Started new career in August 2019 to commemorate the beginning of WWII, 80 years before ...
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Saturday, 01 August 1942 - Paris, Avenue Maréchal Maunoury
Boats are equipped with the new FuMB System R-600 (new generation of Metox Receivers, also called "Biscay Cross").
Tuesday, 18 August - Wednesday, 19 August 1942
Operation 'Jubilee' - Attack on Dieppe
Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations, wanted to finally strike continental Europe and perhaps even cause Germany to reinforce the French coast with troops destined for the Eastern Front, therefore alleviating pressure off of the Soviet troops.
The Operation Jubilee, called for a landing at Dieppe on the French coast, hold beach head for 12 hours while commando units attacked a nearby German HQ and bring back German officers for interrogation, and then the entire force would retreat back to England.
On 18 Aug 1942, 237 ships left various ports in Britain for the Dieppe area, including eight destroyers but no battleships (the Admiralty did not wish to risk losing any heavy ships). The convoy carried 5,000 Canadian, 1,000 British, and 50 American troops; it was escorted by 74 squadrons of aircraft. A stroke of bad luck brought the Allied fleet in the path of a German convoy; the convoy was quickly driven off, but German defenses were alerted.
80% of the Allied fleet were destroyed by the alerted German coastal defenses. Only a few commandos reached their landing spots on 19 Aug, but they were able to improvise their plans; instead of destroying the coastal artillery, they managed to kill many of the gun crews by sniper fire and disabled the artillery nevertheless.
The Canadian landing at Puys failed completely, the well-placed German forces drove off the Canadian landing, killing roughly half the landing force (225) and captured the other half (264), allowing only 33 to escape back to England.
At Pourville, Canadian and British troops made their landing, but were quickly driven back to the sea by fierce German defenses after losing 141 men.
As for the main assault, some of the landing forces were held at the beach by heavy fire, while some of the tanks either did not make it to the shore or were disabled by anti-tank traps. The reserve forces were also committed too early due to communications problems.
In all, the operation met with failure due to a number of reasons. However, if the 1,027 men lost (900 of whom were Canadian) and 2,340 captured (again, with a bulk being Canadian) had achieved one objective, it was giving Allied command a valuable, if costly, lesson on amphibious operations.
Mountbatten himself will later say that "for every soldier who died at Dieppe, ten were saved on D-Day". While this statement may be out of Mountbatten's attempt to save his credibility, it indeed will give the United States valuable lesson of the difficulty of assaulting a defended port, as it might even directly influence General Eisenhower's decision to strike at other beaches, e.g., at Normandy, instead of the nearby port city of Cherbourg (or other targets).
KvtKpt.& A I op
(convoy staff officer)