The Operational Plan is Given
The Dieppe Raid
The Operational Plan is Given
Transcript
Interviewer: Were you told what the operational plan
for the regiment was or were you told what your particular
section, what was your section told to do?
Well, with the 3 inch mortar we were attached to C Company.
And they were to help us with our bombs and mortar
over this wall, which was yay high.
Interviewer: Was that the sea wall?
Yes, that was a sea wall, and we were to go up
to some German barracks
that the tanks, the Calgary tanks were proceeding us to and
they were gonna go in, and go through them and then
we were gonna set up the mortar and as they ran out, kill them.
Of course we never got off the beach. Either did the tanks.
Interviewer: Why did the tanks not get off the beach?
Well, because the stones on them, the stones were like that
and they got in between the treads and broke the treads.
And then of course,
the heavy artillery was knocking the treads off them too.
You know they were getting hit from the shore,
and we had Stuka's coming down, bombing them, blasting them.
I don't know how the one next to me lost its tread.
I mean with all the noise it could have been a bomb
or it could have been a shell, or it could have been stones
but, most of the tanks that were on the beach,
their tracks were off.
Interviewer: Do you remember what time of the morning it was
that you landed?
Yeah, it would be about an area of 6 o'clock.
Interviewer: And what was the, do you now know
what the overall plan was? Were you men supposed to stay
a certain period of time and than be taken off?
Yeah, I knew we were, I think we were supposed to stay there
until where we were I think until about noon
and then we had to withdraw. Go back. Which we did,
but not from where we should have been, alright.
We withdrew from where we landed because
we couldn't get any further from where we were
because the fire was too heavy. And we lost most of our men.
Interviewer: Where did you men take cover?
We didn't have any cover,
other than there was a Bren gun carrier on my right
but it offered very little cover. And of course the tank
on my left, but there was nothing in front of us
or nothing behind us or nothing above,
they were just ya know.
Interviewer: Did any of the men get to the sea wall?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Interviewer: Did they take cover behind the sea wall?
Behind the sea wall, yeah.
Most of the dead were at the sea wall.
That's, that would be the limit of where they got,
except for a few who did get into the town,
some did get into the town.
Interviewer: But you and the men that you were with
in your section primarily took cover
behind the Bren gun carrier and a tank?
No, we weren't behind it, we were beside it.
Interviewer: Beside it.
Mm. But it probably afforded a little cover, but not much.
Interviewer: From what direction was the fire coming?
From head on. Of course and from the right, they had guns on
the cliffs to the right of us, and guns on the cliffs to the left
and they had machine guns in the buildings in front of us.
Which was pretty well covered. Of course, mind you they had a
covering fire laid down long before we landed, you know,
I mean we used to do that when we trained. You know, you
could take an area and that would be sort of be like a no mans
Description
Mr. Curry outlines the operational plan given to his section for the Dieppe Raid.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 04:03
- Person Interviewed:
- Kenneth Curry
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Europe
- Battle/Campaign:
- Dieppe
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- Royal Hamilton Light Infantry
- Date modified: