TROOPS ENGAGED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1942, Page 3

TROOPS ENGAGED

MAINLY CANADIANS WITH OTHER BRITISH & ALLIED UNITS. HEAVY OPPOSITION OVERCOME. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) RUGBY, August 19. Combined operations headquarters state that the troops taking part in the raid'on the Dieppe area landed at all the points selected. Heavy opposition was encountered in some places and cn the left flank one landing party, though initially repulsed, reformed and later carried a beach by assault. Troops on the right flank, having achieved their objectives, which included the complete destruction of a six-gun battery and ammunition dump, re-em-barked. In the centre tanks landed and there was heavy fighting. The military force consisted mainly of Canadian troops. There were also British special service troops, a detachment from the United States Ranger Battalion and a’ small contingent of Fighting French. This force was carried and escorted by the Royal Navy. Air support and protection, on a large scale, was provided by bomber and fighter aircraft of the R.A.F., in the face of considerable enemy resistance. The Germans claimed that the raid was an invasion attempt that failed but actually the re-embarkation started only a few minutes after the scheduled time and was completed according to plan. Full reports of the raid will not be available until our forces have returned home. MUCH INTEREST TAKEN IN USE OF TANKS. TEST OF BOASTED GERMAN DEFENCES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.53 a.m.) RUGBY, August 19. The utmost interest has been evoked by the announcement that tanks were employed for the first time in a raid on the European coast. The capture of a battery and the destruction of an anti-aircraft battery and radio location station shows that the much-advertised strengthening of the German defences in the West has been matched by increased Allied striking power. Apart from the immediate gains by the serious damage inflicted, it is considered that invaluable experience has been gained in the employment of substantial forces and transport, including new tank landing craft, and in the use of heavy equipment in these operations. The forces taking part were combined in every sense, and the French special troops engaged are seen as a token of overwhelming legions of free people assembling to assault the aggressors. The French people were warned oy every possible means not to take part, and so not to expose themselves to reprisals when the Germans returned, after the Allied forces had retired.