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VG85

Registered: 07-2004
Posts: 65
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Dieppe and the BBC


BBC helped Germany defend Dieppe
Attack no surprise; repeated in Falklands


WILLIAM BURRILL

It's the week of Remembrance Day and a good time to remember the important part radio has played in war — and just as good a time to learn why thousands of survivors of Canada's most famous solo expedition want to curse the role that radio played in their war.

The battle in question is the famous World War II invasion of Dieppe in the early hours of Aug. 19, 1942, a disastrous battle mounted almost solely by Canadians; a battle that has become both a source of pride for Canadians on Remembrance Day and a source of anger. Pride because the Canadian soldiers (who had no say in the plan) fought with incredible bravery against impossible odds. And anger because, well, read on ...

The port of Dieppe was known to be well-defended but the Canucks were told they would have the element of surprise. The Canadian troops were shocked, then, when — even before they could get the landing ships in the water — BBC Radio broadcasted details of the attack to France via Radio Free Europe. The BBC said an attack was taking place on Dieppe, by thousands of soldiers in landing craft.

The broadcast might have helped the Canadians if it had called on the French to take to the streets and start fighting an underground war — bombing tanks, knocking out German communications, or causing a diversion somewhere; anything to take the direct heat off the invaders.

But alas, the BBC radio broadcaster urged in his clipped, stiff-upper-lipped manner that the French civilians and the underground were to stay in their homes and not help the Canadians in any way because it was "just a raid." Don't hide a Canadian separated from his troops. Do not take in any wounded among the handful of flanking Canadian units that did manage to get around the sea wall and put up a hell of a battle in a casino and for an important bridge. Don't show them where the Germans are hiding or warn them of an ambush, Non, non, non! The French were not to endanger themselves because this was just a raid. So much for the element of surprise.

After nine hours of futilely bashing their helmets against an unassailable seawall, a retreat was ordered and a lucky few, including some of the thousands of wounded, were rescued off the beach by the Royal Navy. But more than 900 Canadian soldiers were left piled dead on the beach only a few yards from where they landed. Others didn't even reach the rocky shale and became fodder for Nazi propaganda newsreels as they bobbed grotesquely in the tide, their stiff, clenched fists breaking the surf. Another 1,944 Canadians were taken prisoner and marched hundreds of miles to POW camps from which many would never return.

Some say there is a silver lining in the black shroud of the Dieppe raid. It taught invaluable lessons that would later save thousands of men landing on D-Day, June 6, 1944, including the thousands of Canadians hitting Juno, Sword and Gold beaches with thoughts of avenging Dieppe on their mind.

But there was another important military lesson learned at Dieppe: If you really must throw an amphibious landing force at a fortified town, do not first tip off the enemy and suppress any possible aid from locals on a nice, little BBC radio broadcast.

(As obvious as this may seem, it might have helped if someone had written this down in military text books because, unbelievably, the BBC did the same thing during the Falkland Islands War, broadcasting to Argentineans holed up in a place called Goose Green that they were about to be attacked by British commandos. The British troops, who had slogged for days overland to achieve a position of surprise, listened in disbelief as the BBC radio gave away their position. Luckily for the British, the Argentinean army also listened in disbelief, laughing at what they figured had to be the crudest bluff they had ever heard. Good thing the Argentineans hadn't studied Dieppe.)

For Canadian radio lovers there was, I suppose, another silver lining to come out of the Dieppe raid. The Dieppe dispatches began pouring in to CFRB's Harry "Red" Foster, who had a daily news show. Foster had a problem: In those days the radio reports were done on wax discs that could not be edited. An American broadcaster had done a recording Foster wanted to use except the Yank couldn't pronounce "Saskatchewan" — a big problem because the South Saskatchewan Regiment was named in dispatches for many heroic deeds during the report. The U.S. broadcaster repeatedly called the province "Saska-CHEW-an."

Foster decided to try to overdub the mispronunciation, and since the Star office was nearby, he called a pal reporter. They tried lifting the needle every time the recording got around to another "Saska-CHEW-an" reference but the result sounded sillier than a bad hip-hop record.

Finally the Star man said to hell with this, let me just rewrite the report myself and read it. It took him 20 minutes to do the rewrite and a few minutes to read it on air. For this CFRB gave him $25 and asked him if he wanted to do it again the next day. At $25, the reporter was exceeding his weekly Star salary, so he continued moonlighting until Star managing editor Harry Hindmarsh found out and fired him.

At 43, and without any other immediate job plan, the canned reporter decided, what the heck, he'd stay on with his CFRB for a while.

It was a job he'd end up keeping until his death 42 years later in 1984.

Of course, he was a freelancer the first couple of years. He was finally hired full time and given his own show to fill by himself. He just hoped his first day would not be a slow news day as he announced, "This is Gordon Sinclair coming to you this Tuesday, June 6, 1944."
10/11/2004, 3:21 Link to this post PM via Email   PM via Forum
 


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