Feldgrau.net

Where was the naval gunfire support?

This is one of the issues Dieppe suffered from. The Royal Navy was unprepared to risk capital ships in the channel. That is sometimes seen in the literature as an "inter-service rivalry" issue and intransigence on the RN's part. That is unfair -- I come back to my remarks in an earlier post about the need to remember the strategic situation in 1942.

Germany was still triumphant, and the British Isles weak. The invasion threat of late 1940 was certainly over, and while the Battle of Britain was also won, the air situation overall could best be described as "air parity." Most of the combat effective British Army had been sent to North Africa (a gutsy move on Churchill's part). In other words, the only thing keeping the Third Reich out of the British Isles was the German inability to get across the channel. Thus, the RN's command of the sea COULD NOT BE RISKED.

Did the RAF give cover and close support to the beachhead?

Yes -- unstintingly. This is probably the most fogotten aspect of the battle. In fact, the air fighting over Dieppe that day was the largest air battle in the West after the Battle of Britain.

Also, from what I gather, the raid was a botch before the force had even landed, since German ships had spotted the raiders at sea.

This has been widely believed for years. The most recent scholarship has established that in fact this was not the case. While there was skirmishing in the channel this did not tip off the local German Army commanders. For an excellent examination of this, see a recent article in the Autumn 2003 edition of the Canadian Military Journal by noted Canadian military historian Ben Greenhous:

http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/engraph ... tory_e.pdf

Freiritter wrote:The RRC had only 65 men left out of 554! I didn't know that the casualties were that bad.

The Essex Scottish Regiment suffered even worse at Dieppe

How?

Cordially,

Freiritter

The US Army Ranger element was assigned to go ashore with the Commandoes mostly, a few were assigned to go with the Canadians. The men were split up and assigned to different units, rather than going ashore as a unit. The idea was that the Rangers, embryonic in their development, would gain combat experience that they would take back to the 1st Ranger Battalion. They DID land, a Cpl. Franklin Koons is believed to be the first US soldier to kill a German soldier in the war.

Generally, Dieppe was seen, at least by historians after the fact, as a learing experience. One important lesson learned was the futility of directly assaulting ports. Not after D-Day all ports were assaulted from the land side, none were assaulted by amphibious assault. The Germans walked away with the idea the Allies would try to land at a port and reinforced their defences, leading to the bottling up of many sorely needed soldiers.

Dieppe, was not a total failure. I should add that it was not a huge success either. It was intended as a raid, whereby the Allies would be ashore for a few hours, not as the invasion. It was a useful learning experience. It did force the Germans to tie down troops on coastal defence. Especially, because of the size of the Dieppe operation as opposed to the small raids ussually conducted. The Allies also siezed some important intelligence as someone else alluded to.

Hi,

Just about the size of the "raid", I've just finished the Robert Paxton's book about the french officiers of Vichy and the author explains that the frenchs didn't know if the operation Torch was a real landing or a big raid. If the french army in Morocco had realized that it was a real landing, it shouldn't have fought the americans ( because the future of the free zone in France was in stake and a heavy resistance against the americans should have protected Vichy from a german invasion. Remember Syria Lebanon in july 1941). Maybe Dieppe has made thinking that the beginning of Torch was just a raid or something like Dakar in september 1940.

So long.

Dackel

That's a good point. I've heard a lot of criticism of the French over that one, such as one officer requiring a shot for honor, and that sort of thing. But their whole country was hostage and the allies could not include them in their plans. And no single soldier or officer could tell from their vantage point if it was a raid or an invasion (torch I mean).

And I'll bet that plenty of Germans thought Dieppe was the invasion.

cheers
Reb

Hello:
Did a ship called the HMS INVICTA participate in the Dieppe raid? If so, could someone provide me with as much info about it as possible? In 1944 my father was ferried from South Hampton to Le Havre on a British vessel called the HMS INVICTA; I just wondered if the same vessel was at Dieppe as well. Thank you.

Hi Reb,

As a french general said to the US ambassador in Vichy, I guess it was admiral Leahy :
" if you come with two divisions we'll shoot at you but if you come with 25 divisions we will welcome you "

So long.

Hello to all ; more...................................

The bloody test of Dieppe 1942.

Source: https://www.aboutww2militaria.com/fr/le ... _language= 1

Cheers. Raúl M .