Dieppe 19 August 1942.

[Peter Clare]

The Raid on Dieppe: August 19, 1942

[Peter Clare]

From The Bomber Command War Diaries. Middlebrook - Everitt

19 August 1942

The Dieppe Raid.

2Group flew 62 Boston smoke-laying and bombing sorties in support of the Canadian landing at Dieppe; some crews carried out more than one flight. 3 Bostons were lost.

[von Poop]

Charles C.I. Merritt_VC
John Foote, VC
Patrick Porteous VC


Dieppe Raid Gallery

[Harry Ree]

The only lesson and the most important to be learnt from this farce was that it revealed that it was unlikely that a working port could be captured to support an invasion of France.

From this came the idea of WSC, who it was reported,said we will take our own port.Hence the conception of the Mulberry harbour.

[spidge]

Originally Posted by Peter Clare

From The Bomber Command War Diaries. Middlebrook - Everitt

19 August 1942

The Dieppe Raid.

2Group flew 62 Boston smoke-laying and bombing sorties in support of the Canadian landing at Dieppe; some crews carried out more than one flight. 3 Bostons were lost.

Hi Peter,

Looking up that date for RAAF deaths, I have one buried in the Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery.

NEVILLE, HENRY GEORGE - Sergeant

He is listed as 13sq for "posting at death" and cause of death "Flying Battle" (France). Do you have any info on the aircraft and the crew?

[von Poop]

Originally Posted by Harry Ree

The only lesson and the most important to be learnt from this farce was that it revealed that it was unlikely that a working port could be captured to support an invasion of France.

I believe they'd learnt this lesson already, one could even say that for centuries it was known that seaborne assaults on ports rarely succeed and capture from the land is the standard practice.

I don't think we'll ever fully know the true motives for Dieppe, particularly if it really was a most effective signal (or even 'lesson' as Alanbrooke appears to have put it) to the Soviet & US allies calling for an immediate '2nd' front that the French coast would require much more preparation.
Such realpolitik decisions would be exceptionally hard to candidly admit in public and thus are equally hard to prove, but I begin to lean more strongly towards the theory, if only because it adds more meaning to the sacrifice of those 907 Killed & 1874 POW's(?)

Just pottered onto this rather good page while trying to check casualties:
Combined operations - Dieppe

Cheers,
Adam.

[Peter Clare]

Originally Posted by spidge

Hi Peter,

Looking up that date for RAAF deaths, I have one buried in the Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery.

NEVILLE, HENRY GEORGE - Sergeant

He is listed as 13sq for "posting at death" and cause of death "Flying Battle" (France). Do you have any info on the aircraft and the crew?

Hi Geof
Chorley gives no losses for 13 Squadron on that day, they were at that time operating out of Odiham flying the Blenheim IV. I have taken the liberty of adding your request for info on the rafcommands web site with the hope of a result.

[Peter Clare]

Originally Posted by Peter Clare

Hi Geof
Chorley gives no losses for 13 Squadron on that day, they were at that time operating out of Odiham flying the Blenheim IV. I have taken the liberty of adding your request for info on the rafcommands web site with the hope of a result.

All credit for the following info goes to Steve Pegge and the rafcommands web site.

He was killed after his Blenhiem (V5380/D) was shotdown during an early morning mission dropping 100lb smoke bombs. PO C.L. Woodland and Sgt A.S, Boyd died with him.
The Blenhiem was one of six 13 Squadron aircraft taking part and it appears the aircraft was hit by flak from a coastal battery near Berneval (they claimed a 'Hampden' at the same time), but there is also a chance that the aircraft was hit by 'friendly fire' from the Allied naval force. Four more of the squadrons aircraft suffered varying degrees of AAA damage.

[spidge]

Originally Posted by Peter Clare

All credit for the following info goes to Steve Pegge and the rafcommands web site.

He was killed after his Blenhiem (V5380/D) was shotdown during an early morning mission dropping 100lb smoke bombs. PO C.L. Woodland and Sgt A.S, Boyd died with him.
The Blenhiem was one of six 13 Squadron aircraft taking part and it appears the aircraft was hit by flak from a coastal battery near Berneval (they claimed a 'Hampden' at the same time), but there is also a chance that the aircraft was hit by 'friendly fire' from the Allied naval force. Four more of the squadrons aircraft suffered varying degrees of AAA damage.

Thank you Peter for the information. Please pass on my thanks to Steve Pegge for his efforts.

[Peter Clare]

A little more info on this subject.

Credit to Graeme - rafcommands web site.

From 'The Greatest Air Battle', Norman Franks.

"13 Squadrons Blenheim IVs had been given the task of blinding 2 well positioned anti-aircraft batteries commanding the cliffs on the left side of Dieppe - the east headland, code named 'Bismarck' by the Allied planners. The pilots had had difficulty in forming up in the dark and so the pilots made individual approaches, all made successful drops to landward, the resulting smoke effectively screening the 2 hostile batteries. Five of the Blenheims flew back from the attack but PO Woodland's machine was presumed hit by AA fire for it failed to return 24year old Cecil Woodland, from Hampshire with his crew, Sergeantshenry neville and Austin Boyd from Belfast were posted as missing. The RAF's first casualties of Operation Jubilee"