45. On the occasion of Ryder’s investiture, Mountbatten wrote: “I have never had more pleasure in writing to congratulate anybody than in writing to you for your grandly earned Victoria Cross. Alas, so few of the V.C.s of this war have been given to living people and it is essential for the younger officers and men coming along to have a few heroes to look up to who are still in the land of the living. I consider your V.C. will have achieved a double purpose: firstly, it is the greatest compliment that could be paid to the whole of your force; secondly, it will centre round it all the enthusiasm for the fighting spirit which is only awaiting an outlet in this country.” (Hopton, Reluctant Hero, 4372–77)
46. Hopton, Reluctant Hero, 4399.
47. Phillips, Greatest Raid of All, xvii.
EIGHT: “AUTHORIZED LOOTERS”
1. “History of 30 AU,” TNA ADM 223/500.
2. The only time the commandos came under Mountbatten’s control was when they were attached to his headquarters for operational purposes by the War Office under orders from the chiefs of staff.
3. After Dieppe, the title for A Commando was changed to No. 40 Royal Marine Commando.
4. Dr. Anthony King, “The Ethos of the Royal Marines: Precise Application of Will” (report, Department of Sociology, University of Exeter, May 2004).
5. Ibid.
6. Globe and Laurel, August 1942, 75, quoted in King, “Ethos of the Royal Marines.”
7. No. 40 Royal Marine Commando, “War Diary,” TNA ADM 202/87.
8. Jock Farmer, JOCK of 40 Royal Marine Commando: My Life from Start to Finish (Shanklin Chine: Shanklin Chine Publishers, 2007).
9. R.E.D. Ryder, unpublished memoirs, courtesy of Mr. Lisle Ryder.
10. Farmer, JOCK.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Robin Neillands, By Sea and Land (Barnsley, U.K.: Pen and Sword, 2004), 20.
15. Ibid.
16. King, “Ethos of the Royal Marines.”
17. “A History of 30 Commando (Latterly Called 30 Assault Unit and 30 Advanced Unit),” TNA ADM 223/214, ch. 2; Paul McGrath interview for DU.
18. Farmer, JOCK.
19. John Kruthoffer to Robin Neillands, 25 March 1986, Robin Neillands Papers, RMM.
20. I.G. Aylen, “Recollections of 30 Assault Unit,” Naval Review 65, no. 4 (1977): 318.
21. “Proposal for Naval Intelligence Commando,” 20 March 1942, TNA ADM 223/500.
22. The unit was also known during the war by several cover names, such as the Special Engineer Unit, No. 30 Commando and 30 Advanced Unit.
23. “Proposal for Naval Intelligence Commando.”
24. Ibid.
25. “A History of 30 Commando (Latterly Called 30 Assault Unit and 30 Advanced Unit),” ch. 2, TNA ADM 223/214.
26. “Proposal for Naval Intelligence Command,” 20 March 1942, TNA ADM 223/500; “A History of 30 Commando (Latterly Called 30 Assault Unit and 30 Advanced Unit), ch. 2, ADM 223/214.
27. “A History of 30 Commando.” What the report missed was that this unit was part of a larger group of intelligence commandos that the Germans had employed since the invasions of Poland and later France, where they scored great success capturing material left behind by the fleeing Allied armies in Paris and in naval facilities all along the coast.
28. It was Godfrey’s successor, Admiral Edmund Rushbrooke, who coined this telling phrase. Memo “No. 30 Commando,” 4 November 1942, TNA ADM 223/500.
29. “Proposal for Naval Intelligence Command.”
30. Ibid.
31. Ben Macintyre, For Your Eyes Only (London: Bloomsbury, 2012), 259. Kindle edition.
32. “A History of 30 Commando.”
33. Adrian Smith, Mountbatten: Apprentice Warlord (London: IB Tauris, 2010). Kindle edition.
34. Casa Maury to Fleming, 1 April 1942, TNA ADM 223/500.
35. Godfrey to Campbell, Drake and Fleming, 13 April 1942, TNA ADM 223/500.
NINE: DARKNESS TO DAYLIGHT
1. There is no evidence of the Gare Maritime in Dieppe today; it was demolished in 1995 to make way for a promenade and a series of quayside restaurants and cafés.
2. The streets were named in honour of First World War field marshal Ferdinand Foch, who commanded the French army at the end of the war, and Verdun, the site of a ten-month bloodletting battle of attrition in 1916 that had a profound effect on France and its culture. As historian Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau suggests, “You can’t understand France without understanding Verdun.” Community Television of Southern California, “The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century: Verdun—‘The Battle of France,’ ” http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/historian/hist_audoin_03_verdun.html (accessed May 5, 2013).
