Six men from different walks of life rode the turbulent seas of the English Channel in the dark; lost in thoughts as they prepared themselves to go into battle for the first time on the shores of France.....
These six men, along with over 6,000 others were about to engage in what had been briefed to all of them as 'Operation Jubilee'; a large-scale Raid on Hitler's vaunted 'Fortress Europe'. It had been two years since France and the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands) and the Scandinavian nations of Denmark and Norway had all fallen to Nazi Germany in 1940 and the tense two years since had seen massive battles in the skies above England, in the deserts of North Africa; all across Russia to the outskirts of Moscow and now all across the Pacific as well. It looked like the Nazi momentum to the West had been stopped....but the massive conflict on the Eastern Front in Russia had Stalin screaming for a 'Second Front' to be opened, to relieve the pressure on his beleaguered country....
England, even with the help of the United States who had entered the war in December of '41; was not yet ready to launch any major invasions; but the past two years had seen the development of the highly trained 'Commandos' in the British military; who had conducted daring and morale-boosting raids everywhere from Norway to France to Italy. In essence, this Raid on Dieppe was going to be another such raid....only much larger than any previous one....
Most of the Commando Raids had been no more than Platoon or Company sized in nature; a dozen to a couple hundred men. Operation Jubilee was going to put a Brigade of Infantry (6,000+ troops) along with a Regiment of Tanks (approx. 60 tanks) into combat. The objective; to capture and hold the French resort town of Dieppe for a short period of time in an effort to pull further German troops to France and all along the Atlantic coasts and keep them away from Russia. To support this massive effort; the Royal Navy was committing 230 some landing craft and 8 Destroyers for Close Support while the RAF was launching a 'Maximum Effort' with over 70 squadrons of Fighters and Bombers.
As most of the British Army was currently fighting the Germans in North Africa; most of the landing troops were Canadian troops of the 2nd Infantry Division, who had been in England since the second half of 1940 and who were extremely eager to get into action. In addition, a small selection of just over 50 American Army troops of the newly created 1st Ranger Battalion were coming along for the Raid; being broken into small groups and attached as 'observers' with various units. Finally, several of the pivotal supporting roles were to be undertaken by the famous Commandos, the inspiration for the Rangers and whose training regimen at the Scottish Town of Achenarry the Rangers had undergone....
The Raid would hit 6 beaches; with 2 of them at Dieppe itself, code named Red and White and these would be assaulted by the bulk of the units that made up the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division (the Essex Scottish Regiment, The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Regiment, the Fusiliers Mont-Royal Regiment and the 14th Canadian Armored of Tanks. Accompanying them would the British Royal Marine Commandos.
Immediately to their West, the South Saskatchewan Regiment and a couple of Companies of the Cameron Highlanders of Canada would be hitting Green Beach near the Town of Pourville in support and to flank the town from that side. Along with them was a special unit on a very special mission*....
Immediately to their East; the Royal Regiment of Canada along with a couple of platoons from the Black Watch of Canada Regiment would be hitting Blue Beach and the suburb of Puys to flank the town from the opposite side as Green Beach and to take out some Field Batteries.
To the Farthest West, men of Commando Number 4 would hit Orange Beach to take out a coastal battery that could threaten both the ships and the landing forces while far to the East men of Commando Number 3 would do the same to take out the coastal batteries at Berneval. The final plan looked like this:
Dieppe was a small resort town known for its Casino and small, pleasant buildings and homes on a beach surrounded by steep cliffs to both sides with the villages of Pourville to the immediate West and Berneval to the immediate East. At Dieppe itself, the beaches led to a gradual slope up to the Town with streets not far from the beach at all. The plan was for the Tanks to be able to quickly get off the beach and onto the Roads of the Town....
MANY were EXTREMELY concerned however by the very steep nature of the cliffs to either side and how German guns and Artillery on the tops of which could make any landing attempt a slaughter. The plan to negate this was with the Commando Raids on either flank taking out some of these weapons while the Destroyers would lay covering smoke and suppressing fire with their Naval Guns and Bombers hit them as well....
ORANGE BEACH: Chisolm & Nado with Commando No. 4, 5:45 AM:
It was all SGT Nahum Chisholm and PFC Tom Nado could do to keep their breakfast in their stomachs as the Landing Craft pitched this way and that; noise from low flying aircraft raced over them and the sounds of both bombs falling and going off on the shore nearby along with AA retaliatory fire assault their eardrums and they did their best to ignore the knowing grins of the British commandoes surrounding them in the Landing Craft. Despite the grins at their expense, both men felt lucky to have been assigned to this group as these men were battle-hardened veterans of several raids and their leader was straight out of 'Central Casting' for battle leaders....
