"DIEPPE DEFEAT"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 197, 21 August 1942, Page 5

"DIEPPE DEFEAT"

GERMAN VERSION

Claim 1500 Prisoners And Heavy Material Losses

United Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 20. German communique repeats all of the 28 tanks i Dieppe were destroyed, that 1500 prisoners were taken, and >the communique also says that 400 Germans were killed or wounded. It adds that the bulk of the forces for the continuation of the landing m do transports under naval protection had to turn back. Artillery and planes sank four destroyers, three motor torpedo-boats one patrol boat, seven transports and also damaged four cruisers, five transports and other ships. A war correspondent of a German news agency, describing the Dieppe raid, says the Allied troops, after landing on both sides of Dieppe advanced along the coast to the town By noon most of their tanks had been knocked out on the beaches and the position of the raiders had become grim. They prepared to retreat six hours after the initial landing. but were surrounded.

The Allied ships put down an artificial fog, adds the correspondent. Landing barges burst into flames under the attack of German bombers and fighter bombers. Air supremacy over the fighting area belonged to the Luftwaffe.

It was another Dunkirk. The Allies gained the beaches at 1 p.m. to find their barges burned out, and thev were obliged to surrender. Two transports were sunk fullv laden with troops.

A special announcement from -Hitler s headquarters states: "German coastal defence troops repelled the landing at Dieppe. This was made by a force landed under the protection of strong naval and air forces. After 4 p.m. not a single armed enemy soldier remained on the Continent.

"The first wave of landing troops was transferred from transports to 300 or 400 landing barges. They reached the coast at 6.5 a.m. under the protection of between 13 and 15 cruisers and destroyers and strong air fighter fOTmations. Behind them was a floating reserve comprising six transports and three freighters.

"Farther to the north was a group of 26 transports as an operational reserve. These were to go into action when the first wave succeeded in establishing a bridgehead near the port of Dieppe. However, the enemy forces which landed were everywhere repulsed in hand-to-hand fighting and thrown back into the sea." CANADIANS SUFFER Rec. 2 p.m. OTTAWA, Aug. 20. The Minister of Defence. Colonel J. Ralston, announoed that the Canadians participating at Dieppe suffered "severe" casualties while fighting with resolution and courage in their first encounter with the German Army.