3. J.H. Godfrey, “Formation of the Situation Report Centre of the JIC,” 18 August 1942, TNA ADM 223/107.
4. Ibid.
5. Robin Neillands, The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition (London: Aurum Press, 2005), 163.
6. Naval Section Memorandum No. 75 “State of Work,” 25 September 1942, TNA HW 8/158.
7. TNA HW 18/13; HW 18/35; ADM 223/94.
8. TNA DEFE 2/550. Although “NID” (Naval Intelligence Division) appears at the top of the document, subsequent messages make reference to “DNI” (Director of Naval Intelligence) as the originator of the message. Given the fact that both are acronyms, I assumed that the latter was a mistake until subsequent documents spelled it out in no uncertain terms. In other words, the Director of Naval Intelligence—in this case Godfrey, or Fleming on his behalf—was the author of the special inquiry. See DEFE 2/542.
9. Addendum No. 1, TNA DEFE 2/550. Although this document lists the originator as NID, a subsequent mention spells out that it came from the “Director of Naval Intelligence,” precluding any typographical confusion over DNI/NID.
10. Addendum No. 9, TNA AIR 8/896.
11. “Naval Commander Channel Coast: First Report on Dieppe Operation,” 20 August 1942, LAC RG 24, vol. 20,488.
12. “Intelligence Control Station France: Evaluation of Dieppe Operation,” 12 September 1942, LAC RG 24, vol. 20,488.
13. Combined Operations, Intelligence Section, Report CB 04157 F (I) Addendum No. 9, TNA AIR 8/896.
14. “Minutes of a Meeting Held at Combined Operations Headquarters at 1100 hrs 14/4/42 to Discuss Operation Rutter,” TNA DEFE 2/546. For Haydon, see TNA WO 373/93.
15. TNA DEFE 2/542.
16. Battle Summary No. 33: “Raid on Dieppe, August 19th 1942” (1946), 2, TNA ADM 234/354.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Built in 1938 in Scotland, the vessel was commissioned in spring 1940 and went straight into battle with De Costobadie at the helm during the Dunkirk evacuation, an action in which he earned the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery.
20. TNA ADM 223/479.
21. Special Information Centre, Offensive Operations, 1942 COS (42) 144th, TNA CAB 121/368.
22. Special Information Centre, Offensive Operations, “1942 Report by CinC Home Forces, AOC-in-C Fighter Command and Chief of Combined Operations,” 28 March 1942, TNA CAB 121/368.
23. TNA AIR 20/5429.
24. Naval Section Memo No. 26, 20 August 1942 and 24 August 1942, TNA HW 8/26.
25. Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, War Diaries 1939–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 257; Adrian Smith, Mountbatten: Apprentice Warlord (London: IB Tauris, 2010). Kindle edition.
TEN: ALL THE KING’S MEN
1. Shane B. Schreiber, Shock Army of the British Empire: The Canadian Corps in the Last 100 Days of the Great War (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 1997).
2. Peter Henshaw, “The Dieppe Raid: A Product of Misplaced Canadian Nationalism?” Canadian Historical Review 77, no. 2 (1996): 250–66; John Nelson Rickard, The Politics of Command: Lieutenant General A.G.L. McNaughton and the Canadian Army, 1939–1943 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010); Paul Douglas Dickson, A Thoroughly Canadian General: A Biography of General H.D.G. Crerar (Toro
nto: University of Toronto Press, 2007); Dean Oliver, “Historiography, Generalship and Harry Crerar,” in Lieutenant-Colonel Bernd Horn and Stephen Harris, eds., Warrior Chiefs: Perspectives on Senior Canadian Military Leaders (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2001); J.L. Granatstein, The Generals: The Canadian Army’s Senior Commanders in the Second World War (Toronto: Stoddart, 1993).
3. “Notes on a Conference Held on 6 Mar 42,” LAC RG 24, vol. 10,765; Crerar to Lieutenant General B.L. Montgomery, 5 February 1942; “Memorandum on Visit of Lt-Gen B.C.T. Paget, GOC, SE Command, to Comd Cdn Corps, at 1500hrs, 6 Sept 1941,” LAC RG 24, vol. 10,765.
4. Mountbatten to Guy Simonds, 4 February 1969, LAC Hughes-Hallett Papers.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Terence Robertson, Dieppe: The Shame and the Glory (London: Pan Books, 1965), 55.
