Dieppe 1942 - Slaughter on the Shingle

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and military since the humiliating evacuation from Dunkirk in May 1940 the British Empire was conducting large-scale military and naval operations in North Africa and Southeast Asia and since winning the Battle of Britain in September 1940 the aircraft of Fighter Command had had little to do as strategic bombing of Germany was in the hands of Bomber Command to counter this inaction RAF fighters had from spring 1941 onwards conducted fighter sweeps over France but in spring 1942 this backfired when in response the Luftwaffe deployed superior fokker wolf fw 190 fighters to French airfields RAF Command wanted a big showdown with the Luftwaffe to lure the majority of its fighters in France to the coast where an enormous dogfight could develop that would favour the RAF in order to precipitate such a battle he was decided to land a military force on the French coast knowing that such a move would lead to an all-out effort by the Luftwaffe to counter it the Soviet Union Britain erstwhile Ally remained in early 1942 under immense pressure the German attempt to capture Moscow had failed the 1942 summer offensive was making huge inroads into southern Russia towards Stalingrad and the Volga Soviet leader Joseph Stalin urged the Western Allies to launch a second front in France to lure away German divisions from the Russian front and ease the pressure on the Red Army British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had appointed King George the sixth cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten chief of combined operations Vice Admiral Mountbatten was young handsome and well-connected and was committed to launching raids on the French coast to harass the Germans Churchill personally approved the operation codenamed Jubilee however in scale and scope it was not to be the second front that Stalin desired instead a smaller scale operation would land 5,000 Canadians a thousand British and 50 US Army Rangers on beaches in front of the seaside town of Dieppe on the northern coast of France they would seize and hold the town for one day destroying German defenses and capturing prisoners and seizing intelligence material then be withdrawn and taken back to England it would be an excellent test of German anti invasion capabilities and of Allied abilities to land large numbers of men and vehicles on a hostile Shore in fact a perfect test for d-day two years later so why so many Canadians ever since war was declared in September 1939 large numbers of Canadian troops have been shipped to Britain to assist in her defence the Canadian government wanted her men to see some action instead of simply training and waiting and Churchill and mam batten were encouraged to select units from the second Canadian Infantry Division in England as the main landing force the plan involved landing the troops on the Dieppe beaches without much preliminary naval bombardment largely because the Royal Navy after losing the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser hm repulse to Japanese aircraft of Malaya in December 1941 was weary of placing more of its capital ships close inshore where German gun batteries and aircraft could attack and sink them also Churchill and Mountbatten wanted for political reasons to limit the number of French civilian casualties this decision would be a major factor in the coming slaughter the plan was as follows six beaches were selected for in front of Dieppe town and one on the western and one on the eastern flanks they were codenamed yellow blue red white green and orange yellow beach would be assaulted by the British number three commando blue by the Royal Regiment of Canada red and white beaches were the main landing points with the Royal Hamilton light infantry the Essex Scottish regiment lay fusilli Amon Royale and the British a commando Royal Marines attacking these main landings would be supported by the 14th Army Tank Regiment the Calgary regiment with 58 brand new Churchill tanks finally green beach would be assaulted by the South Saskatchewan regiment and the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada with the British number 4 commando landing at Orange Beach a 50 man unit from the US Army Rangers would go in with the British number 4 commando one of the problems for the Allies was that double agents had tipped off the Germans about Allied interest in Dieppe this meant that the German garrison was on high alert Dieppe was garrisoned by the three hundred and second static Infantry Division numbering about one and a half thousand men many heavy weapons defended the port and the overlooking cliffs including large gun batteries a radar station at poor Ville was well protected and there were large artillery batteries at vaudeville and Bern eval LaGrant the Luftwaffe had 200 fighters and a hundred bombers in the area the invasion fleet of 237 ships and landing craft deposit from England on the night of the 18th of August 1942 the first attacks were made just after 5:00 a.m. on the 19th of August on the gun batteries flanking the German areas at yellow Beach the British number three commando was tasked to conduct two landings eight miles east of Dieppe to knock out three 170 millimeter and four 105 millimeter guns that would shell the main landings number three commando had to knock these out before the main landings started unfortunately the convoy carrying number three commando ran into a German coastal convoy escorted by German s boats which proceeded to torpedo some of the landing craft and disabled the steam gunboat protecting the British force the British managed to drive the Germans off the German defences