I was reading in the paper today, about the Dieppe Raids..and how according to a retired officer of the day. Was actually meant to test German Radar. A Radar specialist was brought along, who was to be shot if it looked like he would be captured..
This is very interesting, Id like to hear what OOE has to say about this. hear is the article
This is very interesting, Id like to hear what OOE has to say about this. hear is the article
Not their finest hour
James Leasor's passing in Wiltshire, England, at age 83, went largely unnoticed, as did his shocking book on the real reason for the ill-fated Dieppe Raid in August 1942.
His 1975 book, Green Beach, revealed for the first time that the raid was really a feint and the real purpose was to examine German radar and communications landlines.
He quoted Lt.-Col. Cecil Merritt, a Victoria Cross recipient, as confirming his assertion.
Merritt served with the South Saskatchewan Regiment and one of his patrols -- 14 men in all -- was charged with protecting the radar expert, but also to kill him if he was in danger of falling into enemy hands.
My immediate reaction was that this was pretty far-fetched. So I decided to phone the organ grinder. I phoned my old friend "Cece" Merritt in Vancouver and he confirmed every word of Leasor's claims.
James Leasor was no stranger to war. He was in the water for six hours when his troop ship was split in half by an enemy attack. He was hurled through the air and wounded by a Japanese shell while leading a patrol into a supposedly deserted village in Burma.
After the war, Leasor was Lord Beaverbrook's Man Friday and, perhaps, because of the Canadian connection, he was kind enough to take my phone call.
I told him of my conversation with Merritt and asked him what, if any, official reaction had been.
His reply: "None!"
He told me that even the name of the radar specialist was still clouded in secrecy and that the military fell back on the Official Secrets Act. All he was ever able to find out was that the man was an RAF signals sergeant.
Leasor could not find out if he was killed, wounded, taken prisoner or if he was still alive in England.
The Dieppe Raid -- "Operation Jubilee" -- was not one of Lord Louis Mountbatten's or Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's finest nine hours.
CHECK LANDLINES
If all they wanted to accomplish was to check the state of the landlines, why didn't they just set a dinghy load of commandos ashore with the radar expert under cover of darkness?
More than 6,000 troops -- 4,963 of them Canadians -- participated in the raid on a heavily defended coastal port. There was no covering aerial bombardment and no covering artillery fire from ships or landing craft.
When the nine-hour debacle was over there were 3,367 men on the beach, dead or captured, and 2,752 were Canadians.
James Leasor's passing in Wiltshire, England, at age 83, went largely unnoticed, as did his shocking book on the real reason for the ill-fated Dieppe Raid in August 1942.
His 1975 book, Green Beach, revealed for the first time that the raid was really a feint and the real purpose was to examine German radar and communications landlines.
He quoted Lt.-Col. Cecil Merritt, a Victoria Cross recipient, as confirming his assertion.
Merritt served with the South Saskatchewan Regiment and one of his patrols -- 14 men in all -- was charged with protecting the radar expert, but also to kill him if he was in danger of falling into enemy hands.
My immediate reaction was that this was pretty far-fetched. So I decided to phone the organ grinder. I phoned my old friend "Cece" Merritt in Vancouver and he confirmed every word of Leasor's claims.
James Leasor was no stranger to war. He was in the water for six hours when his troop ship was split in half by an enemy attack. He was hurled through the air and wounded by a Japanese shell while leading a patrol into a supposedly deserted village in Burma.
After the war, Leasor was Lord Beaverbrook's Man Friday and, perhaps, because of the Canadian connection, he was kind enough to take my phone call.
I told him of my conversation with Merritt and asked him what, if any, official reaction had been.
His reply: "None!"
He told me that even the name of the radar specialist was still clouded in secrecy and that the military fell back on the Official Secrets Act. All he was ever able to find out was that the man was an RAF signals sergeant.
Leasor could not find out if he was killed, wounded, taken prisoner or if he was still alive in England.
The Dieppe Raid -- "Operation Jubilee" -- was not one of Lord Louis Mountbatten's or Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's finest nine hours.
CHECK LANDLINES
If all they wanted to accomplish was to check the state of the landlines, why didn't they just set a dinghy load of commandos ashore with the radar expert under cover of darkness?
More than 6,000 troops -- 4,963 of them Canadians -- participated in the raid on a heavily defended coastal port. There was no covering aerial bombardment and no covering artillery fire from ships or landing craft.
When the nine-hour debacle was over there were 3,367 men on the beach, dead or captured, and 2,752 were Canadians.
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