Evening star., 1942-08-20

ting anyone and we turned back
out of range.
Finally we got ashore for a few
minutes right in front of the Dieppe
esplanade. The smokescreen was
SO thick, though, that one couldn't t
see much Of the town and we took
off again.
The area in front of the town
looked like a battle-ground of the
first Great War, broken buildings
gutted or burning in all sections.
BY 10 am. the Canadians, manv
OF their actions led by tanks, seemed
to have the town well under control
and to have stabilized the situation
on the beaches.
Then, so minutes later, the Nazis
sprang their one heavy attack by
air. For IS minutes Stukas, Dor
niers, Heipkels and fighters swept
up from the south and attacked the
fleet, whose terrific bombardment l
had been watching from an assault
craft Just of the main Dieppe beach.
Earlier the enemy had sent over
aircraft in fours and fives, but they
had oecn unable to cope with the
British air forces and had resorted
only to m,Ior machine cunning and
inaccurate bombing.
~ But the big attack was the real
one. TIE German pilots were flying
anywhere from 200 to 1000 feet
high and they showered bombs
over the British ships and swept
them with machine-gun' fire. The
sky was splotched with hundreds of
black and white puffs of exploding
shells and the thunder of the ships
guns was deafening.
Someone's the Nazis picked pecu-
liar targets. One time their Stukas
dive bombed our little craft which
by that time carried only one naval
omcer, four sailors and a lone war
correspondent. Their bombs came
crashing down on either side of our
bouncing craft, making the sea look
as if it had been churned by a
tornado.
Once we almost capsized but We
ended up with only a dashed stern
and a battered bow.
Hail Of Gunfire.
We had just picked ourselves up
from the deck when fighter zoomed
in and gave us hail of gunfire. But
they added only more scars to our
unsteady but still seaworthy craft.
The plane was one which Sue
ceeded in avoiding squadrons of
British planes which hovered over
head throughout the operation, pick
ing of German machines attempt
ing to get in close. Seven Nazi ma :
chimes crashed into the sea within
the short view we had of the COM
plete scene.
One Dornier attempting to attack
destroyer was raked by fire before
it could release its bombs. It ex-
ploded at about 300 feet. Small bits
of debris were all we saw fall into
the sea.
Every once in while a lone Ger
man would swoop on an isolated as
sau]t craft whose crew would reply
with everything aboard. Sailors
would pop of with tommy guns and
Lewis guns from hip level and some
even used rifles. And they succeed
ed in bringing down some of these
diving Nazis.
At noon the final re-embarka ton
Of troops was under way and the
force was taken of the main beach
With another smoke screen blank
citing the raided town, the feet
turned for England. No German
aircraft marred the departure, ano
the navy gave some coastal in.
stallations another bump with heavy
guns for good measure.
Through the afternoon sailed
north in craft to which the Stuka.
had taken such a liking. It wa
just an ordinary assault landing
craft. 80 feet long and looking like
floating packing box.
lay in the sun and slept. I woke
to see the white cliffs of England ir
the mist ahead. British planes
fighters and bombers-were swarm
ing south to France again in +;
| steady stream with more package
for the Germans.