Lieutenant Colonel Simon Fraser was a no-kidding Scottish Noble; he was 'Lord Lovat'; and he was tall, dashing, sported a mustache and was as brave and friendly as they came. He made it a point to come over and smile at Nado and Chisolm while admonishing his men; "C'mon now lads, go easy on the Yanks....you all remember your first time fighting with Jerry, right? A bunch of you lot were puking and turnin' green yerselves so don't go gettin' big-headed, what?" He patted each of the Rangers on the shoulder and said in a quiet, but serious tone; "Right....just remember your training, stay low and keep moving...and you'll be alright." With that he then called out to the rest of the men on the Landing Craft....
"Right then....you know the drill....we hit the coast, we get up the cliff, circle around the Battery and take out Jerry and spike the guns, right? We don't and the poor sods on the beaches at Dieppe will be catching hell, right? Let's get this done." With that, the sounds of combat got louder as they echoed off the water and cliffs around them and then there was the soft CRUNCH of the boat hitting the beach and men were leaping over the side into waist-high water before the landing bow came down, including Lord Lovat.
Chishom clutched his 1928 Tommy Gun and followed a big Irish PVT named Flannigan who was carrying a massive Boys .55 caliber AT Rifle towards the cliff face while Nado kept his M1 Garand Rifle out of the water and followed both as well. They were soon at the cliff face and some of the men were already attempting to climb up, but were having difficulty on the slippery wet stone. Lovat turned to the Rangers; "Right, you lot are good with climbing, yeah? See if you can get up there and toss these down to us when you've reached the summit", he says while giving each a long coil of rope to put around their torsos, sash-style.....
BLUE BEACH: Koda with the Royal Regiment of Canada, 6:30 AM
Lance Corporal Koda could little except duck low in the pitching landing craft and curse the fates that had led him to this god-awful situation. Here it was, 45 minutes past the time they were supposed to land in the darkness of pre-dawn AND covered by a smoke screen from the nearby Destroyers; but down to a multitude of factors, it was now well past dawn; the sun was shining down on them; the smoke had since drifted away and it seemed like every German on the continent was aiming and firing a weapon at them.....
The First Nations Canadian did his best to ignore the sounds and smells of the dead and dying in his landing craft, which had been raked by Machine-gun fire a couple of times from several positions up high on the cliffs near the town and it was almost with relief that he felt the boat suddenly lurch and then come to a stand-still as it hit the coast....
Grabbing his SMLE Rifle in his hand, he leaped over the side, ignoring the angry hornet sounds of bullets flashing past his ear as best he could. He saw a sea-wall up ahead about 50 yards away and like those of his fellows who had managed to make it to the beach, he raced for it and quickly crouched down as he reached it, dismayed to see several men that had been running right alongside him torn to ribbons by a German MG34 positioned in a sand-bag 'nest' perhaps 150 yards away. Koda ducked down just as 7.92mm rounds clipped out numerous pieces of brick and mortar as it raked the wall right above his head. Next to him a Canadian PVT looked wide-eyed him and said; "Whatever Bloody fool planned THIS should be court-martialed!"
YELLOW BEACH II: Porcupine and Campbell with No. 3 Commando, 6:45 AM
U.S. Rangers Casey Campbell and John Porcupine were utterly exhausted by the time they managed to basically fall out of their landing craft at landing beach Yellow II, along with just under 20 British Commandos commanded by Major Peter Young of No. 3 Commando unit. Their entire night and morning had been one, long, exhausting SNAFU.....
First, the group of 23 landing craft that held No. 3 Commando had run into a convoy of German boats at about 4 AM and tracer fire was soon lighting up the night as the various boats fought each other in a confused surface action. Some of the British landing craft had been sunk and others scattered while Tom and John had emptied a couple of 8 round clips from their M1 Garands at muzzle flashes in the dark, sea-air and ducked from return fire as it zipped past them and chewed up parts of the landing craft they were on and wounded a few of their companions....
After coming down from THAT adrenaline high, they realized that their convoy of 23 landing craft had been hopeless scattered and lost amidst the shelling and bombing and smoke screens, etc. After several hours of hard, zig-zagging turns and futile attempts to signal other ships for definitive orders; a small group of 7 or 8 landing craft could be seen heading for Yellow Beach I; while Captain Young directed the Royal Navy sailors to keep them headed towards their assigned target beach of Yellow II, never mind the fact that NONE of the other landing craft that were supposed to be hitting this beach with them could be found. Captain Young reminded his small band that the massive battery of three 170mm Coastal Guns could reach targets on the beaches or off the coast at range of almost 20 miles away! They needed to be dealt with and the confidence inspiring Major was going to do his DAMNDEST to do so even if he only had 20 people with a couple of Tommy Guns, a Bren Light Machine-gun, one Light Mortar and a 15 or so Rifles!
