Commando's Assault Up Sheer Cliffs

Taranaki Daily News, 22 August 1942, Page 3

Commando's Assault Up Sheer Cliffs

Daring operation surprised German batteries. Rec. 11.30 p.m. London, Aug. 20. , A few hours before they landed Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten told one party of Commandos: "Your task is most vital. If you do not knock out the howitzer battery the whole operation will go wrong. You must do it even at the greatest possible risk." "The Commandos did not fail," says the Daily Mail's war correspondent. "Our question 'Will the Germans oe ready for us?' was answered when a German was sighted at the top of a 100-foot cliff, at the bottom of which our assault craft grounded. The German machine-gun stuttered out as we blundered across the shingle to the foot of the cliff. Another Commando unit landed a little further to the west intending to take the battery from the rear while we made a frontal attack. "There were only two cracks in the cliff. Barbed-wire hopelessly blocked one and the other ended in an almost vertical staircase for holiday bathers. A single machine-gun could have held it against an army. The Commandos knew the Germans would not belfeve the raiders fool enough to try such a suicidal approach but the Commandos were soon creeping up the crack. Howitzers then began to fire at the fleet, which for the first time was perceived in the increasing light. "The Commandos cheered the arrival of the Royal Air Force planes. They had been told there would be two Royal Air Force fighters for every three men in the raiding force. A terrific explosion marked the end of the howiizer's ammunition dump and signalled the attack on the howitzers from the rear. The battery crew knew how to fight and German snipers accounted for a number of Commandos when crossing open ground in front of the battery. The battery commander was sniping from his office window when a Commando kicked open the door and sprayed him with tommy-gun bullets. Bayonets proved a most useful weapon. The Commandos raced in and out of the battery huts thrusting, stabbing and firing. When the Commandos left not a single {,'J.nner was left alive and the guns themselves were de6troyed." Combined Operations Headquarters has issued the following communique: