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At about noon on Thursday 18 August I arrived at a large port on the south coast of England. Our particular party was made up of a section of a Canadian Provost Coy., and four machine gunners from the Toronto Scottish Regiment including myself. The names of my fellow gunners are Ptes. Alec Chisholm, Jack Sinclair, and Dick Shand.
We immediately boarded a Tank Landing Craft, which we found to have on board some tanks and their crews. We mounted our two machine guns at the bow of the ship, on anti-aircraft mounts. Shortly after, we steamed away bound for France and Dieppe.
At about 4.30 in the morning we began to see the red tracer from the enemy’s guns streaking towards us. We knew then that the raid was on. I set about with my mate getting ready for ensuing action. As our ship neared the coast, suddenly the dark sky lit up as though hell had broken loose right in the middle of it, then all was dark again. As first light broke, two squadrons of Spitfires roared by us on their way to meet the enemy. We cheered heartily and called out to them, “go to it boys, give ‘em Hell!” Our ship headed in, intending to land just east of Dieppe when the shore batteries of the enemy opened up at us. The first salvo hit the bridge killing the first wheelsman and setting the bridge on fire. The next salvo again hit the bridge and killed the second wheelsman. The ship’s Pom Poms, of which there are two mounted on the stern, returned the enemy’s fire. The gunner manning the starboard gun was killed outright after firing his third burst. At this point I opened fire hoping that I had the right range on my sights to knock out the crew of the German shore battery. Suddenly the shore battery stopped firing. I turned to Alec, who was my number two, and said to him, “I think we got the beggars”. As I turned back to my machine gun another battery on the left began firing on us. During all this the skipper of the ship was trying to manoeuvre it into a landing position. Making matters worse was the fact that our steering gear was damaged by a German shell. To straighten the ship up for a run in the skipper swung the stern around so that the bow struck the bow of a sinking TLC on our left. As soon as we hit, three of our Toronto Scottish lads and the Captain, who were on the sinking ship, jumped onto our boat. The collision was enough to shoot us straight onto the beach. Myself and the rest of our lads began to lower the gate of the TLC as the tanks started up their engines and made ready to land. The first tank to land struck a land mine, which blew off a track. The other two came onto the beach and opened up firing on the Casino which had developed into a definite threat. We got the gate back up and pulled away from the beach. The crews of the ship’s Pom Poms had become casualties and the Captain asked volunteers to work the guns. I volunteered and was shown how to operate the gun. Up to this time, which was 7 o’clock in the morning, there had been little air activity from the enemy, but from 7.30 until noon Jerry kept us fairly busy. The first aircraft belonging to Jerry that I saw was a flight of Me 109’s. They were flying at about 3000 feet. I opened up with my Pom Poms and one of them burst into flames. Things were quiet for about twenty minutes and from then on it was continual firing. The nearest bombs to our ship fell about 15 yards away. I was fascinated to see the bomb doors slowly open and the eggs drop straight down and then fan out as they neared the water. At about twenty minutes to two an ALC came alongside of us and we took on board Canadian soldiers who had been evacuated from the beach. We then headed for home, limping slightly but still proud.
After an uneventful trip back I sighted the English coast. This was at 7 o’clock in the evening. On seeing the white cliffs, I turned to Alec and said, “God am I glad to see those again”. Nevertheless we all hoped that someday soon we would return.

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