8. Wade Davis, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest (Toronto: Knopf, 2011). Mallory’s body remained undiscovered for seventy-five years, until 1999, when an expedition that had set out to search for the climbers’ remains found clothing they could identify on a slope eight hundred vertical feet from the summit. Whether Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, reached the summit before they died remains a subject of continuing speculation.
9. TNA ADM 196/92.
10. Adrian Smith, Mountbatten: Apprentice Warlord (London: IB Tauris, 2010), 207. Kindle edition.
11. Baillie-Grohman to Mountbatten, 14 September 1942, NMM GRO/29.
12. Memo from Baillie-Grohman to Mountbatten, 10 July 1942, NMM GRO/29. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the files so far released to confirm or dispel the suggestion that Baillie-Grohman was indeed referring to Ian Fleming.
13. Dickson, A Thoroughly Canadian General, 203.
14. Granatstein, The Generals, 32.
15. Admiral William James, Portsmouth Letters (London: Macmillan, 1946), 173–74.
16. John Hughes-Hallett, “Before I Forget,” 155, Hughes-Hallett Papers, LAC MG30-E463.
17. Ibid., 135.
18. CMHQ Report No. 159, “Operation Jubilee, The Raid on Dieppe, Aug. 19: Additional Information on Planning,” 4, DHH.
19. CMHQ Report No. 100, “Operation Jubilee, Part I: Preliminaries of the Operation,” DHH.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. George Ronald, interview with General Hamilton Roberts, c. 1962, George Ronald Papers, LAC MG30-E507.
23. Battle Summary No. 33: “Raid on Dieppe, August 19th 1942” (1946), 5, TNA ADM 234/354.
24. CMHQ Report No. 101, 34, DHH.
25. Richard Hopton, correspondence with author, August 2012.
26. R.E.D. Ryder, unpublished memoirs.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
ELEVEN: DIEPPE BY DESIGN
1. J.H. Godfrey, note, “30 AU,” 5 September 1970, TNA ADM 223/214.
2. Rear Admiral Godfrey DNI to Brig. Kirkman, AVM Medhurst, Brig. Menzies, Brig. Petrie with copy to JIC, 2 June 1942, TNA ADM 223/500.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid. The pinch aspect of Operation Rutter seems to have been in place right from the start: Godfrey had been interested in the Hôtel Moderne as soon as Dieppe came under consideration. His request in this letter was not operational but, rather, administrative. In other words, the wheels were already in motion to include a force like this one on the raid as an “experiment.” Godfrey was looking for official “logistical” sanction to create a standing unit, and his request should not be confused with one for an operational nod.
5. “A History of 30 Commando (Latterly Called 30 Assault Unit and 30 Advanced Unit),” ch. 1, TNA ADM 223/214.
6. Ibid. Very little, if anything, is known of these units except for a brief passage that appears in this history.
7. “RM Commando Exercise Operational Order No. 8,” 22 June 1942, No. 40 Royal Marine Commando War Diary, TNA ADM 202/87.
8. Ibid.
9. Paul McGrath, The Dieppe Raid, Wednesday 19th August 1942: Recollections of W.P. McGrath DSM, self-published.
10. “RM Commando Exercise Operational Order No. 8.”
11. “History of 30 AU,” Part II, Section 3, Intelligence Briefing and Planning for 30 Commando/30 Assault Unit, TNA ADM 223/500. Although the Royal Marine Commando was known only as A Commando at this time, it was re-designated as No. 40 Royal Marine Commando immediately after the raid—a name it still has today. Thereafter, all paperwork, war diaries and references to A Commando were changed to reflect its new name, No. 40 Royal Marine Commando, although technically it did not exist as such at the time.
12. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Dieppe Raid, McGrath wrote a short memoir about his exploits for the Royal Marine Association. He later self-published it under the title The Dieppe Raid, Wednesday 19th August 1942: Recollections of W.P. McGrath DSM.
13. McGrath, Dieppe Raid.
14. No. 40 Royal Marine Commando, “War Diary,” February 1942, TNA ADM 202/87.
15. Miles Huntington-Whiteley, interview for DU.
16. Paul McGrath, interview for DU.
17. “History of 30 AU,” Part II, Section 3.
18. “Technical Intelligence and the Processing of Captured Documents,” 67–68, TNA HW 43/23.
19. Godfrey Edward Wildman-Lushington to Chiefs of Staff, 8 June 1942, TNA CAB 121/364.
20. “CCO/SOE Liaison Officer’s Report No. 78 date 4/5/42 0900hrs,” TNA HS 8/819. In his report, the liaison officer notes that as of this date, no firm plan has been made, no assistance from SOE has been asked for with the exception of targeting intelligence, and that “a great deal hangs on the tank exits from the main beach of the town.”