Landing on a quiet section of beach, they could see down the coast aways that their compatriots hitting Yellow Beach I were NOT so fortunate as they were getting hit and hit hard! Looking at the steep cliffs in front of them, Major Young found a steeply angled gully that would be easier...albeit slightly...for them to use to get up there. "C'mon lads! Let go help our fellows, shall we!", he said while awkwardly starting the climb. Nado and Porcupine gripped their Garands tightly and looked at each other; both could tell immediately that the good Major was NOT much of a climber....
GREEN BEACH; Heuron with 'special Radar group' of South Saskatchewan Regiment; 07:00 AM
PVT Phil Heuron blinked and wiped away sweat from his forehead as he wondered for about the eleven thousandth time why in the HELL had he suddenly been drawn into this clandestine mission at the last minute....
Phil was a member of the South Saskatchewan Regiment and like the rest of his regiment was eager to get a crack at the Germans after spending the pat two years defending England from....well, the occasional air raid with his Rifle. On multiple occasions, after some Messerschmidts or Heinkels had come buzzing around the various barracks he had been assigned too, he had rushed outside and feeling like an idiot, he would begin shooting at planes thousands of feet up with his SMLE rifle.....but NOW the chance had come to finally take the fight to the enemy the way he had been trained too!
Like the rest of his unit, he would be landing on Green Beach for this Raid on the French town of Dieppe near the village of Pourville. Their job would be to flank the town of Dieppe from the West and hopefully become a pincer movement agains the Germans in the town with the 'anvil' of troops on the beach and the other pincer coming from the East from the boys in the Royal Regiment of Canada and the Black Watch at Blue Beach. However, the night before the Raid, Heuron was pulled aside by a grizzled NCO named Hawkins and informed that he was going to be on a SPECIAL mission within the Raid....
A young RAF Flight Sergeant named Jack Nissenthal and 11 other members of the South Saskatchewan regiment (counting Hawkins) were going to be working to get some information from a German 'Radar' station on a cliff top near Pourville. Phil vaguely knew about Radar...some kind of high-tech device that could detect airplanes from far of or something; but didn't understand why HE would be dragged into this....and then he learned and was even less excited to be a part of the mission than he was before....
Nissenthal was something of a genius with all things technical and in particular, these new Radar devices. On top of that, his Jewish parents had immigrated to Britain to escape persecution, so he was ESPECIALLY happy to utilize whatever skills he had against the Nazis. Apparently, he had learned that the Germans were operating some kind of new Radar at this site and the powers-that-be in British High Command wanted to learn whatever they could about its capabilities. So they were sending an expert to get an up close and personal look at it. Phil, Hawkins and the others were there specifically to keep him alive and get him to the Radar Station. However, that wasn't the end of it....
You see, Nissenthal KNEW a great deal about British technical capabilities; so Phil and the others had been ordered to make sure he was not captured by the enemy....by ANY MEANS NECESSARY. In other words, they had orders to kill him if it came down to that. Nissenthal knew that and was willing to undertake the mission anyway. In addition, he was carrying a cynaide pill on his own person that he would use to spare anyone else the agony of having to kill one of their own. Heuron was blown away by this quiet young man's courage....
Naturally, the mission didn't go right from the start.....
While Green Beach was lucky in that the cover of darkness and the smoke screens had done their job in keeping them concealed and they landed with no incoming fire.....the problem was that most of the unit, including the 'Radar Team', had landed on the wrong side of the River Scie, which separated them from the village of Pourville AND the Radar station....
Attempting to make a quick march to the bridge that spanned the river, they ran into some German patrols and shots were quickly fired. Soon, the Germans had managed to set up some Anti-Tank guns and MG 34 Machine-gun positions on the other side of the bridge and were pouring murderous fire at the Canadian troops who attempted a quick storming of the bridge and instead were driven back with heavy losses...
The Canadians were doing their best to fire back, but the German positions were well-protected. Phil was hunkered down behind a small hill with Hawkins, Nissenthal and the others impatiently laying there, with Heuron wondering fro about the eleven thousandth time why the hell he had been drawn into this Clandestine mission at the last minute.....
It was at about that moment that Lieutenant Colonel Charles Merritt, the Commanding Officer of the Regiment, strode forward, calling out, "C'MON BOYS! WE CAN GET ACROSS THE BLOODY BRIDGE! LET'S GO!" He raced out across the bridge, enemy fire pinging and ricocheting all around around him, but miraculously none hit him. He got to the other side, knelt down and fired from his Rifle several times, before realizing no one had followed him and amazingly....he RAN BACK thru a hail of fire to his own men....
Still untouched by the enemy fire, he called out, "LOOK LADS! WE CAN DO THIS! LET'S GET ACROSS THIS BLOODY BRIDGE, ALL TOGETHER NOW!" he called out and this time there was a roar of approval from most of the Regiment and as one, they rose up and rushed the Bridge.....