ashore were fully alerted by all the fighting and those six landing craft full of commandos made it to yellow beach one German fire held them off and they later surrendered on yellow beach to only 16 commandos got ashore they managed to engage the guns with small arms fire keeping the guns busy until forced to withdraw at orange beach at the other end of the landing zone here the landings went very well leftenant Colonel Lord Lovitz number four commando with attached us ranges made two landings six miles west of Dieppe to take out six 150 millimeter guns of battle he hess near vaudeville Lovett's men silenced the guns from the course of the fighting captain Patrick Porteous winning the Victoria Cross the commandos then withdrew by ship the rest of the landings would not go anywhere near as smoothly by now fully alerted to Allied landings the German units at blue Beach watched as the Royal rifles of Canada and three platoons of the Black Watch of Canada a plus artillery began landing near POY the covering smoke screen had blown away and the Germans firing from bunkers trenches and emplacements in the Canadians down behind the seawall the Royal rifles of Canada battalion was completely destroyed 556 men landed 200 were killed and 264 captured the South Saskatchewan regiment had more luck at Green Beach at poor Ville after landing in the wrong place they got ashore before the Germans opened fire attempting to cross a well-defended bridge to reach the Hindenburg artillery battery and of course the all-important radar station they were stopped with heavy casualties the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada landing beside them fared no better the Camerons got further inland than anyone else on the Dieppe raid but were soon pushed back by strong German reinforcements ordered to withdraw out of the two battalions only 341 men managed to get away on landing craft Lieutenant Colonel Charles Merritt commanding the South Saskatchewan regiment received the Victoria Cross at red and white beaches the main landing sites things were even worse for Royal Navy destroyers bombarded the shore as the landing craft approached an array of hurricanes dived in to machine-gun and bombed coastal defences the Essex Scottish and the Royal Hamilton light infantry landed attacking without armored support as the Churchill tanks arrived late cut to pieces by strong German defenses they were pinned down behind the seawall eventually 29 tanks were landed two sank in deep water 12 became stuck in the beaches soft shingle 15 Churchill's managed to grind over the seawall but came up against such strong German anti-tank defenses that they were forced to drive back to the beach and support the infantry all of them being knocked out or abandoned because of communications confusion and a smokescreen Major General Roberts commanding the second Canadian Infantry Division sent in his two reserve units to support those already ashore the fusilli at Mont Royal and the British Royal Marines the Fusiliers landed from 26 landing craft at 7 a.m. and were hit by a hail of machine gun mortar and artillery fire the battalion was completely destroyed the Royal Marines were sent to support them that many of their landing craft were hit or sunk on the approach so that their commanding officer stood up and waved them off to return to the main ships before he himself was killed while the landing force was being obliterated ashore the RAF had the air battle that they had sought hundreds of Spitfires and hurricanes roared into action against Luftwaffe folk evolved 190s the Spitfires were the limit of their operational range the great air battle to smash Luftwaffe fighter forces in France backfired spectacularly 91 RAF and 14 Royal Canadian Air Force planes were shot down as opposed to 48 Luftwaffe aircraft the two-to-one advantage to the Germans what remainder the Allied assault force limped back to England the butcher's bill was appalling 5000 Canadians had landed 3367 were killed wounded and all captured that is a staggering 68 percent of the force the British contingent of a thousand men lost 247 killed and wounded but the Royal Navy was also hard-hit one destroyer and 33 landing craft were destroyed with 550 crew killed or wounded of the 50 US Army Rangers that had landed with the British commandos six were killed seven wounded and four captured German losses were 591 killed and wounded and a massive propaganda victory so who was to blame some say the Canadian units were too inexperienced while others questioned the decisions taken by senior officers drain the landings and issues like the late tank landings or the inadequate pre-invasion artillery preparation has causes for the disaster Lord Mountbatten said Dieppe was a necessary evil the Allies had to learn how to invade France and the lessons learnt from the raid were invaluable as the reason why the British and Canadian landings on d-day in June 1944 were very successful Churchill said that the Dieppe raid was fully justified quote it was a Canadian contribution of the greatest significance to final victory unquote Canada took a different view Lord man Patton was never a popular figure in Canada after Dieppe thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Felton you can also help support both of my channels of PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,183,628

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, War Stories with Mark Felton, Dieppe Raid, Canada, Mountbatten, Winston Churchill

Id: sbSn0wccJAo

Length: 14min 19sec (859 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 14 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/samt_4657]

Great watch. I was unfamiliar with this battle