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Description
The South Saskatchewan Regiment and other units involved in the Dieppe Landing spent several months on the Isle of Wight preparing for the attack.
Transcription
Those units who took part in the raid, were moved from the mainland of Southern England to the Isle of Wight at a certain month and we were there for training, for I think about three months before the raid. And that, that would make it July, August. I guess we were there from June to August.
Interviewer: Training hard for an amphibious landing.
Right.
Interviewer: Okay
With a, a definite recognition that we were going to be in action at the end of this.
Interviewer: So your men now knew that something...
Not the men.
Interviewer: No, okay. Who knew at this stage?
I knew.
Interviewer: You were still the only one who knew for sure?
Yes, and I have always thought that was a mistake. That my officers should also known. Cause I remember saying to one of them “Is your unit, is your company battle worthy? ” And he, this company commander said “ Oh yes sir.” He didn’t...I was new to him too, like I guess the word was...But the impression I got was that, well, he said...I think he, he expressed “What do you mean by that? ” And I said “Are you ready to go into action tomorrow against the Germans? ” And he said “Well there may be a few things I’d like to do.” So I said, “When are you going to do them? ” You see, the commanding officers were informed that this was a real raid, but we were sworn to secrecy. We were not to tell anyone, even in the battalion. And that, this was done to, to ensure..
Interviewer: That the enemy didn’t find out.
The enemy didn’t find out. Well intended, but I thought it was a mistake.