Dieppe Raid Veteran Dies

[MisterCairo]

One of the few remaining veterans of the August 19, 1942 Dieppe raid has died in Hamilton, Ontario.

95 year old Jack McFarland, who landed with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, became a police constable after the war.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/hamilton-dieppe-veteran-jack-mcfarland-dies-1.3458811


Of the 4,963 Canadians who embarked for the operation, only 2,210 returned to England, and many of these were wounded. There were 3,367 casualties, including 1,946 prisoners of war; 916 Canadians lost their lives.

Nearly 1000 Royal Marine commandos took part, along with 50 US Rangers, the first Americans to land in Europe during the war. There is research now to suggest that the raid, long considered a "test" to see how best to re-take Europe, was in fact a raid to capture Nazi enigma or other crypto material.

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/1942-dieppe-raid

 

[DNO]

That's a shame.

I remember when all the First World War veterans were dying off...now it's the last of the Second War veterans. Bound to happen, of course, but sad. When I was growing up everyone's father, uncles, and sometimes the mothers, served in the Second World War, mine included. Gradually, they all passed away. I used to know so many of them...veterans of the war in France and Germany, the Italian campaign, North Africa, and the Battle of the Atlantic...but now they are all gone.

 

[Stearmen]

I wonder if any of the American Rangers are still alive?

 

[MisterCairo]

I wonder if any of the American Rangers are still alive?

Possible but unlikely, three of the 49 who landed were killed that day:

The first Americans to see active combat in the European theater of World War II were forty-four enlisted men and five officers from the 1st Ranger Battalion. Dispersed among the Canadians and the British commandos, these men were the first American ground soldiers to see action against the Germans in the disastrous Dieppe Raid, officially known as Operation Rutter. Three Rangers were killed and several captured. The first American soldier killed in Europe in World War II was part of the Dieppe Raid, Ranger LieutenantE. V. Loustalot. During the mission, he took command after the British Captain leading the assault was killed. Loustalot scaled a steep cliff with his men, was wounded three times, but was eventually cut down by enemy crossfire in his attempts to reach the machine gun nest at the top of the cliff. (wikipedia)

This entry contains an error, it was officially OP JUBILEE, RUTTER was an earlier code name.

 

[Otter]

Jack was Damn lucky to get away with his skin intact from that debacle !

My uncle passed away a few weeks ago at 89. He was studying engineering at university while in the OTC and was drafted straight from there before his course finished. They awarded him his degree but it always irked him he never earned it properly and did an Open University math degree when he was in his 70's.
He spent his war in Burma, in the Royal Engineers, in the jungle maintaining been carriers. When he demobbed in 46 he refused to leave the UK again until the late 1980's.

 

[DNO]

There is research now to suggest that the raid, long considered a "test" to see how best to re-take Europe, was in fact a raid to capture Nazi enigma or other crypto material.

The new theory suggesting that the raid was staged to grab an enigma machine probably makes more sense than any of the other reasons I've encountered.

Just picked up John Mellor's book on Dieppe today. Every time I see those photos of the Churchill tanks stuck on that pebble beach, I shudder.

 

[Otter]

Tankers worst nightmare; bogged down under enemy fire.

 

[MisterCairo]

Tankers worst nightmare; bogged down under enemy fire.

I visited Dieppe with my father back in 1987. The "pebbles" on the beach were often the size of your fist; it was difficult to walk on it. Can't imagine trying to drive or fight your way up it.