Evening star., 1942-08-21
Bv ROSS MUNRO.


Canadian Press War Correspondent
WITH THE CANADIAN CON-
MANDO RAIDING FORCE, Aug.
10 CDelayed) tP.-Units OF two in
fantry regiments, the Royal Ham
ilton Light Infantry and the Essex
Scottish OF Windsor, Ontario. with
a Calgary tank regiment, carried the
main attack OF the Dieppe raid
right into the town itself and pat
tied the Germans through the
streets to capture the main por-
tions of the town.
After tremendous naval bonn
bardment and aerial bombing OF the
promenade area by the sea, these
units landed on the beach in front
of Dieppe and stormed the Nazi-
held buildings, barricades and strong
points.
In flank attacks units of the South
Saskatchewan Regiment and the
Cameron Highlanders from Winnl-
neg landed at Pourville. miles west
of Dieppe, and the Royal Regiment
from Toronto went in At Putt, ! mile
east of the port.
Units of Les Fusiliers, Mont Royal,
a French Canadian battalion, served
as floating reserves and finally were
sent into Dieppe.
Bv this operation the Canadians
carried out the underlying object OF
the raid, which was to test the Ger
man defenses on the coast and to
obtain information about them.
Dieppe was left with many parts
of the town burning, and as the
raid feet sailed for England I could
see from the vessel which I occu-
pied a pail of smoke hanging over
the port.
Rangers In Bitter Action.
A small group OF United States
Rangers was included in the force,
attached to various regiments. They
landed and fought with combat
troops. Several of them engaged IN
the bitter action during the landings
and in subsequent engagements on
shore.
Just how many Rangers were in
volved was not disclosed. Right by
my side, a young American sergeant,
Ken Kenyon of Minneapolis,
knocked of a German sharpshooter
from a window of q house with =
dead -eye shot. This came during
the action when the landing force
was meeting heavy opposition and
terrific NE from machine-gun nests
and German small arms.
British Commands operated with
the force and at Varengeville, 5
miles west Of Dieppe, a group leo
by Lord Lovat captured and de-
stroyed battery OF six 6-incn How
itzers which were sighted on the
main beach.
Eight miles west OF the big target
another Commando unit took out
some more coastal guns and part
of Royal Marine Commands were
landed at Dieppe as reserves.
The defenses at the channel port
were strong and at vulnerable points
there was evidence that they mad
been bolstered recently.
The Canadian shock troops had
. rough time of 1t at several points
and the losses probably will not be
| small.
This Is really just story Ct as
sault operations, but there was more
to it than that.
Throughout the eight to vine
hours smash at Dieppe and sur
rounding strong points behind q
spearhead of tanks, Canadian. Brit
ish and United States pilots battled
overhead in the greatest air combats
since the days Of the Battle OF
Britain.
Two Commando units assigned to
destroy the coastal guns, which il
they had been firing would have
blocked the landing at Dieppe, stole
over the English Channel and at
tackled in the early hours Of Wed
nesday morning
Lovat's Commands killed the gun
crew with bayonets and destroyed
the six howitzers.
Large Number Of Ships.
While these preliminary attacks
were being made the main raid force
under Maj. Gen. j. H. Roberts wa.
crossing the Channel The flotilla
included q large number Of ships OF
all types, including = giant tank
landing craft which looked like 3
Great Lakes oil freighter. These
TICS" were used for the first time
to transport tanks at sea on COM
bined operations.
Destroyers. motor launches and
potor gunboats screened the assault,
craft during the whole voyage.
This force was trained for five
weeks last June and early July on
combined operations of this type and
at that time carried out the greatest
raid and invasion maneuvers ever
held.
1t was during this training that
the Calgary Regiment became Can
ada's first sea-going tank unit. The
drivers learned to move the giant
tanks up and down the ramp that
drops on landing beaches and prac-
ticed for weeks on amphibious tank
operations.
Now, on \ warm August night
with the sky sparkling with star.
and the Channel on its best be-
havior, these Canadian fighting men
were on their way to take part ir
their first real action of the war.
On the ships as they sailed through
the night the troops were quietly
confident about the job ahead. They
knew Dieppe was q defense strong
hold, an "E-boat" base noted fol
its anti-aircraft fire. There was ne
bravado or boasting. on the troor
decks. The men spent the last
hours smoking. writing letters home
to their women folk and putting the
finishing touches to arms and equip.
ment. A dice game whiled away
time on one ship.