners so Lloyd Campbell of London, Ontario (later to die of wounds suffered at Dieppe) said, “Let me at him.”

The bombs came - and close. They really bounced us around. The gun crew on the foc’sle of the ship was knocked clear off the gun by the concussion and fell but were only bruised.

The attack was short and sweet but it seemed an eternity. A near miss had buckled our plates and we lost all our drinking water. I ventured out on deck immediately and picked up bomb shrapnel as big as your fist. I noticed the deck was covered with mud from the sea bottom. I kept the shrapnel as a souvenir along with many other items I had but, alas, they were all lost in Egypt.

We arrived at Cowe (Isle of Wight) the next day with everyone happy to be alive and still shaking. It indeed had been a basinful. Incidentally, two German 88s were shot down. Norm Mitchinson of Niagara Falls was credited with two planes shot down during the course of the war; one at Dieppe and one at Sicily. Both were low flying bombers. His weapon was a strip Lewis 303.

The next evening, June 23, 1942* there was terrific activity.

[*Editor's Note: I have wondered about this date in the past. Was my father remembering Operation Rutter (started but cancelled on July 7) or something else?

Motor launches by the dozen headed out to see what was going on, and it turned out to be the aborted attempt on Dieppe*.

[*Editor's Note: Sailors like my father were not told that exercises were for training or for real actions. He was never told, "Today, June 23, we will be involved in a training exercise. Tomorrow we leave for the Dieppe raid." Motor launches likely headed out to watch a part of Exercise Yukon II.]

My father concluded his memories re "the aborted attempt on Dieppe" with the following:

The next one on August 19, 1942 should have been aborted too. I wasn’t there because I was on leave but came back early (because, though I didn’t know where, I knew there was a raid coming) and was in position to see the Duke of Wellington carrying barges, my oppo and other buddies to Dieppe and certain death for the soldiers.

I feel Dad's memory about events are honest, that he could not always recall the exact date because he was moved from here to there at a moment's notice, without a full explanation. Reading Dieppe: Tragedy To Triumph" and finding C. D'Amour's article has, in my opinion, solved a puzzle for me.

And readers interested in some very significant details related to the members of Canadian Forces who trained for the Dieppe Raid should enjoy studying the following: