大象传媒

This account has been transcribed from a diary kept during the Second World War by Robert Gilbert Meadows and contributed to the People鈥檚 War by the 大象传媒 Learning Centre on behalf of Valerie Harvey, his daughter, with her permission.

Robert Gilbert Meadows joined the Royal Navy in 1916, and served
therein until 1945. He was awarded the Mentioned in Despatches medal for his work as Chief Radio Officer on board HMS Princess Beatrix during its service in the Mediterranean campaign.

From Lofoten to Italy - Part 2
DIEPPE AND BAYONNE

DIEPPE August 1942

Our next major operation was an attack on the defended port of Dieppe, obviously a much tougher proposition than the Lofoten Islands operation (Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten was now I/C of Combined Operations having replaced Sir Roger Keyes).

No 3 & 4 Commandos were allocated the job of putting out of operation two gun batteries which would be a major danger to the many ships and landing craft lying off the harbour.

At the same time a large number of Canadian troops were detailed to make a frontal attack on the port. Our passage across the Channel was uneventful until we were a few miles from the French coast.

Obviously our approach was reported to the authorities ashore as almost immediately firing started and the night was lit up by star shells.

The attack pressed on towards Dieppe but as the German forces ashore were now fully aware of the imminent attempted landing the troops who eventually landed had a very hostile reception and as a consequence a great many, mostly Canadians, were either killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

This attempted attack on a defended port proved totally unsuccessful and we had to beat a fairly hasty retreat. In doing so we had a slight collision with another ship of the force and as a consequence we sustained some damage to our port side davits.

We were ordered to proceed towards Southampton for repairs to be carried out. During our stay in port we were granted a few days' leave - very welcome too!

THE ABORTIVE RAID ON BAYONNE

The next raid we were detailed to do in company with our sister ship the 'Queen Emma' was an attack on Bayonne I the South of France.

After we had taken on
board the Commandos we set sail from England and preceded south keeping well away from the French coast to avoid being spotted. During the trip both ships
were camouflaged to look like small merchant ships. This was done by rigging up lengths of black Hessian along the ships' sides and the erection of a dummy
funnel.
( The disguise may have looked effective from a distance but with the wind flapping the hessian it looked anything but effective!)

However luck was with us and eventually we reached the North Spanish coast and ambled along at a leisurely speed until we arrived
a short distance of Bayonne about midnight. After the Commandos had manned the landing craft they proceeded towards the port.

The object of the raid was to put out of action two heavy guns trained seawards and also to destroy a large railway junction. We did not feel too happy whilst we were hanging about offshore as a large searchlight kept flashing to seaward and the light from it seemed to hesitate a little on our position! We felt that any moment we would be spotted and the guns ashore would open fire on us. However luckily I supposed we must have been just out of range.

After a long delay our landing craft returned to the ship with the disappointing news that owing to a sand bar which apparently the navigational chart did not show the commandos were not about to land! After we got the troops inboard we lost no time in getting under weigh and proceeded at full speed out of the area.

When we were some miles out at sea we were spotted by a recon plane which proceeded to drop its loads of bombs but luckily they fell wide of both ships and after that little episode our return journey back to the UK was uneventful.

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