Outline of Operation Jubilee: The Raid on Dieppe, 19 August 1942

I recalled most from Neillands' Dieppe book. I don't know what people think of him but in 2005 I put down these points:

Some bombing took place beforehand but this only warned the Germans that something might happen.

Once the Hurricanes (?) Had attacked the defensive positions there was no actual protection from the sky.

The ships giving naval artillery protection were too lightly armed and could not put out the bunkers and could not help the troops with their fire power.

The planning was not good in case something went wrong. The only time the operation could be cancelled was 3 am, and after that it was go-go-go.

Most losses took place during retreat.

Neillands thinks Mountbatten was not qualified for the job. After realizing he had not enough protection for the troops he should have cancelled it or demanded more.

About those tanks...29 got ashore of which 15 got onto the promenade. They could not get past the anti-tank obstacles and by then the engineers who should have taken care of these, most of them had been killed.

 

Btw, was this one of the first times for Fw-190, and the RAF, although fought hard, had big losses as well had hands full in the air??

 

Great link on the Churchill tanks at Dieppe.
Dieppe France 1942

 

Also from Neilland´s book:

"One of the great mysteries of the entire Dieppe raid is that the bulk of information reaching the Force Commanders implied that all was going reasonably well when the exact opposition was usually the case..."

 

Very true. The most powerful ships in the operation were eight Hunt class destroyers with 4 or 6 4"guns, total about 40. These were intended to provide surface escort, air defense, and shore bombardment.

 

Panzer Lehr officer memoirs ( Helmut Ritgen ):

" The enemy engineers could not blow the defences at any one location because of the German fire. If they had succeeded, the situation would have become critical, because the 302nd Infantry division had no anti-tank weapons that could take on the "Churchills".

 

The success of the raid depended on complete surprise, but the landing was dogged by bad luck. "Directive Nr 40", which was issued in March because of a successful English commando attack on a "Würzburg" radar site, ensured that the coastal forces would be particularly watchful and at constant defensive readiness. At 0332 hours on 19 August the Freya radar near Puys located and reported "very many targets" approaching at a distance of 35 kilometers. Then a German convoy ran into the boats of the English commandos. The ensuing fire-fight at sea brought the 302nd Infantry division to full defensive readiness at 0500 hours. So much for surprise.

From memoirs of a Panzer Lehr Officer by Helmut Ritgen

 

Various units formed out of Quebec were by and large unilingual French, many had some English - probably more by the war's end. The Fusiliers Mont-Royal were at Red & White Beach; the Black Watch (most likely bilinual or English) out of Montreal were at Blue Beach along with the Royal Regiment of Canada and my Dad's unit the 16th Battery, 3LAA.

I recommend you follow David Keith on Facebook and see his book "One Day in August".

 

Kai, I have been at the beach at Dieppe and it really would have been horrendous for tanks and for any men coming ashore as the rocks that they call "shingle" are very rounded from the wave action. Many of the tanks threw their tracks. Also, just like D-Day, it was daunting to those operating landing craft to come in under withering defensive fire. I suspect that some tanks were dropped too far from shore and sank.