Professor of Naval History, Eric Grove, unpicks the chaos of the landings at Dieppe, and the dramatic and costly evacuation of the remnants of the valiant assault force.
SMOKE, SHELLS & CHAOS
The assault force, on paper, looked potent. Some 240 ships in all, not including small landing craft. It contained eight Hunt-class destroyers - two acting as command ships. Two minesweeper flotillas were also involved, with nine Landing Ship, Infantry (LSI) (carrying 75 landing craft), seven groups of 78 American-built Landing Craft, Personnel (Large) (LCP(L)), two flotillas of 24 Landing Craft, Tank (LCT), and six ‘Landing Craft, Flak’ (LCF), converted LCTs with their ramp welded shut and a deck fitted. First used at Dieppe, they were typically armed with eight 20mm Oerlikon cannon and four 2Pdr ‘pom-poms’. There was an additional escort of 12 motor gunboats (MGBs), four steam gunboats (SGBs) and 20 motor launches (ML). A Royal Marine Commando, including a unit tasked with capturing code material, was to be landed in Dieppe harbour by the heavilyarmed river gunboat Locust and Free French submarine hunters. Most of these assets formed Group 13 led by the sloop A…