21. Search Plan, app. L, TNA WO 252/108.
22. “Considerations affecting Operation Rutter and the Clarification of this plan to be known as Rutter II,” 7 July 1942, LAC RG 24, vol. 10,750.
23. Ibid.; “Raids 2nd Canadian Division RUTTER II: Considerations affecting Operation Rutter and the Modification of this plan to be known as Rutter II,” LAC RG 24, vol. 10,750.
24. “Notes on Meeting Held Inf[orming] Bde [Brigades] about Forthcoming Operation ‘Rutter,’ ” 27 June 1942, LAC RG 24, vol. 10,872, File 252C2 (D37) Rutter—Generally.
25. “Operation Rutter Detailed Military Plan Phase IIB Attack on Trawlers,” LAC RG 24, vol. 10,765.
26. “War Diary Essex Scottish,” August 1942, app. VI, LAC RG 24, vol. 17,513.
27. “Operation Rutter Detailed Military Plan Phase IIB Attack on Trawlers.”
28. “Notes on a Conference of Navy, Essex Scot, Tanks, Engrs and RM Commando 28/’06/42,” LAC RG 24, vol. 10,872, file 252C2 (D37) Rutter—Generally.
29. Ibid.
30. “Royal Marine Commando Operational Orders No. 8 Operation Rutter June 30 1942 and No. 9 Operation Jubilee August 15 1942,” TNA ADM 1/11986.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. “Operation Rutter: Section III—Special Instructions June 22, 1942,” TNA ADM 179/220. This portion, hastily pencilled in, called for the R-boat to rendezvous with Calpe, but this seems to be an error for Fernie.
35. “Operation Rutter, Minutes of 1st Meeting of the Combined Force Commanders at Combined Operations Headquarters on June 1st 1942,” TNA DEFE 2/546.
36. Ibid.
37. “Notes on Meeting Held Inf[orming] Bde [Brigades] about Forthcoming Operation ‘Rutter.’ ”
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid.
TWELVE: ALL ESSENTIAL FEATURES
1. R.E.D. Ryder, unpublished memoirs.
2. Ibid.
3. Parsons, correspondence with author.
4. Ibid.
5. TNA ADM 202/87; Parsons, correspondence with author.
6. Beth Crumley, “A Roomful of Military Historians,” Marine Corps Association & Foundation, http://www.mca-marines.org/blog/beth-crumley/2011/06/20/roomful-military-historians-0 (accessed August 12, 2013).
7. “Brit spymaster reveals tensions with ‘gangster’
Hoover in WW2,” Windsor Star, October 27, 2012, http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=c6c72f15-311c-4f51-9f6b-a013f6d2f178 (accessed August 13, 2013).
8. David Stafford, Roosevelt & Churchill: Men of Secrets (London: Thistle Publishing, 2013), 1296–99. Kindle edition.
9. Joseph E. Persico, Roosevelt’s Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage (New York: Random House, 2001), 1648–51. Kindle edition.
10. Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, “COI Came First,” https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/oss/art02.htm (accessed August 12, 2013).
11. Thomas F. Troy, “Donovan’s Original Marching Orders” (originally published 1973), Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol17no2/pdf/v17i2a05p.pdf (accessed August 12, 2013).
12. Sig Rosenblum, Spymaster: “Wild Bill” Donovan, Father of the CIA (Hampton Hill, 2008), 639–43. Kindle edition.
13. Ibid., 1414.
14. Crumley, “A Roomful of Military Historians.”
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today (New York: Penguin Press, 2012), 26. Kindle edition.
18. Telegram from Joint Staff Mission Washington to General Ismay, 9 April 1942, TNA DEFE 2/908.
19. Ismay to Mountbatten, 9 April 1942, TNA DEFE 2/908.
20. Birch to DD(s), 1 August 1942, TNA HW 57/9.
21. “OIC and NID Summaries Naval Section German Effort Against North Russian Convoy Routes,” TNA ADM 223/3.
22. Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 4, The Hinge of Fate (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 237.
23. Hinsley to OIC, “Comments on ZTPG Series of German Naval Messages 0115hrs 04/07/42,” HW 18/158.
24. Ibid.; and Hinsley to OIC, “Comments on ZTPG Series of German Naval Messages 0305hrs 04/07/42,” HW 18/158.
25. Brian Loring Villa, Unauthorized Action: Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
26. Extract from COS (42) 355, 23 December 1942, TNA ADM 223/299.
One Day in August Page 41