COMPLETE SURPRISE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1942, Page 3

COMPLETE SURPRISE

SPRUNG ON GERMANS STORY OF THE BOULOGNE RAID. INITIATIVE HELD THROUGHOUT BY LANDING FORCE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 22. Describing the operation as “another singeing of Hitler’s moustache,” a Reuter’s war correspondent on board a naval light craft during the British raid on the Boulogne area said the Germans were taken completely by surprise and the commandos held the initiative all the time.

He said that the element of surprise enabled the force of commandos, led by Major Lord Lovat, to carry out a two-hour reconnaissance raid with negligible casualties. The Germans, who were evidently not contemplating a landing, engaged the covering light force with German flak ships and smaller craft and, with the attention of the defences distracted, the commandos swept across several hundred yards to the safety of sand dunes at the top of the beach. They had gained the initiative and held it. ADVANCE FROM BEACH. Veiled in light mist, the landing craft crept silently inshore and the commandos dropped swiftly and quietly into the shallows through which they had to wade to the beach. Searchlights began to flicker. The Nazi defenders, perhaps with memories of Bruneval and St. Nazaire, were showing signs of disquiet. Whistles sounded. They could be heard by the advancing troops, and in the words of Lord Lovat that was the moment when they might have had to face withering machinegun fire as they raced to the dunes.

It was then that the naval force of light craft lying off shore to re-embark the raiders, was engaged by flak ships and smaller craft. The commandos on the beach, some a fair distance away, despite their own job, found their attention caught by the display of “fire works.” Equally caught was the attention of the German beach defenders, who presumably had not grasped the fact that a landing had been made. So distracted were they, that the commandos had swept across the sand and were at the beach wire before they met machine-gun fire. “We were lucky,” declared Lord Lovat.

By now, however, the raiders had obtained the initiative, and till the withdrawal the Germans were always fighting where they were compelled to. “We penetrated the enemy defences over a frontage of 800 yards. Much of the machine-gun fire enfiladed on the beach went over our heads,” said one patrol leader. When fully aware that a raid was being made, the Germans fired a shower of Verey lights. The first German encountered was a one-man patrol, who, swinging a torch, shouted “Hatten.” Tommy-guns opened up on him. The torch went out and the raiders heard no more from him. British patrols went out and made contact with enemy strong points, cutting communications and thereby preventing reinforcements being sent for.

“The Germans in their pillboxes had not the foggiest idea where we were and what we were doing,” said another patrol leader.

EVERY MAN WITHDRAWN. After spending two hours on enemyoccupied territory, every man was withdrawn with his weapons. Many of the commando men took part in the first Lofoten raid a little more than a year ago, and most of the naval personnel had been engaged in the Bruneval radio-location post raid about two months ago. Unlike some commando forces this one had no geographical or regimental unity. “There were 53 regiments represented among us,” said Lord Lovat, who wore the bonnet of his own forces, the Lovat Scouts. Some in the Royal Ulster Rifles, wore the Palestine and North-West Frontier Medal and ribbons and quite a few came from Eire. As usual, all had blacked their faces, all wore rubber-soled shoes for silence, except one officer, a former police station inspector in the East End of London. He wore carpet slippers kept on by elastic. “I intend to invade France in comfort,” he had explained. On his return he showed me his slippers, scratched and soaked in sea water. “They suffered irreparable harm, but it was in a good cause,” he said. He also brought back his own pet weapon, a “cosh,” symbol of his days in Limehouse.

The withdrawal was the most difficult part of the operation. One soldier, picking his way through the beach wire, felt his trousers catch just as a Verey light lit up the area. “I thought I was a gonner, but somehow I was not hit,” he said. NAVAL ENGAGEMENT. The Navy encountered stiff opposition. They brought the commandos to the exact spot at the exact time. I stood on the bridge of the senior officer's ship, peering toward the dark vagueness of France, waiting for noise and lights which would indicate that the commandos had got to work. Suddenly, signal lights winked up. “We have been spotted,” said a voice sharply through the darkness of the bridge. As he spoke, streams of tracer bullets came at us, apparently from all directions. Then the night was torn by noise and activity. The guns of the British vessels returned the fire. For many minutes, the sky was lit up by a fierce exchange of fire between the escort craft and the attacking German flak ships and smaller craft. “She’s smoking,” shouted a man on deck, pointing to a flak ship which had made off, apparently on fire. The contending craft had been moving away from the coast, and the battle ended as abruptly as it began. With the captain ordering the “cease fire,” silence and darkness descended again. Then came the rendezvous with the returning commandos. Slowly sweeping in the direction from which they would appear, the ships scoured the sea. At last, against the pearly grey sea' and the early-morning sky we saw the black shapes of the landing craft. An unasked question lay on everyone’s mind, but the answer came quickly and unmistakably. The raid had been successful. We saw them at last clearly, and, still black-faced, waving and smiling. Britain’s troops had come back from another singeing of Hitler’s moustache.

ENEMY REPORT LONDON, April 22, The Berlin radio claims that the vigilance of the German coastal defences foiled the British commando

raid near Boulogne. It says the British withdrew under an artificial fog, leaving arms and equipment littered on the beach.

INVASION FEARS EXTENSIVE FORTIFICATIONS IN NORWAY. STOCKHOLM, April 22. Forty thousand workers have been engaged completing Germany’s antiinvasion fortifications along the Norwegian coast. Narvik harbour has been rebuilt and an Arctic highway constructed from Bodo to Kirkenes.