Raid on Dieppe.

Hello,
I just finished reading Brian Loring Villa's "Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid 1942".
Does anyone have any thoughts on the contents? Particularly on Mountbatten's role?
Do any other books come to mind?
I am very keen to better understand the experience of the enlisted soldiers in No. 4 Commando and the specifically the Raid.
Any suggestions?
Finally, bearing in mind the intensity of the raid, is it fair to assume that a lot the British soldiers would have been left with some psychological consequences?
With thanks,
Dr. Alexander Ross

my father was in the dieppe raid in 45 commando i don't know much about the politics behind it but i do know lieutenant huntingdon-whitely was chosen because of his connections to the government meaning he was related to stanley baldwin ...and he kept a good secret from what I've read it was a bit of a cock up
my father was wounded there and captured and spent the rest of the war at altengrabow in germany as a pow

Thanks for sharing.
Was that No.4 Commando or 5? Not sure there was a 45.
Did your father mention anything else about why it was a disaster?
The thing is that a lot has been written about Mountbatten and Hughes-Hallett's involvement, but very little about the enlisted men.
I am trying to get a better understanding of their experience.
Did your father ever refer to any psychological "scars" as a result of the experience?
For instance, a good friend of mine was a door gunner in a Huey in Vietnam. To his dying day he slept with a B.A.R. and was never the same...

Matt's father was in the first Royal Marine Commando unit raised in February 1942 and designated at that time simply as the 'RM Commando'. It remained with this title until after the Dieppe raid after which Matts father was taken prisoner of war. It was only when a second RM Commando unit was raised that it changed it's designation firstly to 'A' RM Commando, with the new one called 'B' RM Commando. Very quickly after this they were both re designated as 40RM Commando and 41RM Commando respectively.

Many people since the war just refer to 40RM Commando at Dieppe probably for convenience.

For those interested the entire 40RM Commando War Diary is available for free download at the National Archives during the Lockdown period as are all of their online digitised files. All you have to do is register.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2954419

I should have added that there are about 100 recorded interviews online of those who took part. They are held by the Imperial War Museum. Here are the ones that mention Dieppe:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=Dieppe+raid&pageSize=30&media-records=records-with-media&style=list&filters%5BwebCategory%5D%5BSound%5D=on&filters%5BperiodString%5D%5BSecond+World+War%5D=on

Thanks very much Pete.
Very useful information.

Alexander

I have sent you a private message.

Bill

Thanks Pete for the information about the interviews.

Will go through them.

Bill

Brilliant! Thank you Bill.
Does the name: Geoffrey Langlands mean anything to you?
He was part of No. 4 and on the raid, somehow he ended up taking a lot of the photographs used in the Will Fowler book.
Best wishes,
Alexander

Alexander

No have not come across him.

He is on the Dieppe No 4 list which i will email to you. .
5675016 Sgt. Langlands G. Somerset L.I.

Did you know on here you can put a name in on the Google search at the top of the forum and all the links will come up?

Bill

A couple of links on our website with more about Geoffrey Langlands who passed away on 2nd January 2019 aged 101.

http://forum.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/1713.page

and

http://forum.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/6304.page

Thanks Pete.

Bill

Thank you both Bill and Pete.
Very kind of you.
I will update you on my research as I go along.
All best,
Alexander

That will be very interesting Alexander.

Best wishes.

Bill

Good morning.
Has anyone seen the following films?
Dieppe 1942 (1979) Documentary (Dir. Terence Macartney-Filgate) and Dieppe (1993) TV Movie, Director: John N. Smith.
If so, what did you think?
Would you know how to get hold of them?
Thank you.
Alexander