Dieppe Raid

[Gil Boyd]

Bob,

It was Operation Biting, the pre cursor to Dieppe, also known as the Bruneval Raid, which was a British Combined Operations raid on a German coastal radar installation at Bruneval in northern France, on the night of 27–28 February 1942.
It was masterminded, planned and well executed by Major John Frost who was later at Arnhem to lead from the front yet again to great aclaim.
C Company of the newly formed 2 PARA and an RAF Boffin called Flight Sergeant Cox parachuted into the location on top of the cliff, took apart the most important piece of the Wurzberg radar unit that the British needed to ensure theirs had the same effect against the waves of German Bombers that continually bombarded English Towns with such immunity.

Our radar system was very basic, and it was known the Germans had mastered short and long wave interceptions, clearly forecasting ALL our day and night time raids, and sending up interceptors to curtail Bomber Command and the USA's 8th Airforce attacks with a great deal of success.

It was this successful raid I believe, that gave Churchill his "head".
Against advice from Lord Mountbatten, Head of Combined Operations, Churchill issued orders to get the job done regardless.
I have read the actual orders of those two nights in February 1942 many times at our museum, as it was, the Parachute Regiments very first Battle Honour after formation during WW2.

This was really ideal for a Commando raid, but one has to assume a seaborne attack by landing craft could have been a lot harder to achieve with the cliffs before them, so a parachute drop was favoured by Major Johnny Frost which switched it to the newly formed Parachute Regiment.
They were successfully picked up as well by landing craft with the most valuable prize of prisoners and the Wurzberg radar controller.